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Dr Spliff
October 4th, 2011, 07:35 AM
I have searched endlessly on Google and tried multiple fixes for this, and nothing seems to be working.



What I'm trying to do :

-Triple boot (future Quad) Windows 7, XP, and Ubuntu



What I did:

-Had W7 Installed originally

-Executed GParted to Partition my drive the following way :

*200 GB W7 (Primary)

*100 GB Unallocated

-Inserted XP and installed on 100 GB partition

-Inserted Ubuntu and used drive partitioner on install to set the now XP 100 GB to 50 GB, and 50 GB set for Ubuntu



Everything was going OK, until I restarted and the GRUB2 Menu did not display my XP. I have read up on editing the GRUB2 and executed on all sda options to no avail. It listed Windows 7 Loader, which actually loaded XP....and W7 would not load at all. After trying countless things with the GRUB2 menu, I resorted to a tip I found. I inserted the W7 install CD and ran startup repair, which then made W7 boot from the W7 Loader option.

I now cannot find, or boot XP. I have tried custom adding it to GRUB2, but it does not find it ever. Here is the hard drive analysis :



sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /boot.ini /grldr /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /grldr /ntldr
/NTDETECT.COM

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files: /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files:

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 11.04
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 206,848 421,412,863 421,206,016 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 421,417,141 625,141,759 203,724,619 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 421,417,143 523,268,705 101,851,563 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda6 523,270,144 625,141,759 101,871,616 83 Linux


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 084A63AC4A63956A ntfs
/dev/sda2 04366815366809CE ntfs
/dev/sda5 888019FB8019F104 ntfs
/dev/sda6 5279cc91-5d11-44cc-b163-0f7c35c6f622 ext4

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda6 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================


If I try to boot SDA5 it switches to a screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner, and just sits there. How do I boot XP? Thanks...

Dr Spliff
October 5th, 2011, 03:12 AM
Sixty six people are stumped by this?

4llf0rn0t
October 5th, 2011, 03:22 AM
Hi,

Try editing your windows 7 boot menu with bcdedit. It might have changed when you repaired it.

As pjd99 suggested, the entry for Windows XP may have been removed from your BCD store and you need to add it back.

pjd99
October 5th, 2011, 03:40 AM
Looking at the partition info, sda5 has nothing for the "boot files" line.
Win 7 calls: /Windows/System32/winload.exe

Is this a problem?

Can you add the XP partition to the Windows boot loader in Win7? I think you can edit boot options with msconfig. Won't help with grub, but should allow you to see if the XP partition can boot.

oldfred
October 5th, 2011, 05:06 AM
It is best not to install any windows in a logical partition, but it works.

Windows combines all its boots into the active partition (boot flag). It litterally moves all the boot files from a second install to the active partition. Grub then cannot find any boot files in your XP install as it has none and can only be booted from the Windows 7 active partition.

Examples are mostly Vista, but Windows 7 is the same except most installs of Windows 7 have a hidden 100MB boot/recovery partition.
To get each MS to have its own boot loader make a second primary partition and set its boot flag on, then install the 2nd product in it. Multibooters, Pictures here worth 1000+ words
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html
A user who installed two windows & it worked to boot from grub directly
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1271600
Another user who disconnected and used a second drive
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1334346