hello, i recently installed mandriva spring 2008 from an iso and then used mandriva live install to resize my windows vista partition. after following the instructions, i restarted my computer but found that the bootloader did not recognize my vista intall. i was worried that i overwrote vista but i checked and found that all the data was still intact. being a noob, im sure that i either screwed something up irrevicably during install or am missing something rather simple. any ideas?

by the way, i've been very impressed so far with mandriva and look forward to a time when i don't have to bother with vista at all. thanks.

What's the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst? Can you post it here, and we'll take a look in case something is a miss.

I had Vista on my machine and I resized it and then installed Linux later. Normally if you checked the disk for errors and then resized it should have been OK. So am surprised that if it was there before, and now isn't booting, it could be due to partitioning issues being re-ordered perhaps. But let's check the grub config first before we go further.

Do you have a option to load vista in GRUB (the bootloader)?

here is the content of menu.lst ::

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba failsafe
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title desktop586 2.6.24.4-1mnb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.4-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=desktop586_2.6.24.4-1mnb root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.24.4-desktop586-1mnb.img

title desktop586 2.6.24.5-2mnb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-desktop586-2mnb BOOT_IMAGE=desktop586_2.6.24.5-2mnb root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.24.5-desktop586-2mnb.img


thanks again for the help.

Looks like the installer/you did not add a grub entry for Vista.

Try adding the following to your grub.conf:

i ran a few searches and can't seem to find grub.conf. where would it be located?

/boot/grub

Sorry I meant menu.lst (some distro's use menu.lst, some use grub.conf).

strange... there is no grub.conf in my /boot/grub directory. could it be named something else? im fairly confident that im not missing it, i searched my entire hd.

ok, so i tried adding the code but it says i do not have write access.

Seems you did not follow Reivers advice and look for menu.lst.

It most definately in /boot/grub/menu.lst if you are using Mandriva. In Madriva there is no grub.config

Cheers. John.

actually, it will not allow me to edit menu.lst ... this is the full error message when i try to save the file...

The document could not be saved, as it was not possible to write to file:///boot/grub/menu.lst.
Check that you have write access to this file or that enough disk space is available.

i definitely have enough disk space. thanks again for the quick responses.

You cannot edit files owned by root unless you use a root editor. You don't say if you are using KDE or Gnome so I will give you 2 options. First press Alt/F2 then if you are using KDE type



if you are using Gnome I think the equivalent is

.

TIP. When you have got it all going, go to the software installer and get yourself a copy of 'Krusader' which has a root mode and saves you all the typing nonsense.

thanks for all the help.... unfortunately my vista install appears to be corrupted and unusable. i contacted lenovo (the laptop manufacturer) as well as microsoft and they said the only real hope to get vista working is to order a rescue disk from lenovo. as frustrating as it is, at least i have all my music and personal files still intact... i guess that's what i get for hastily installing a second os without really knowing what im doing.

I wouldn' t give up hope so fast. It sounds more like a trivial permissions error than anything else

edit: you would not have gotten into a gui with mandriva if it were unable to write to the root directory (where 99% sure /boot/grub/menu.lst is located too), if the disk cannot be mounted read/write the graphical enviroment will fail to start and dump you to a console (dos-like screen)

No, don't give up yet.

Have you tried to use the method that viking has posted to add the Vista section to your /boot/grub/menu.lst file? What makes you think your vista install is corrupted?

that' s what microsoft or lenovo must have told him  installing linux messes up your windows install
 
  

their helpdesks must be so incopmpetent that they don' t even know how to add a bootloader (and I am not sure that using a recovery cd will even be helpful in replacing the vista bootload, I think it will just result in the vista image being replacd to the vista partition but leaving the grub bootsectors intact....)

ok, thanks for being so helpful guys... its often hard to find a community that gives help without sarcasm and resentment. do you think there is a method to bypass the rescue and recovery screen i keep getting at bootup?

edit: oh, and yes, i did add the vista section to menu.lst and it worked, but when i go to boot windows is when i get the rescue/recovery screen

Ahh, lenovo uses a recovery partition. You need to see if it's still there, so boot into Mandriva then open a terminal (konsole in KDE) and (as root) please post the output ofThen type in exit and hit enter to get you out of root, so you don't damage anything.

I'm getting the feeling grub's pointing to the recovery partition like greg2 mentions, or that Windows is prompting recovery because of it crashing or something perhaps. Anyway, the fdisk command will give us a list of the partitions so we can see what's on the disk.

Open a console such as konsole. Type in kdesu konqueror, it will ask for your root password, type it in and press enter.

This will open konqueror in root mode. Use the UP arrow at the the top of Konqueror and go into Boot then Grub and click on menu.lst in there you can type in what was suggested to you by Reiver, namely............

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Keep a space between the new entry and the existing entrys.

Go to the top of console and select Save. Because you are in root mode then it will be saved.

Give it a try and see how you go.

Cheers. John.

AussieJohn, (hd0,0) might be his recovery partition, actually. He should give the output of:

fdisk -l

John, i did add that line to menu.lst a while ago. it allowed me to choose vista at startup but, again, it then goes to rescue and recovery screen.

Going by this the grub config should reflect hd0,1 for the /dev/sda2 partition which is Windows Vista. Add to grub:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba failsafe
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title desktop586 2.6.24.4-1mnb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.4-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=desktop586_2.6.24.4-1mnb root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.24.4-desktop586-1mnb.img

title desktop586 2.6.24.5-2mnb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-desktop586-2mnb BOOT_IMAGE=desktop586_2.6.24.5-2mnb root=UUID=147bba9b-0970-4c13-a106-caabc44dfbba resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.24.5-desktop586-2mnb.img

title Windows Vista
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

that is my current menu.lst . the problem still persists.

off course, add the entry ian told you

You need to modify the rootnoverify line, like I mentioned above. Yours is pointing to the wrong partition. hd0,0 is equivalent to /dev/sda1. If you want to select Vista which is in /dev/sda2, then you need to change hd0,0 to hd0,1.

it worked! your help has been very appreciated, all. now i guess my next adventure with linux will be figuring out how to install and execute software. i've been looking for solutions online, but nothing has seemed to work correctly. would anyone like to point me in the right direction?

I would suggest that you read this: Software installation on Mandriva and easyurpmi
and this: Installing_and_removing_software

I'm glad that you have everything working now, but don't forget that google is your friend!

You can do this also in the MandrivaControleCentre/Booting/Configure Bootsystem then klick next and choose added. It could be that Mandy find two windows, in my case sda1 and sda2 (or hda or whatever)) try to boot into windows using the first one in grub. If it want start delete it from the MCC.