I hate Windows!!!!

cyphos · n00b Joined: 30 Apr 2002 Posts: 33 Location: Canada

Hi,

A couple of hours ago, I had Gentoo Linux running perfect on a 40GB hard drive. I bought a new 40GB hard drive to use for Windows XP (I need it for school). Anyhow, I couldn't install XP for some reason unless I unplugged my old hard drive. Once I unplugged my old hard drive, I installed Windows XP and it booted fine. I then plugged in my old hard drive and booted into Linux and now I get the following error:

IDE(0,3) Can't mount foot file system because of unsupported optional features
VFS: Can't mount root

I'm not sure of the exact error, but it's very close to that. Anyhow, in order to be able to boot anything I have to unplug my first Primary Master hard drive (with Gentoo) ....then boots Windows XP. How do I get Gentoo back????

Thanks,
Cyp.

neeyo · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 32

Reinstall your bootloader and update /etc/fstab.

Choose a different drive to boot from in your BIOS.

RMXO

are both HDD plugged in at the same time? if u plan to dual boot i suggest u install Windows 1st then Linux. use linux as your boot loader. experience ppl here probably be able to explain it better.

which OS is set as primary & which one is set as slave? if u want to be lazy & not have both HDD plugged in at the same time, then your best bet is to get a 2 removable HDD bay. swap HDD in & out dpending which OS u want to use.
_________________
Once you go SMP you never wanna go back!

cyphos · n00b Joined: 30 Apr 2002 Posts: 33 Location: Canada

I already changed my /etc/fstab, and reinstalled the boot loader. I want it so that I may have both hard drives plugged in, and that I may use the boot loader to choose between the two.

I have two drives: HDA (Gentoo w/grub) and HDB (WinXP). When HDA is unplugged, WinXP will boot. If I have both hard drives plugged in, neither OS (hard drive) will boot (though grub will appear).

I appreciate any help, and look forward to a solution!!!! As I need Linux back for school work also.

Thanks!

RMXO · Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2002 9:58 pm Post subject:

if u are willing to re-install linux then do it with XP as being your primary drive & linux as your 2nd-dary. i always install windows 1st then linux last if i plan to dual boot & let linux handle the booting.

the fastest & simpliest fix is to get a removable HDD bay & do HDD swapping.
_________________
Once you go SMP you never wanna go back!

thekillerbean · n00b Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 29

you can always try bootpart (do a search on google or whatever). i prefer the windows boot loader - just a matter of preference.

fghellar · Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2002 5:53 am Post subject:

DArtagnan · Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2002 8:41 am Post subject:

mksoft · l33t Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 844

Like others suggested it is advised to put win on /dev/hda, but as DArtagnan said, you can use the map command for grub if you wish to leave the drives as they are.

Read more about grub's map command.
_________________
There's someone in my head but it's not me - Pink Floyd

ledents · n00b Joined: 15 Jul 2002 Posts: 7

This doesn't look to me as a software problem but more like
a hardware incompatibility or bad HD jumper settings between your two harddisks.
Try to plug them into different controlers!
(Of course make sure the jumpers are correct!:
Most of new hardisks can autodetect if they are single master or master with a slave.
But if you plug 2 hd on the same controler one must be configured as slave!
So before putting them on separate controllers check that they both are configured as master !).

delta407 · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 4:37 pm Post subject:

jthj · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 9:10 pm Post subject:

I would suggest running windows 2k instead of XP if it's possible as 2k is more dual boot freindly

delta407 · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:03 pm Post subject:

jthj · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:29 pm Post subject:

avatar · n00b Joined: 23 Jul 2002 Posts: 44 Location: London

The easiest way is to have Gentoo on hda, and windows on hdb, then map:

title=Windows2000
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Doing it the otherway round i.e. Windows on hda and Gentoo on hdb will mean you would have to overwrite Windows bootloader (NTLDR) if you are using Grub, which doesn't make sense really, since you have two harddrives (This would be different if you were dual booting with only one harddrive). The other way would be to use NTLDR to boot into Gentoo (this would involve copying the Gentoo boot sector into c:\, and editing boot.ini - don't know if this actually works or not!)