[bugs #8823] GRUB is not able to boot Windows NT (when the partitions are not numbered as laid out?)

[Sanjay Pethe]

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[bugs #8823] Full Item Snapshot:

URL: <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=8823>
Project: GNU GRUB
Submitted by: Sanjay Pethe
On: Thu 05/06/04 at 14:50

Category:  Disk &amp; Partition
Severity:  Major
Priority:  5 - Normal
Item Group:  Action Request
Resolution:  None
Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Sanjay Pethe
Originator Email:  address@hidden
Status:  Open
Release:  0.93
Reproducibility:  Every Time
Planned Release:  


Summary:  GRUB is not able to boot Windows NT (when the partitions are not 
numbered as laid out?)

Original Submission:  Hi,
I am becoming convinced that there is a bug in GRUB that prevents it from 
booting NT on my configuration. I have experimented with various options. 
However, I realize I am just learning, and have a long way to go, so it may 
just be me doing something stupid. But I can't think of what! To summarize:

I have an old Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows NT on it. I want to make it a 
dual boot machine with the Windows NT and Fedora Linux distributions. 
Unfortunately, I do not have the NT installation disks, since I inherited this 
machine.

The NT installation is just over 8GB i.e. it just crosses the 1024 cylinder 
limit. I have an additional 10GB of free space after this partition. I do not 
want to reduce the size of the NT partition further. I cannot load Linux and 
make it a bootable partition after the NT partition because it is beyond 
cylinder 1024. The entire disk upto the end of the NT partition has the HPFS 
and NTFS file systems (no FAT). After reading on boot loaders and partitions, 
here is what I thought would work:

1) Move the NTFS partition (an NT installation) out by about 100MB using 
Partition Resizer v1.3.4 (www.zeleps.com), to create about 100MB of free space 
at the start of the disk.

2) Install linux with /boot in this 100MB at the start of the disk and the rest 
of it beyond the NT partition. As part of this, GRUB was installed as the boot 
loader in the MBR.

3) Modify the Windows boot.ini (using Capture). Modify the Windows NT boot 
entry to be multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2) instead of
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1).

4) Configure the GRUB bootloader to load allow selection of Windows NT or 
Linux. I don't remember the details of the commands, but it doesn't matter too 
much now since its redundant with some of the items described below.

5) At the end of this, I could boot Linux, but not NT (just resulted in a blank 
screen with cursor in top left corner). I am not sure where the problem was. I 
suspect it could be in the way the hard disks are numbered, because the NT 
partition was still showing as hda1 and the /boot as hda2 though the /boot was 
located before the NT one. This is maybe the way presizer leaves it after 
moving the partition, and I am not sure if this causes problems.

6) I undid these changes by deleting /boot, running the Fedora install to put 
it after the NT installation and then using presizer to move the NT partition 
back to the start of the disk. I also fixed the boot.ini file to refer to the 
first partition, and replaced GRUB in the MBR with the MBR written by fdisk. 
The system will now boot to Windows NT, but has no Linux.  At this point, the 
boot loader on my laptop is the boot loader installed by fdisk/mbr.

7) I prepared a GRUB boot disk and was able to boot into NT using the commands:
title Windows NT Test 1
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

8) I then moved my Windows NT partition out by about 100MB to make space for 
the Linux /boot filesystem using Partition Resizer v1.3.4 as before, and tried 
to boot into Windows NT using GRUB as before. This did not work although I 
tried numerous variations of the (hd0,0) parameter above. Note that the machine 
was not bootable at all when I did this, presumably since the Windows NT boot 
files (ntldr, boot.ini, etc) are not physically where they are expected to be.

9) I moved the Windows NT partition back, booted into it and prepared a Windows 
NT boot disk using format a: /u, and copied the ntldr, ntdetect.com and 
boot.ini files onto this disk.

10) I moved the Windows NT partition out by 100 MB again, and was able to boot 
into it using the newly prepared Windows NT boot disk. I had to specify the 
first partition on the first HD to be able to do this in the boot.ini file:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINNT="NT, First harddisk, first partition" 
/sos

11) I installed Linux (Fedora) with /boot in the 100MB free at the start of the 
disk, and the rest of it beyond the Windows NT. I replaced the laptop boot 
loader with GRUB. I was able to boot into Linux when I did this. However, I 
still cannot boot into Windows NT with GRUB. I see the GRUB commands and then 
just a black screen with the cursor in the top left.

12) It seems to me that GRUB is not able to chainload the ntldr if the Windows 
partition is not at the start of the disk, because I do not see any of the 
options in my boot.ini ever show up. I am not sure why this should be. It may 
have something to do with the way my partitions are numbered after Partition 
Resizer v1.3.4 moved them - they are not sequential by location - instead they 
are sequential by creation order. Running parted produces an error about not 
being able to align the partition properly and shows the following geometry. As 
you can see, partitions 1 and 2 are not numbered in the same order as their 
location on the disk. I do not know if this causes GRUB any heartache, but the 
NT loader seems to do fine with it.

Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-19077.187 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
2 0.031 101.975 primary ext3
1 102.006 8103.098 primary ntfs boot
3 8103.098 18567.312 primary ext3
4 18567.312 19077.187 extended lba
5 18567.343 19077.187 logical linux-swap

13) I can't think of what else to try with GRUB. My grub.conf is attached, and 
none of these options work.  I guess the next thing I will try is to see if I 
can boot into Linux from my NT boot disk. If that works, I guess I could copy 
the NT loader to the MBR and use it to boot both systems. But this defeats the 
intention - I WANT to be able to use GRUB to boot both systems, because that is 
GRUB's stated purpose (Grand UNIFIED Boot Loader!). If it cannot do so, it is a 
bug and needs to be fixed. I am also uncomfortable with having to rely on a 
proprietary tool to allow me to use linux and another system on the same 
machine, more from the principle than anything else. 

14) I NEED HELP! Any suggestions welcome.





File Attachments
-------------------

-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu 05/06/04 at 14:50  Name: grub.conf  Size: 894KB   By: SanjayPethe
My grub.conf file for the GRUB boot disk.
http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/download.php?item_id=8823&amp;item_file_id=1276






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