sarge install: dual-boot problem
Hey y'all,
Trying to install sarge with the beta 4 installer has caused me some serious
trouble. I can't boot into Windows XP anymore. (As I see now, it is a known
issue with this version of the installer... whoops.). Please help me to solve
this.
My situation is as follows: I used to have 2 primary ntfs partitions, one for
window$ installation and one for data. I downsized the latter partition, so
that there is 12 gig of space for linux at the end of the disk.
Then I fired up the sarge installer using the mini-ISO. I let the installer "
install in free space". This went OK. However, the installer didn't recognize
*that other OS*, and asked me if it should install grub in the mbr. I thought
I could easily add a windows boot option in grub at a later time, so
installing in the mbr seemed OK to me. This has always worked, with any
distribution I tried.
However, after editing the grub config file properly (I'm sure of this cause I
tried all possibilities...), a windows boot option appeared, but when
selecting it, it returned some "filesystem unknown" error. After that I
installed lilo instead of grub, and configured properly, but windows still
wouldn't boot. I decided to restore the mbr with "fdisk /mbr" on some win98
bootdisk (always worked for me, but not now...). After that, booting from the
harddisk results in some "No operating system" error.
From the recovery console on the winXP cd, I was able to log into my windows
installation (commandline only). Phew, my files were still there. Running
"fixmbr" from here, also wouldn't let me boot into windows.
So now I'm stuck with a debian bootdisk (which works fine). Luckily, I was
able to mount the ntfs partitions in debian, and could do some backing up via
the network (smb). But I haven't got enough space, on that other box, for all
my files.
But why is it, that with a ntfs C:\ partition which appears to be intact, and
after fixing the mbr, I still can't boot into windows? How did the installer
mess this up?
ADDITIONAL INFO:
fdisk -l output:
Disk /dev/hda: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 119150 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 20815 10490728+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 95324 118157 11508336 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 20815 95323 37552315+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda4 118158 119150 500472 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 118158 119150 500440+ 82 Linux swap
(I don't know why hda3 is hidden, It appeared this way after running the xp
recovery stuff)
Also strange: when booting some Partition Magic bootdisk, the program returns
some strange partition table error, and shows no partition layout at all.
I've had this before with other distros, however, booting windows never
seemed to be a problem)
Except for this problem, Sarge seems to be GREAT! everything just "works", it
seems...
My apologies for this long, long post on a not so interesting subject (mainly
window$ :p), but any help will be GREATLY appreciated...
Greetz,
jeroen
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