DDery

I too have lost my option to boot with Windows XP.
I have Linux OpenSuse 11.0 installed. I can see the directory /windows/C with all the windows files present.
However, I no longer get the Windows option at boot time. I guess I must change the menu.lst file in the grub directory. But with what commands?
If I do the command fdisk -l I get:
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0008f3e9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 10400 83529967 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 10400 30394 160609806+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 10400 10661 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 10662 13272 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 13273 30394 137532433+ 83 Linux

Thanks,
David.

K-B

Created new thread for better visibility.

Bartender

Your partitions look OK.

My guess? Reinstall or repair the Windows MBR. There are thousands of posts on that subject.

If you reinstall the MBR, you'll wipe the first stage of the Linux bootloader and lose access to the Linux partitions. But at this point you're probly more concerned about getting Windows back.

Once you get Windows back, you can try re-installing the Linux bootloader or just re-installing Linux entirely. If you just reinstall the Linux OS you'll probly be rigiht back where you are now. It sounds like the Linux bootloader did not successfully modify the MBR. That could be because of a flawed install disc or ?

shuuhen

Most likely you just need to edit the file /boot/grub/grub.conf (sometimes /boot/grub/menu.lst) to have an entry for Windows. Here's a thread that should help with that process: Dual boot with Ubuntu and WinXP on 2HDs

If you have trouble with that, post back to this thread with your questions and the contents of the grub.conf configuration file.

Barry_R

Here is my grub entry to boot to windows. Just make sure the boot loader is pointed to the correct drive and partition on the root entry.

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Bartender

Here's my entry in Ubuntu:


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


The above is excerpted from /boot/grub/menu.lst

I don't know where OpenSuse stashes the bootloader settings

wmorri

If you don't have Windows listed in the grub.conf, or menu.lst, don't just copy and paste those two entries make sure that you know which hdd, and partition Windows is on FIRST.

Cheers!