On 2/27/06, Mauriat Miranda <mirandam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I would have to agree ... using NTLDR is not the "old" way, it is the only way on some troublesome systems. Most of the time GRUB will boot Linux and Windows just fine but there does seem to be the odd nasty BIOS+mobo+drive+partition combo that seems to trip Windows into a NTLDR-or-death mode.
I have had particular trouble with systems that have both SATA and IDE drive interfaces. There doesn't seem to be any standard way for Windows to know which one it should treat as "C:" or GRUB to know which is hd0. With enough messing around I can usually find a magic combination of bootloader chaining but it usually all goes to hell when you pull a drive out.
Maybe this is the scenario that the OP finds themselves in.
/Mike
On 2/27/06, akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxx <akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Using the Windows boot loader is the old way from Lilo days. There is
> not problem double booting FC4 with Windows (XP or 2000) using grub. I
> have done this on three of my machines. But the grub must be applied
> after the Windows is installed.
Not sure what the subjective phrase "the old way" means, but this is
merely chainloading, which is still commonly used. If grub has never
failed for you, then good for you. However it has for me and for
others (multiple FC installs, multiple dual-boot machines). Using
NTLDR is a very safe alternative to being potentially locked out of
*both* windows *and* linux. (Been doing this since I had NT4)
The MBR doesn't need to be constantly overwritten, this is a common
source of problems (for me at least). If you have multiple Windows or
Linux distributions installed, you can have 1 corresponding entry in
the boot.ini for each bootable partition. This needs to be setup only
once, and never really needs to be touched. You can preserve and test
multiple grub or lilo installs from multiple distributions by
installing a bootloader to the first sector of the bootable partition,
as I do. (all Fedora installers have provided this option)
Entirely optional, but highly recommended for anyone with reservations
about possibly interfering with their windows xp or 2000 boot.
I would have to agree ... using NTLDR is not the "old" way, it is the only way on some troublesome systems. Most of the time GRUB will boot Linux and Windows just fine but there does seem to be the odd nasty BIOS+mobo+drive+partition combo that seems to trip Windows into a NTLDR-or-death mode.
I have had particular trouble with systems that have both SATA and IDE drive interfaces. There doesn't seem to be any standard way for Windows to know which one it should treat as "C:" or GRUB to know which is hd0. With enough messing around I can usually find a magic combination of bootloader chaining but it usually all goes to hell when you pull a drive out.
Maybe this is the scenario that the OP finds themselves in.
/Mike
