Dear all,
How does one change the boot.ini on a computer? The problem is this: The machine had Windows XP running originally with Ubuntu Dapper Drake running on a partition. So a user has to choose the OS from the Grub menu. Now after some boot files in XP got corrupted, the computer refused to boot. The technician did a back-up installation of XP and now the machine works okay GRUB, Ubuntu and all. According to the engineer this is a usual problem with XP. He has advised editing boot.ini to make Linux the default OS but he warned that it can be done only once. Also that if Linux is made default Windows XP cannot be opened, etc.
So how does one configure boot.ini so that the computer begins working even with the XP files corrupted, etc. The person who owns the computer wants both Windows XP and Linux on one machine for the near future. Maybe make GRUB run on Ubuntu OS instead of Windows XP at present.
Pardon if I sound like verbally challenged!!!!
Shiv Kumar
BombayNews wrote:
How does one change the boot.ini on a computer?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022
The problem is this: The
machine had Windows XP running originally with Ubuntu Dapper Drake running on a partition. So a user has to choose the OS from the Grub menu. Now after some boot files in XP got corrupted, the computer refused to boot. The technician did a back-up installation of XP and now the machine works okay GRUB, Ubuntu and all. According to the engineer this is a usual problem with XP. He has advised editing boot.ini to make Linux the default OS but he warned that it can be done only once. Also that if Linux is made default Windows XP cannot be opened, etc.
Form the above manial, boot.ini is a hidden, read only file. But I wonder why you want to alter boot.ini. Grub can very well help you in booting up other OS, but if the other OS gets corrupted then its not GRUB's fault. I don't understand why you need to alter boot.ini at all.
If you want to still, check this: http://home.ubalt.edu/abento/linux/redhat-install/dualbootNT.html
So how does one configure boot.ini so that the computer begins working even with the XP files corrupted, etc. The person who owns the computer wants both Windows XP and Linux on one machine for the near future. Maybe make GRUB run on Ubuntu OS instead of Windows XP at present.
GRUB, when installed on to the MBR can boot both your WinXP and Ubuntu. Infact when installing Ubuntu, it will auto-detect the other OS and provide a appropriate entry in GRUB menu. But, you can not use GRUB to directly boot windows. You can do the same using chainloader, check this out: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#chainloader
Some more links for your reading, regarding dual boot with winxp [1] and an article on GRUB [2]
[1]http://home.ubalt.edu/abento/linux/redhat-install/dualbootNT.html [2]http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/4622
Pardon if I sound like verbally challenged!!!!
No problem, without asking nobody can learn better!
On 12/6/06, BombayNews bombaynews@hotmail.com wrote:
Now after some boot files in XP got corrupted, the computer refused to boot.
Why would Ubuntu not boot if XP got corrupted? Are you sure Grub was the boot menu or was it the other way that XP loads grub to boot Ubuntu?
According to the engineer this is a usual problem with XP. He has advised editing boot.ini to make Linux the default OS but he warned that it can be done only once. Also that if Linux is made default Windows XP cannot be opened, etc.
I had a coulple of experiences in the past that for some reasons when I did a "grub-install" on my dual-boot machine with FC and XP, FC boot up but XP didnt. This was a problem with boot.ini file. I had to change the harddisk number in the boot.ini file and it worked. I am not that experienced with grub so I do not know what changes happened after I installed grub for the second time. May be someone on the list can explain that :-)
But what do u mean by XP files corrupted? Did you see any errors after you selected XP in grub menu? If there were errors from XP then Grub works fine and Ubuntu should boot.
On Thursday 07 December 2006 16:26, Varadarajan V wrote:
I had a coulple of experiences in the past that for some reasons when I did a "grub-install" on my dual-boot machine with FC and XP, FC boot up but XP didnt. This was a problem with boot.ini file. I had to change the harddisk
On a friends machine i created a fat32 partition from the freespace so that he could share data btwn debian and doze boots. Next reboot into xp and the thing reboots with a flitting msg about \windows\system32\xyz corrupt.Booting in safe mode worked. Removed the partition and the crap works again. Note I never touched the xp partition. MBR already had grub which works properly anyway. If u have doze trash round, backup before touching anything at all.
number in the boot.ini file and it worked. I am not that experienced with grub so I do not know what changes happened after I installed grub for the second time. May be someone on the list can explain that :-)
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS # on /dev/hda2 title Windows NT/2000/XP root (hd0,1) savedefault makeactive chainloader +1
On Thursday 07 December 2006 16:26, Varadarajan V wrote:
I had a coulple of experiences in the past that for some reasons when I did a "grub-install" on my dual-boot machine with FC and XP, FC boot up but XP didnt. This was a problem with boot.ini file. I had to change the harddisk
I made a mistake in mentioning that. I remember now that I had created a partition in the disk (broke existing) and I had to install "grub" for some reasons. That's why there was a problem with boot.ini. Also, I hard to change the partition number and not the harddisk number.
I apologise for giving wrong information. But I still wonder why Ubuntu wouldnt boot if XP is corrupted.
BombayNews wrote:
How does one change the boot.ini on a computer?
If the boot is screwed up use the command 'fixboot' in XP's rescue mode after inserting the CD. To fix the boot loader use 'fixboot'. Depending on the situation if your files are corrupted you need to first replace them with good ones using the following. copy x:\i386\ntldr c: Here c: is your XP partition and x: is your cd drive. copy x:\i386\ntdetect.com c:
Once you fixed your XP, now boot into linux through the cd, chroot, and do 'grub-install /dev/hda' hda is your primary hdd. This will install grub into your mbr. It uses the /boot/grub/menu.lst file in your linux partition as the reference so if you have altered the linux partition numbers, you must also edit the menu.lst file in that partition to point to the correct partition.
Backup all data before trying any tricks or you will be asking for file recovery packages. ;)
Regards,
Rony.
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Rony wrote:
BombayNews wrote:
How does one change the boot.ini on a computer?
If the boot is screwed up use the command 'fixboot' in XP's rescue mode after inserting the CD. To fix the boot loader use 'fixboot'.
Sorry, a typo in the earlier mail. To fix boot, use 'fixboot'. To fix mbr use 'fixmbr'.
Regards,
Rony.
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