weird grub problem

leedude · 10-22-2006, 02:13 PM

hi, i have recently noticed something strange, i have dual boot system with 2 hard drives, with fedora core 5 and windows xp. i am now unable to access my windows system at all. i used to have both oses installed on the same hdd partitioned. but then i noticed a weird problem where i got an error 13, trying to boot windows. so i tried getting another hdd, and installing fc5 on that, whilst removing all linux partitions on the first hdd.

now when i try and boot windows, i get error 18.

The weirdest thing is that when i unplug the ide cable of my new hdd forcing it to boot from the original one, it says:

grub loading stage1.5.

Grub Loading, please wait...
Error 17

it would appear that part of grub still remains on the old drive.

I need help fast.

leedude · 10-22-2006, 02:15 PM

oh yeah, would the first problem have anything to do with the fact that my old drive is sata, and the new one isnt? and that somehow grub isnt able to read it?

Skie · 10-22-2006, 06:00 PM

Your initial error:

Quote:

13 : Invalid or unsupported executable format
This error is returned if the kernel image being loaded is not recognized as Multiboot or one of the supported native formats (Linux zImage or bzImage, FreeBSD, or NetBSD).

I've seen mention that it can be caused by error's in your /boot/grub/grub.conf file. If you've been messing with it, that's probably a reason.

Your next error:

Quote:

18 : Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS
This error is returned when a read is attempted at a linear block address beyond the end of the BIOS translated area. This generally happens if your disk is larger than the BIOS can handle (512MB for (E)IDE disks on older machines or larger than 8GB in general).

How do you have the drives partitioned right now? Some older BIOS's don't like it when the OS Kernel is too far from the begining of the hard drive.

Your last error:

Quote:

17 : Cannot mount selected partition
This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB.

If you've changed filesystems, this will cause problems.

What I would do first is boot from your Fedora Core CD and go to a command line and run "grub-install" and see if this fixes things for you. If not, try booting from the Windows CD and go to the recovery console and type: "fdisk /mbr". This will make it so that only Windows boots. Once you know that this works, you can go back to re-installing grub to see where the problem is.

Again, if you've been messing with your grub.conf file, this may be the reason. Also, by adding a new drive, you've probably changed things in the system so you'll need to compensate for that with the proper edits in the grub.conf file.

10-22-2006, 02:13 PM	#1 (permalink)
leedude Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 42 OS: Windows XP/Fedora Core 5 My System	weird grub problem hi, i have recently noticed something strange, i have dual boot system with 2 hard drives, with fedora core 5 and windows xp. i am now unable to access my windows system at all. i used to have both oses installed on the same hdd partitioned. but then i noticed a weird problem where i got an error 13, trying to boot windows. so i tried getting another hdd, and installing fc5 on that, whilst removing all linux partitions on the first hdd. now when i try and boot windows, i get error 18. The weirdest thing is that when i unplug the ide cable of my new hdd forcing it to boot from the original one, it says: grub loading stage1.5. Grub Loading, please wait... Error 17 it would appear that part of grub still remains on the old drive. I need help fast. __________________ PSU CALCULATOR

10-22-2006, 02:15 PM	#2 (permalink)
leedude Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 42 OS: Windows XP/Fedora Core 5 My System	oh yeah, would the first problem have anything to do with the fact that my old drive is sata, and the new one isnt? and that somehow grub isnt able to read it? __________________ PSU CALCULATOR