dual boot windows from USB via grub?

dvh · 2007-11-16 20:10:23

HI all:

I recently had a motherboard failure on an existing PC on which I dual-booted Windows XP and Gentoo. I replaced that box with a new HP PC preloaded with Vista. Wiped that immediately, and installed ARCH. But, I would like to also boot XP, and, since my old hard drive is still OK (I have it in an external USB adapter), I was thinking that I might configure grub to point at an external USB drive like this:

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

where "hd1" (I hope) would point at my old drive, now connected via USB. In this way, I am really booting from my HDD (where grub lives), but "chain loading" from my USB external. Can this work??

-dvh

Lone_Wolf · 2007-11-16 21:42:58

XP can only be booted from the first harddrive, so you will need to use map commands to make xp believe the usb drive is the first hdd..

see Grub_configure_examples

dvh · 2007-11-16 21:51:56

thanks for the help, Lone_Wolf. I searched the forums, but seems like I always forget to check the Wiki. I will try this ASAP and report the outcome.

-dvh

dvh · 2007-11-17 00:14:06

I configured as shown in the wiki, but when I try to boot XP, I get a message that says something to the effect of "missing or corrupted <windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe". I checked the disk and it seems to be there and OK. I get the feeling that it is either NOT finding the hard disk (or partition) or it cannot interpret the NTFS file system (but grub was able to boot this before,...). So, two questions...

1) how do I know what the designator for the external USB hard disk will be? I have speculated that grub will find it at "hd1", but maybe not?

2) does the target disk NEED a windows boot loader? as I said earlier, I used to dual boot it, so there is a grub loader on that disk also.

...ok, three questions...

3) anything else that I should consider??

Thanks again for any help.

-dvh

Lone_Wolf · 2007-11-17 20:38:53

dvh wrote:

I configured as shown in the wiki, but when I try to boot XP, I get a message that says something to the effect of "missing or corrupted <windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe". I checked the disk and it seems to be there and OK. I get the feeling that it is either NOT finding the hard disk (or partition) or it cannot interpret the NTFS file system (but grub was able to boot this before,...). So, two questions...
1) how do I know what the designator for the external USB hard disk will be? I have speculated that grub will find it at "hd1", but maybe not?
2) does the target disk NEED a windows boot loader? as I said earlier, I used to dual boot it, so there is a grub loader on that disk also.
...ok, three questions...
3) anything else that I should consider??
Thanks again for any help.
-dvh

1) i don'tknow a way to check this, but the
missing or corrupted <windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe message comes from the windows boot process,
so it seems grub is configured correctly.

The main problem is that BOTH grub and windows boot need to have the correct settings.

Windows takes the settings for boot from the boot.ini file in the root of C:\ , and that probably needs to be changed.

You will need some way to get read/write access to the windows C-drive partition.
Install ntfs-3g in archlinux (see NTFS_Write_Support ) and post the contents of boot.ini .

dvh · 2007-11-17 23:41:29

Again, Lone_Wolf, thanks for replying. I think that I agree with you that some part of the windows boot process is starting...a good sign. I have been chasing that error, and I have indeed considered changing the boot.ini file. here is what it looks like:

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect  /NoExecute=OptIn

which looks OK to me, given that grub should swap the drive definitions. But, links like this:

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php? … hl=deitmar

make me think that this cannot be done so easily. But, that link speaks to booting *directly* from the USB drive, which I do not want to do. I will keep researching and let you know what I find.

-dvh

Arch Linux

#1 2007-11-16 20:10:23

dual boot windows from USB via grub?

#2 2007-11-16 21:42:58

Re: dual boot windows from USB via grub?

#3 2007-11-16 21:51:56

Re: dual boot windows from USB via grub?

#4 2007-11-17 00:14:06

Re: dual boot windows from USB via grub?

#5 2007-11-17 20:38:53

Re: dual boot windows from USB via grub?

#6 2007-11-17 23:41:29

Re: dual boot windows from USB via grub?

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