Possibly, but I think it’s way beyond our friend here. No offence @bilyo
Another option is fixmbr on the win HD
Set it to 1st boot and your in XP.
Re-install grub to the Linux HD
Switch boot order and your in SUSE
Then try editing menu.lst to add XP
I don’t know if it helps any but here is a shot of the Yast partitioner:
file:///tmp/moz-screenshot-6.jpg
I believe I can deal with the grub uninstall/reinstall and deletion of grub files if you think that would do it. Not so sure about fixmbr because I have no access to the windows drive.
I’m going to be offline for a while. See you later this evening or tomorrow.
Thanks for the help,
Bill
Acknowledging I am in exhalted company here 
…I’ll chip in anyway:
Aside from the odd device mapping, the other notable point (to me anyway) is that in the original fdisk output, each physical disk has a partition flagged as bootable, and on the first device that is the extended partition.
I’m wondering if you have managed to get two instances of grub, one on each physical device so when you point grub at the first device (windows entry hd0,0) the bootable partition on that device is the extended partition (which would only be grub?) hence it loops back to the grub menu.
Using your favourite partitioning tool (gparted live cd) unflag that partition as bootable (leaving no bootable partitions on the first disk) & see what happens. Would also be interesting to see how gparted “sees” the device mapping.
IG
Good Point
This is the part you mean:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1918 15406303+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2 * 1919 7297 43206817+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 1919 7297 43206786 b W95 FAT32
If XP is on sda1 the you need to switch the boot flag to sda1 like this
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1918 15406303+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2 1919 7297 43206817+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 1919 7297 43206786 b W95 FAT32
You can switch boot flag easily with Parted Magic Partitioner
Then try some of the suggestions for the menu: (see Page 1)
Originally you had:
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
We made other suggestions too, so if your original doesn’t work, try those.
file:///tmp/moz-screenshot-9.jpgI’m going to chew on all the advice provided and develop a plan of attack. I’ll let you know what happens.
BTW, during all these discussions, I discovered from Yast/System Information that hda is an old Zip Drive that I only use occasionally. The system “sees” it as a harddrive.
Until I have more questions,
Thanks,
Bill
@bilyo: these sorts of screenshot addresses:
file:///tmp/moz-screenshot-9.jpg
don’t work for us because they address your filesystem, which we can’t access. You have to put them on the Net.
I understand. I realized when it occurred that it wasn’t working as expected. I thought I had deleted the entry but I obviously didn’t get the job done.
Thanks,
Bill
I created a live CD for Parted Magic and used it to look at all partitions. Interestingly, it refers to the two harddrives as hdc and hdd but, otherwise, there is no difference in the partition arrangement. It was such a convoluted mess and I have spent so much time trying to figure out a fix I decided the best thing to do was reformat the 2nd drive and reinstall oS. I did not use “fixmbr”. I looked at the help information for the command and the stern warnings about possibly making the hd unreadable scared me into trying to reinstall oS and grub without it. Of course, it didn’t work. oS boots from the menu but when Windows is selected it leaves me at a black screen that only says “GRUB>”. So, I’m assuming the only thing left to do is use “fixmbr” and reinstall grub. Has anyone ever done this? What are the chances that Windows will become unbootable?
Menu.lst certainly looks cleaner:
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00JJC0_WD-WMAM9DVV0115-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00JJC0_WD-WMAM9DVV0115-part1 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.1
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00JJC0_WD-WMAM9DVV0115-part2 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default
Thanks,
Bill
Bill
Windows already is unbootable - you can’t boot it.
Did you try either of the suggestions for changing the bootable partition flag on your first hd (either unflag the second extended partition and leave none flagged, or make the first partition bootable)?
Parted has the facility to do this.
As long as you don’t format anything on the first drive all the files will still be there - the problem we need to solve is how to enable you to boot into windows again.
Fixmbr would need to be done from the Windows OS itself, so either you need to be able to boot into it in the first place or to have the install disk and run a repair install on it.
IG
If switching the boot flag doesn’t work, which I suggested earlier. Then you need to fixmbr. Don’t worry too much about fixmbr. If I told you some of the things I do you’d cringe.
cat4926, Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any more confident ;>) .
Ignz. You’re right. It won’t boot. So, what have I got to lose :>(. I have visions of spending hours and hours reloading everything accumulated over the last 7 or 8 years. On the positive side, it will provide an opportunity to “clean house” .
I believe I have tried all the suggestions and some of my own. Nothing works. I can only conclude that the mbr is corrupted. I do have the original install disk that contains a “Recovery Console” from which I can run fixmbr. I’m about to do this but I don’t know how I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and type at the same time.
Here it goes!
Bill
Hope all goes well.
Once you get windows back, you can then restore Grub this way:
If the partition table is the same as in post #4 of this thread, then fixmbr will not work.
The boot flag must be on the windows partition that contains the bootloader files (boot.ini and ntldr) for fixmbr to work. So I recommend you move the flag (the asterisk) onto that partition.
Correct. As already mentioned. But it’s good that you reiterate the point John.
So now @bilyo
Are you listening!!