I’ve a dual boot machine running XP Pro and openSuse 10.3 using GRUB as booloading. Recently I developed some problems in windows after a virus attack and windows is not working. When I try to start in safe mode ‘safe mode’ appears at the four corners of the screen and the screen remains black.
Linux is working fine.
I’ve decided to repair windows. I’ve changed the BIOS option to boot from my DVD drive first. But even though from the GRUB option when I choose windows it’s not booting at all from the CD. The XP CD is fine and working perfectly in another computer.
Is it a GRUB problem or anything else? Do I need to modify the menu.lst file to boot from the CD? or I have to specify something in GRUB gui’s ‘boot option’ field?
Please help
Thanks in advance
Stupid question, I know, but you’re pressing “any” key when the system detects the bootable disc, just before booting from the hard drive?
I can’t think of anything the Suse bootloader could be doing, since the system should boot from the Windows disc before the bootloader even loads.
I’m not hitting any key, except for the power on/off switch to start the machine, and that’s all.
I was trying to boot from a Windows XP disc a while back, and it had been so long since I had installed Windows, I forgot to read the message on the screen that said to “press a key to continue the installation”.
I thought something was wrong with the disc or my computer, but I just wasn’t pressing a key at the proper time, so the system would merely continue to boot up normally as though there was no Windows disc in the drive.
As I press F12 to get the boot options just after the machine starts up, I choose to boot from DVD drive and it skips it and straight goes to GRUB
Grub is not in the equation at all - depending on how it was installed, it is either run when the bios transfers control to the MBR or from code in the MBR which calls it from the partition boot sector. Booting from the optical drive is entirely dependent upon the bios, the drive, and the media - and happens without accessing the hard disk at all if working correctly (which would be required to get to grub).
You mention that the XP CD is working fine in another computer - that is, the other machine actually boots from the CD? There are XP CD’s which do not have a boot sector, without which it cannot, well, boot.
If you have eliminated the CD as the cause, then verify that the CD is fully accessible in your optical drive by accessing it from openSUSE.
If all checks out, then the issue has to be the bios or cabling. Make sure your Master/Slave set up is correct. And don’t use F12 (which is on-the-fly override); enter the bios setup, re-configure the boot devices for optical first, save to cmos.
Thanks for all the replies. actually the laser lens in the combo drive was dirty. I cleaned with a lint-free cloth and all the problems are gone.