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Installing Windows XP After Fedora 7
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  1. #1
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    Question Installing Windows XP After Fedora 7

    Hello! I've seen quite a few threads all over the internet about dual booting Windows and Fedora. I have a Fedora 7 installation on my Laptop that I very much like, and it was dual booted with Linux. Well...Windows did what Windows does best, and pretty much died. Now I need to install it again. The problem, is that the XP CD hangs almost immediately after the boot begins...right before the blue screen at the beginning of the Windows setup. The HDD light is going crazy. Now, I know this has something to do with Windows not liking the Linux partitions...but surely, there must be a way to fix this without losing my Linux installation. Is there some way to hide the linux partitions from the Windows setup? Or to somehow slipstream drivers into the Windows setup or something? I'm out of ideas.

    Thanks much,

    Scott
    Scott K Logan
    CottsayNet
    logans@cottsay.net

  2. #2
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    I think you should provide info about how your HDD is partitioned. I mean if there is fat or ntfs partitions or not. Anyway i am new to linux but think you have to specify an area of ur disk with partition magic in the NTFS format of about 5 Gbytes and make it active and Primary Then Install the XP on that partition Then Re-Install Grub as you will loose it for the last step visit this page provided to me by lilw
    http://fedoranews.org/contributors/bob_kashani/grub/

  3. #3
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    can you provide the HDD partition information are you able to boot up your machine with linux?
    With Regards,
    Adarsh B
    YM! - call_2_adarsh

  4. #4
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    Hello cottsay,

    What they said...but specifically: post the result of this as su in your Fedora system...
    Code:
    /sbin/fdisk -l
    Last edited by stoat; 10th September 2007 at 10:57 PM.

  5. #5
    SkyFlyer Guest
    boot a gparted CD, format your windows partition (make sure you don't format your linux partition... only format NTFS), and then put the windows CD and install on the blank hard drive.

    Edit:

    You might have to, afterwards, boot with a live CD and reset grub.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by cottsay

    Now, I know this has something to do with Windows not liking the Linux partitions...but surely, there must be a way to fix this without losing my Linux installation.
    Hello again cottsay,

    Since you are getting several things to try (all okay, BTW), I thought I should make a few additional comments...
    1. You are right about Linux partitions being involved. The "Balking XP CD" is a well known thing here and on the the Internet. Linux partitions are always present. And removing them universally cures the problem.

    2. But this problem with the XP CD does not always happen with Linux partitions present. I have never had this happen and have only recently learned at least one way to make it occur intentionally. It is more than just the presence of Linux partitions doing this.

    3. I recently discovered that switching drives in the BIOS boot order so that a drive without Linux partitions is first will stop the XP CD from balking.

    Your Different Version of the Problem

    But the problems in your case are that you don't want to destroy the Linux partitions and everything is probably on one drive in a laptop (partly why I wanted the fdisk). If GRUB has been booting the two systems, I imagine that the Fedora boot partition is the active right now (the other part of why I wanted the fdisk). Based on the "cure" in the two-drive scenario, I have the idea in my head that a good thing to try is merely to set the XP partition back to active (as ziko also mentioned) using fdisk or GParted. If the XP partition is the first partition on the drive as it certainly must be, and is set back to active, I believe the XP CD will work. That is sort of analogous to the two-drive "cure".

    Conclusion and Main Point

    SkyFlyer's suggestion to reformat the XP partition and ziko's suggestion to create a new NTFS partition for XP are all okay to try also, but not so analogous to the two-drive thing. Whatever you do, I urge you to do one thing at a time and try the XP CD again so that you (all of us) can tell what really cured it (if you find a "cure"). I have been waiting for someone in the jam that you are in to come along (Balking XP CD with XP & Linux on one hard drive). I hope that you not only fix this without harming the Linux system, but that what fixed it is obvious so that it can be repeated by others.
    Last edited by stoat; 16th September 2007 at 10:38 PM.

  7. #7
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    Thanks all for your responses. I was worried this would be another dead thread with a lack of response. I'll get on posting the exact partition tables. To sum things up, I do only have one drive, about 80 gig, and it has "/boot" first, then XP, then the LVM containing fedora. Maybe moving the "/boot" to second will cure it? Baby steps...I'll get that info to you all. I have, however, tried formatting the NTFS XP partition with no luck. I'll try setting it to active. Thanks again, so much! I've encountered this before, but have never attempted to fix it. Maybe now we can figure this out!

