HD Install :: HD Install Win XP and Grub!



Hi everyone,

I've had some success installing DSL before, but now trying to do it on a machine already running WinXP is giving me headaches

I have the following setup:

Windows XP: hda1
DSL: hdc1
Linux Swap: hdc2

I can get past the HD install, but when I restart it doesn't boot up with Grub, just goes straigt to Win XP

Following the advice of several threads I've tried the following:

1.
Boot using LiveCD, then
$grub
> root (hd2,0)
Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

2.
Boot using LiveCD,
#grub-install /dev/hda
/dev/cloop does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

3.
Boot LiveCD.
Mount hdc1
edit /boot/grub/menu.lst with the following:

title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader+1
makeactive
boot

None of the above have worked for me, what is going on? I suspect it may be the disk geometry, I'm not really sure, I have no experience with MBR stuff. Any help is appreciated.

neonuke
You says that you have a hard disk labeled "hda" and another labeled "hdc" by DSL.
But then also you have other hard disk labeled "hdb"? Is say, the question is how many hard disks have you?
If you have only two hard disks then you have:

Windows XP: hda1
DSL: hdb1
Linux Swap: hdb2

Then the lines from /boot/grub/menu.lst should be:
.....
title             DSL on /hdb1
root              (hd1,0)
.....

I recommend you boot from LiveCD and then to check the /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

Note: When you execute the hd-install script autotically edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. You must answer correctly the question that does the hd-install script only.
I do have only two hard drives, and they are hda and hdc, because hdb is my CD drive.
neonuke, I suggest you to put DSL image in hda2, same HDD with XP.  You need GRUB boot loader in the primary HDD.  If so, you need to re-partition (by PartitionMagic) hda1 and hda2:-

Windows XP       : hda1 (Primary Master)
DSL (~100MB)    : hda2 (Primary Master) - ext2
Linux Swap        : hdb1 (Primary Slave)   - swap
DSL Data/myDSL : hdb2 (or hda1 if you don't need another partition) - ext2
CD-ROM            : hdc1 (Secondary Master)

Good luck :D
neonuke,
hdb is hda's slave. How come that a cdrom is a salve of a harddisk? I don't think it's even possible.
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