dual boot fedora 9 and xp problem

[sniperhunter]

I have three Hard drives- 2 satas, and 1 IDE

the IDE is C drive- has windows xp on it
the first Sata is E- it is empty, for use by xp- which is my primary os till i adjust to linux
the second is F- it is empty. It will be the target for Linux install.

when i change, CMOS to load DVD drive first, it boots up fine, install screen comes up

it goes to the "select drives for instal screen" where it lists all three of my drives towards the top. I DE-select all but "F".

but then at the bottom half of the page, there is a another question- something about a bootloader?

IF i want to dual boot- do i select my C( has xp) drive from the scroll down, or F drive(empty) to put the bootloader portion on?

on my first install attempt- i chose "F" from both the check box and the scroll down. however, after it says "good job, you installed linux, now reboot" it ejects the DVD and reboots. I then changed CMOS to boot from Drives first. if i put C first- it goes to xp- with no options. IF i go F first- a fedora screen pops up giving me to OS options to boot- "FEdora" and "Other" Ive tried both options, and both times, it runs through a line of code, and then the screen goes blank. about 2 min later it auto reboots. what ever shall i do? :P

P.S- so its clear- i can not boot fedora

[sniperhunter]

p.s ive checked the DVD 3 times- It passes with flying colors everytime
it is the x86_64 DVD version via bit torrent from the official fedora page. I have 64 bit archetecture with my processor so this should be fine.

[plodr]

If i want to dual boot- do i select my C( has xp) drive from the scroll down, or F drive(empty) to put the bootloader portion on?

If you want a choice you should install the bootloader on the drive that windows is on, C.
The way you have it now, when you switch to F, it will give you a choice (just as it would have, had you installed it on C). If you pick C (XP) it will set C active but you can't get back to F because the bootloader isn't on it.

[sniperhunter]

Originally Posted by plodr

If you want a choice you should install the bootloader on the drive that windows is on, C.
The way you have it now, when you switch to F, it will give you a choice (just as it would have, had you installed it on C). If you pick C (XP) it will set C active but you can't get back to F because the bootloader isn't on it.

okay. I tried these 2 scenarios:
1) Installing the boot loader on C- which has windows xp. and installing everything else on F. I then reboot, set boot priority to F- I either get a blank screen or i get a fedora screen that asks me to select the OS to boot. these 2 options are "Fedora" and "Other" regardless of which I select the result is the same- it goes to one screen of code, then the screen goes blank and it reboots

2) unplugging all but the F hard drive and wiping, reinstalling FC9. I get the "sucessfully installed screen, now reboot" I reboot and wind up at the same screen i mentioned above- I get one option "Fedora" and again, the screen goes through a line of code, then reboots itself.

any thoughts?

[sniperhunter]

Here is my most recent attempt-

I ran a hard drive checker on the drive- a different one. the drive checked.
I checked the DVD- it checked- again.

I then unplugged all the hard drives except for one and installed FC9 on it. ONce again, i got a succesful install. but as with everytime preceding- it got to the fedora selecting screen. defaulted on fedora (there was only one option). and once again- the line of code with something saying "press "I" for guided setup?" regardless of my current choices- it always goes blank, and reboots.

Ive also tried other distros, live distros, etc. same result- I cant even do live cds.

[plodr]

Download a SuperGrub disk (downloads are on the right side)
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
then read this
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/Boot_Problems

I have one on a floppy (v .9590)
My computer has two hard drives Windows on one and PCLinux on the other. I partitioned the windows computer and then couldn't boot into PCLinux. I ran SuperGrub off the floppy and now I have my options back to boot windows or linux. If you go into linux, you should be able to set which OS you want to be the default, meaning if you don't press a key in a matter of 10 -20 seconds the default OS will load.

[hawklord]

hi,

have you tried installing and booting linux only ? (with no other hdd's),

if you can then you can set your xp as slave and edit the menu.lst (list NOT first) in linux to add windows to grub and allow dual-booting without installing grub to the mbr

this is the way i dual-boot (mandriva + w2k)

this is the edit i use,

title: Windows
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

added at the end of menu.lst, be aware that it may be a little different on fedora

hope it helps

[Adrynalyne]

Originally Posted by plodr

If you want a choice you should install the bootloader on the drive that windows is on, C.
The way you have it now, when you switch to F, it will give you a choice (just as it would have, had you installed it on C). If you pick C (XP) it will set C active but you can't get back to F because the bootloader isn't on it.

Please specify that he needs to put it in the MBR on the C:\ drive. Installing grub to the actual partition will destroy his windows installation altogether, and render the entire file system useless without hope of ever fixing it without a repartition and format.

That by far is the easiest course of action here.

I'd recommend dropping grub on the /boot partition as I hope you are making from your F:\ drive, but that is more complicated.

Thats how I do it, then I use the Windows boot loader to load Windows and/or grub. Its a safer method, but somewhat more complicated.

[sniperhunter]

thanks for your input so far folk! I beileve there are 2 seperate issues atm. so I would like to table this one temporarily and request that yall help me on this thread. we are reverting to FC8- that seems make more progress towards working than my attempts at 9. here is the link
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthr...28#post1161228