Lilo doesn't load Win XP [solved]

[Soka]

Here's the situation. I've been using linux for some time now, currently running Mandriva 2006, but recently I came along with some games that won't run in cedega so I decided to install Win Xp in dual boot to try them out. My harddisk layout is as follow: 1 ide hd which has mandriva installed and 2 sata disk for storage. I shrunk the partition on the second sata disk to allow space for win xp and proceeded to install. For that I disconnected the power cable for the ide and the first sata disk and installed xp on the 2nd partition of the 2nd sata disk (not an easy thing since windows didn't recognise my sata disk, so I had to provide the controllers in a diskette, but for that I had to take a diskette drive from an old machine and put it in this one). Win xp installed fine and I could boot to it without problems. After that, I reconnected the power cables to the other disk, booted into linux and added a new entry to lilo pointing to /dev/sdb2 (the partition holding windows).

But I can't boot to Windows, when I select that option in lilo, it just says loading windows and nothing else happens, it just hangs there.

Any help on what could be wrong would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[moved from Everything Linux by spinynorman]

Edited September 12, 2006 by Soka

[Reiver_Fluffi]

/dev/sdb2

 

There's where ye went wrong mate, Windows has to placed on the first partition of your hard drive, otherwise it refuses to work (another one of it's "quirks".) So in this case you would have needed to put it on /dev/sdb1.

Edited September 12, 2006 by Reiver_Fluffi

[ianw1974]

I would even put Windows on the first hard disk and put Linux on the second hard disk.

[Reiver_Fluffi]

I would even put Windows on the first hard disk and put Linux on the second hard disk.

 

Nah, as long as you configure lilo/grub correctly it doesn't really matter, all that does it that windows knows/thinks that it is in the first partition, (IIRC)

[ianw1974]

I remember dual booting Win98 and Win2000 in the past, on both the same hard disk. Maybe it was just because it was Windows/Windows that it worked being in the second partition :unsure:

 

Either that, or the 1024 boundary limit could be playing a part as to why Windows isn't booting if it's the second partition when it co-exists with Linux.

[Soka]

Thanks for the replies. I would put windows on the first disk and linux on the second but that would mean to move my entire system to that disk (80 Gb), besides my 1st sata is full and the second doesn't have 80 gb free.

 

Regarding the 2nd partition issue, if I disconnect the other 2 disks, windows boots normally, even though it's in the 2nd partition, so maybe that's not the problem. Besides I also have other machine in dual boot with Linux, Win XP and Win 2000, all in the same disk.

 

I'm more inclined to think that it's a problem on how windows enumerates the disks, because when I installed it, there was only one, and when I connect the other two, maybe the naming change, so disk 1 becomes 3, or something like that.

[ianw1974]

I think you should have had all disks connected when you installed Windows on the disk. Chances are, your guess is correct, and Windows is having problems because the disk position moved.

 

You can fix this simply without reinstalling, just by booting the XP CD and press enter and go through as if you're going to do an install. It will detect windows on the disk, then choose repair, and it'll upgrade the existing install and should hopefully fix all your settings.

 

If not, clean install it, but make sure all disks are connected, else you'll get the same problem again.

[Soka]

I finally solved it. :D

The problem was that the stupid windows refused to boot from a second hard disk. I fixed it by adding table=sdb and master-boot options to lilo.conf.

 

other=/dev/sdb2
	label="Windows-XP"
	table=/dev/sdb
	master-boot

 

The table option specifies the device containing the partition table and master-boot makes the drive appear to be the first disk.

[ianw1974]

Nice :P

[Reiver_Fluffi]

Gotta admit I never seen that done before, this needs to be added to the tip n tricks I recken

[Helmut]

Maybe here's another tip about a similar topic:

 

My daughter had mdk 2005 and Windsblow XP on her dual boot box. She wanted to play an old MS-DOS version of "Simon The Sorcerer", but that won't work with XP. So she additionally needed W95 for the existing XP and mdk installation.

 

She then asked a friend for an ancient 3GB hard drive. Removed the existing IDE1 drive from her box and put the ancient one in its place, and installed Win95 on that ancient drive. When all was done, she reconnected the original drive having XP and mdk2005 on it, onto connector IDE1. Then put the ancient drive with the fresh install of Win95 onto the IDE 2 connector. Then reconfigured the mdk bootloader to list: 1) XP, 2) mdk2005, 3) Win95

Nowthere was a new problem: Everything seemed fine except W95 would not boot. If she selected W95 from the boot-screen, the screen turned black and nothing further happened. She tried rearranging the drives on the IDE connectors, no help.

The solution: After trying to boot W95 and looking on the screen that just turned blank, she pressed "escape" twice. Now W95 booted. It now reliably boots W95 every time, if only she pushes "escape" twice after choosing W95 from the bootloader menu. If she chooses one of the other OS's from her bootloader, everything works fine, just as on every other computer. So she now effectively has a triple-boot box: XP + W95 + mdk.

Helmut

Edited September 22, 2006 by Helmut

[AussieJohn]

Helmut, that is one very smart daughter you have there. I hope you give her plenty of encouragement to take an active role in the Linux world. Seems to be just the kind of lady the Linux world needs to help expand the Linux womans world of influence.

Good stuff.

 

Those other hints are very handy also. Nice work fellers.

 

Cheers. John.