I just used the repair tool (automatic) after doing a clean install of Suse and my Windows directory has disappeared altogether.
Any chance of getting it back?
Here’s the readout:
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6eb5ef98
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 31481 252864504 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 * 31482 60482 232950532+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb3 60483 60802 2560000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5 31482 31743 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 31744 34354 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 34355 60482 209873128+ 83 Linux
Ok lost Windows. In that it is no longer in the boot menu or no longer mounted. Two different things.
No longer in the boot menu sorry, it was there after the install but not the automatic repair.
Add this as root to the /boot/grub/menu.list file
title MS Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
Note menu.list text must end in a carriage return.
If something like this is already there let us know
I get the following error when trying to boot:
Booting MS Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
File system type unknown,
partition type 0x 7
save default
Error 15: File not found
not sure if it makes a difference but it’s Vista
Post sorry your NTFS is on sdb not sda
change hd0,0 => hd1,0
edit
I’m assuming that sdb1 is your windows root
Different error this time:
root (hd1,0)
Error 21: Selected disk does not exist
I can actually see and get at everything in my C:\ drive it’s just booting it.
Your showing
/dev/sdb1 1 31481 252864504 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 * 31482 60482 232950532+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb3 60483 60802 2560000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5 31482 31743 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 31744 34354 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 34355 60482 209873128+ 83 Linux
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notice the B that indicates hard drive 2 (1 to the BIOS) . How many hard drives do you have in this machine?
Which of the 2 NTFS partitions is the root windows?
Give me the full output of fdisk -l
Something is not right here or you are not telling me all that is needed. Are you doing something weird with your drives??
If you want a shot in the dark try hd0,2
I’ve got one 500gb HDD
From Vista it was partitioned to shrink the main partition to somewhere around 250gb. There’s also a 2gb partition for a pagefile for Windows.
Suse was installed on a clean formatted NTFS partition where said old Suse installation used to live.
Autorepair runs, Windows dissapears.
There’s a PCI raid card with nothing plugged into it, a disabled motherboard integrated raid chip and yet another raid controller integrated in the south bridge. It’s hooked in SATA via the southbridge, non raid.
Here’s the full output from fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6eb5ef98
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 31481 252864504 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 * 31482 60482 232950532+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb3 60483 60802 2560000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5 31482 31743 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 31744 34354 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 34355 60482 209873128+ 83 Linnux
Relogging to give said shot in dark a go.
Edit: no joy with that
How many HDs do you have in that machine?
If you have only one, how come that it shows up as sdb?
Do you have a harddisk disabled in your BIOS or something which would appear in the BIOS but not in Linux?
Do you need a PCI raid card with nothing plugged into it?
Can you access the Windows partitions from the Open Suse desktop? That’s where i would start, just to make sure if the data is still there.
Normally, Suse does a good job of placing Windows in the boot menu. Not sure what happened here, but hopefully your data is still there.
The PCI card was for when the motherboard chips died and I was using a couple of HDD’s in raid.
I’ve since removed them and just stuck 1 big disk in as it’s no longer my performance PC. I just haven’t got round to removing it; though it is disabled.
I’ll check boot in the BIOS brb.
Edit: The data is all there I can get to C: drive through KDE fine.
Ok extra info:
after automatic repair I got:
SUSELINUX
Failsafe: SUSELINUX
after rebooting I got:
Desktop…suselinux
failsafe…suselinux
So I have 4 Suselinux boot options
Edit: BIOS shows DVD Drive - Boot 1
VIA VT6420 1st HDD - Boot 2
1st Floppy Drive - Boot 3
I don’t know if this helps (clutching at straws here) but when I look at my disk info in Konqueror (sys info) I have:
/ (4.4Gb out of 15.3)
/dev/fdo (no info regarding size just a floppy disk icon)
Paging File (36.1mb out of 2.4Gb)
/windows/C (61.7Gb out of 241.2Gb)
/home (10.2Gb out of 186.8Gb)
Windows is totally accessible I can go into different user and find their files and find all my installed programs. It’s just trying to get the thing to boot.
title MS Windows XP
root (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
I was gonna suggest going into YAST and uninstalling and then reinstalling GRUB. Perhaps when GRUB is reconfigured it might see the Windows partitions.
Can’t hurt anything, as far as i can see.
If it doesn’t work, type mount to find out which device is mounted as C.
Assuming it would be /dev/sdb3, type the following in a terminal:
dd if=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 count=1
Does the garbage that you see there contain the string NTLDR or something which might look like a Windows bootsector?
I don’t understand why a single drive is showing up as sdb. The BIOS must think there is another drive there.A left over from the raid configuration???
This is probably what is confusing everything. Get the drive to show up as sda and all would be good.
It is confusing but doesn’t bother the linux kernel that much. There are situations where BIOS numbers and Linux device names don’t match. However you might have to map drives in order to boot Windows by adding the following lines under Windows boot entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst:
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)