I can't boot Windows XP after installing Slitaz 5

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I can't boot Windows XP after installing Slitaz 5

(9 posts) (3 voices)

Started 9 years ago by diego_rodriguez
Latest reply from diego_rodriguez
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diego_rodriguez

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Hi everyone,

Although I've used GNU+Linux distributions for 4 years or so, I'm new to Slitaz, which I'm really loving now.

I've got an old machine with 2 hard drives, where I keep a Windows XP installation on one drive while I've been trying different lightweight GNU+Linux distros on the other one. So, after successfully installing Slitaz 5 on the hard drive I formatted for this, I can't boot my Windows XP installation, which is on the other hard disk. I know how to use GParted, so I'm pretty sure I did not touch the Windows-based drive.

When I turn on this old desktop, I can either choose Slitaz, which boots perfectly, or Windows, which shows up a black screen with a blinking line ' _ ' <-- like that. After that, nothing happens.

This is not my main machine, but today I wanted to play a videogame I keep on that Windows drive and I couldn't :(

Any piece of advice will be highly appreaciated.

Thank you, have a great day.

Posted 9 years ago #
Ceel

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Administrator

Hi diego_rodriguez,

Boot SliTaz from pc, open a terminal as root and post result of fdisk -l

Post too the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst

Posted 9 years ago #
diego_rodriguez

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Hi Ceel,

Thanks for your reply. I'm attaching the information you requested.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

spider@slitaz:~$ fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9599 77100032 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9599 9730 1049600 82 Linux swap

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 4864 39070048+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
spider@slitaz:~$

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# /boot/grub/menu.lst: GRUB boot loader configuration.
#

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Boot automatically after 8 secs.
timeout 8

# Graphical splash image.
splashimage=/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

# Change the colors.
#color yellow/brown light-green/black

# For booting SliTaz from : /dev/sda1
#
title SliTaz GNU/Linux 5.0 (Kernel vmlinuz-3.2.53-slitaz)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.53-slitaz root=/dev/sda1 quiet

# For booting Windows :
#
title Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted 9 years ago #
christophe

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Member

From what I remember, XP has to boot from the first master disk (hda or sda) and it seems it is on the slave disk instead.
I'd think just swapping the connections and setting up grub accordingly will solve this.
You also could use xosl which can allow xp to boot from the second drive (but i have not used it for years and i am not sure of it current state). There could be some grub instruction reaching the same but I am no grub expert go to google.

What puzzled me though, is that from your exponation, you have made so many tests in the past that you should have hit this problem a long time ago, unless you just modified the disks connections.

Posted 9 years ago #
Ceel

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Administrator
@ diego_rodriguez

Result of fdisk -l shows the 2 disks have a boot flag ("*" character).
Suppress the boot flag of sdb1 with GParted (select /dev/sdb > select sdb1 > click on Partition > Manage Flags)

May be a problem with your copy/paste; your entry for Windows should be
```
# For booting Windows :
#
title Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
```
Posted 9 years ago #
diego_rodriguez

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Member
Thanks both of you for your replies.

Christophe:
Before installing Slitaz 5.0, this hard disk was powered by Lubuntu 14.04, which worked fine along with Windows XP on the other drive, I mean, I could boot both (each one being located on each drive). (I switched to Slitaz because it's damn faster).

Ceel:
I opened Gparted and did what you said. However, I still can't boot Windows XP.

Regarding the copy/paste, now that you mention it, I think it must have been some sort of character limit from the box where I'm writing this reply. Consequently, I'm attaching 2 screenshots.
Attachments
screen2.jpg (46.4 KB, 1,791 downloads) 9 years old
screen1.jpg (86.1 KB, 895 downloads) 9 years old
Posted 9 years ago #
Ceel

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Administrator
I don't see anything wrong neither in your configuration nor in your menu.lst ...
There is no reason that Windows doesn't start if it started when LUbuntu was installed

To be sure it's not a problem with Windows may be you can try this:
- set the boot flag for sdb1
- shutdown the computer
- disconnect sda
- swith on the computer and see if Windows starts.
Posted 9 years ago #
christophe

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Member

I am assuming grub install from lubuntu is smarter (well, I know it is) to reassign the disk as expected, which is why it did work with lubuntu.

Either you exchange the disk so that the windows disk is the master, or you can also follow the instructions here

http://superuser.com/questions/269292/how-do-i-get-grub-to-boot-windows-from-a-second-hard-drive

and that should work.

Posted 9 years ago #
diego_rodriguez

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Member

Dear Fellows,

I'm sorry I didn't reply before. I've had lots of things to read and study (I'm a college student).

Thank you so much for your ideas, I think I'll try them tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Posted 9 years ago #

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I can't boot Windows XP after installing Slitaz 5

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