Dual Boot Nightmare - Now XP won't boot either!

[Thomas Kaiser (ubuntu)]

Richard Querin wrote:

> Interestingly, my BIOS doesn't list the  IDE drive as an available item 
> in the bootup sequence. It only lists the SATA HD.
So, that means Grub has only access to the SATA HD, but the 
/etc/grub/menu.lst lives on the IDE HD. Thus grub cannot read the boot 
menu configuration :-(

You wrote before that you see "grub >" and a blinky cursor?
This tells me that grub is installed in the mbr of the SATA HD and of 
course did overwrite the Windoz mbr. Did you try to type something after 
you saw "grub > _"?

Anyway I will write you instructions on how to boot windows from the 
grub command line:
- after you see "grub > _" enter "root(hd0,0) and press ENTER
- enter "chainloader +1" and press ENTER
- enter "boot" and press ENTER

Now, Windoz should boot, hopefully:-)

I don't know if you can boot the IDE drive from grub if the BIOS does 
not recognise? But there are some other experts on the list, I think.

But you can try the next commands on the grub command line to boot Ubuntu:
- root (hd1,4) and press ENTER
- kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 ro console=tty0 and press ENTER
- initrd /boot/initrd.img  and press ENTER

or you can type "help" on the grub command line

I hope you get any of these OS to boot.

If you cannot boot the IDE HD from grub, you need a small boot partition 
on the SATA HD.

Good Luck, Thomas

-- 
http://www.kaiser-linux.li