GRUB not booting windows?

baklava · 2007-09-07 06:27:01

Hi, I installed Arch a few days ago, and despite me being a pretty big linux newb I'm loving the distro. I've only gotten very minor problems with it, but this is really the only one I need to fix soon.

When I boot and GRUB asks me which OS to boot up, it detects both arch and windows, but when I try to boot windows it displays...

      booting 'Windows'

# (2) windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

On the screen. My windows partition is on sda1, so (hd0,0) is the correct path, but it just gets stuck on that screen and after outputting the code from /boot/grub/menu.lst file it just stops doing anything.

Help?

Acid7711 · 2007-09-07 06:56:25

Grub is picky on Arch, one of the few distro's I've tried that it throws a fit on things. Honestly, it looks right to me, I've had a couple drinks so I might be missing something here. But yeah, same thing I'm using on mine actually.

# (3) Windows
        title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
        map (hd0) (hd1)
        map (hd1) (hd0)
        rootnoverify (hd1,0)
        makeactive
        chainloader +1

Aside from the fact that Windows and Linux are on seperate drives for me, same thing, except mine works.....hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Last edited by Acid7711 (2007-09-07 06:57:58)

Terl · 2007-09-07 11:08:56

Mine is identical to yours as well. Are you using XP or Vista?

Arcey · 2007-09-07 11:18:42

Mine might work, dont ask me why though

# (1) Windows
title Microsoft Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Mikko777 · 2007-09-07 12:14:07

Grub installed on MBR?

Windows on first partition of harddrive?

Guess windows could be picky on where its installed, grub should be able to boot it though.

test1000 · 2007-09-08 09:11:48

http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

Lone_Wolf · 2007-09-09 12:56:33

Is the windows partition marked bootable ?

baklava · 2007-09-09 21:44:13

Hi guys, I solved the problem. Grub was working fine; my windows partition had somehow become corrupted during the installation. A fresh reinstall fixed everything.

hokstein · 2007-09-18 20:18:18

I'm having exactly the same problem. This is the second time I've installed Arch, and the other time I had the same problem as well. My Grub entry looks just like the ones above:

# (1) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

As the OP said, grub just prints this entry on the screen and sits there. No real error message.

Someone sugested that maybe Windows is picky about having another bootloader in the MBR. Maybe, but I also had grub on the MBR on my Debian instalation and I still could boot Windows there. I have Linux and Windows installed on diferent drives, Windows being in a single-partition SATA drive.

Any ideas?

Kienja Kenobi · 2007-09-18 23:28:35

Hokstein:

Is your error occurring for the same reason that baklava received the error? What version of Windows do you have? For the rest of this post I will assume you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, which means an NTFS partition.

I assume you can boot into Arch, so within Arch, install "ntfs-3g" using Pacman. Now edit /etc/fstab by adding this line:

<partition> <mount point> ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

-Replace <partition> with the partition's location
-Replace <mount point> with the location you want the partition mounted to

Now reboot and the NTFS partition should be mounted. Look at all of the files and folders on the NTFS partition to see if everything is there in perfect order. Even open up some text or document files to make sure they are fine. Also, check some file sizes to make sure you do not have a bunch of empty files. I am not sure what baklava meant by "corrupted," but I imagine if the same has happened to your NTFS partition, something will look amiss.

If you have a problem with the above procedure, consult this: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NTFS_Write_Support

Last edited by Kienja Kenobi (2007-09-18 23:30:38)

hokstein · 2007-09-19 04:30:15

Kienja Kenobi wrote:

Hokstein:
Is your error occurring for the same reason that baklava received the error? What version of Windows do you have? For the rest of this post I will assume you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, which means an NTFS partition.

Kienja, thanks for the reply. I have Windows XP. I had already installed ntfs-3g here, and I'm using the files on my Windows partition without problems. For example, my music collection is there, and I can access it with any program here on Linux.

Lone_Wolf · 2007-09-19 13:11:44

hokstein wrote:

I'm having exactly the same problem. This is the second time I've installed Arch, and the other time I had the same problem as well. My Grub entry looks just like the ones above:
# (1) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
As the OP said, grub just prints this entry on the screen and sits there. No real error message.
Someone sugested that maybe Windows is picky about having another bootloader in the MBR. Maybe, but I also had grub on the MBR on my Debian instalation and I still could boot Windows there. I have Linux and Windows installed on diferent drives, Windows being in a single-partition SATA drive.
Any ideas?

Windows can only boot directly from the 1st hdd.
As you have rootnoverify (hd1,0) it seems you have the windows drive as SECOND hdd in your system.
Fortunately grub has a map command that can be used to switch the order of drives

Try putting the lines below in your menu.lst (the 2 map commands make windows believe the drive it's installed on is the first hdd.)

# (3) Windows
        title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
        rootnoverify (hd1,0)
        map (hd0) (hd1)
        map (hd1) (hd0)
        makeactive
        chainloader +1

hokstein · 2007-09-20 22:02:04

Lone_Wolf, that worked. Thank you!

ralvez · 2007-09-20 22:59:37

And I was thinking they had made improvement in GRUB to only boot stable operating systems .... silly me

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-07 06:27:01

GRUB not booting windows?

#2 2007-09-07 06:56:25

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#3 2007-09-07 11:08:56

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#4 2007-09-07 11:18:42

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#5 2007-09-07 12:14:07

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#6 2007-09-08 09:11:48

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#7 2007-09-09 12:56:33

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#8 2007-09-09 21:44:13

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#9 2007-09-18 20:18:18

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#10 2007-09-18 23:28:35

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#11 2007-09-19 04:30:15

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#12 2007-09-19 13:11:44

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#13 2007-09-20 22:02:04

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

#14 2007-09-20 22:59:37

Re: GRUB not booting windows?

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