    Thanks so much,

    Scott
    Scott K Logan
    CottsayNet
    logans@cottsay.net

  8. #8
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    Alright, according to GParted, this is my exact partition table:

    /dev/hda3 ext3 94MB
    /dev/hda1 fat16 1.00GB
    /dev/hda2 ntfs 42.43GB
    /dev/hda4 unknown 31.00GB

    ...The first is the boot partition, next is DOS (for some applications that I use, DOS is the only usable OS), then the Windows XP partition that I've formatted and is set to be the active boot partition, however, GRUB still comes up (???), then is the LVM containing the ext3 partition for Fedora 7 and the 1 gig swap.

    I tried setting the newly (re)created ntfs partition to "boot" in GParted (which I understand is the same as "active"), and that doesn't seem to have had any effect.

    Do you think my theory about moving the Windows partition to first on the drive would help? Can I move the boot partition undamaged, or would I need to back it up and reload the data for Fedora to boot properly, even after grub is re-enabled?

    Thanks so very much,

    Scott
    Scott K Logan
    CottsayNet
    logans@cottsay.net

  9. #9
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    Hi Cottsay,

    Really i am sorry for your problem. This is because when i face such problem i back-up my data , delete all partitions , re-create partitions again.

    I think that u don't like such solution. But i have no good ideas. Others may help. But I think that installing Fedora on LVM is not advisable. Please Stoat Correct this if i am wrong.

  10. #10
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    Apparently, making the NTFS partition active is not enough to make the XP CD happy again. But I was hoping that the old XP partition was at the very beginning of the drive. Regarding your plan to move partitions around, I'm not able to predict the effect of that. If you do anything else to the partitions, the Linux system may get upset. You should at least make sure all important files there are backed up.

    The GRUB menu still appears because stage1 is still in the master boot record. Other people have tried removing it with no effect on the the XP CD in your situation. Another wild guess: make the NTFS active + restore XP boot code to the MBR with TestDisk or Super GRUB Disk? But remember, that will stop Fedora from booting.

    I am kind of worried about your system and my reputation with any more wild guesses. Here is the sum total today of what I know works from experiments and reading many of these posts: If the the systems are on separate drives, making the XP drive first in the BIOS boot order lets the XP CD work. If the systems are on the same drive, removing the Linux partitions by any method lets the XP CD work.

    An idea for the future if you ever get things back to the way they were: Use imaging software like Acronis True Image to create a backup image of the XP partition. Next time this happens, restore the XP image.


    P.S.: In another thread, a person started out with a very similar scenario but was installing XP fresh into a non-first partition behind Linux and with GRUB in the MBR (I think). I didn't think the XP CD would work, but it apparently did. I wasn't able to learn anything to apply to this, but it is interesting.
    Last edited by stoat; 11th September 2007 at 02:30 PM.

  11. #11
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    The problem is with LVM never use LVM in dual boot systems.
    Better you backup your data in hda2/sda2(FC7,)

    Use any live cd
    #fdisk /dev/hda
    p (print par.table)

    d (delete)

    n(add new)
    delete hda3 and hda4

    add ramx2x for swap hda3
    hda4 /

    or your disk allowes extend parttions go for it
    and do logical parttions for / /home /opt

    Best ways is

    Delete hda3,hda4
    Load win xp allot free space to Bill 30Gb +

    After Xp finishs
    Now transfer all data from hda2 to hda3(3+4)
    run live cd for fdisk or Gparted live GUI delete
    hda1 ,hda2

    make new partitions

    hda1 Fat32 5gb to 7gb ( very useful for future hard disk installs)
    hda2 extended
    hda5 ,hda6--------- for Fc7 (Logical)

  12. #12
    larryt Guest
    Just to muddy the waters,

    You could always just install vmware (or any other virtual machine server) into your Linux partition, and then within that install a XP VM client. It won't be nearly as fast as a dual boot when your running on the XP side, but on the other side, you get the added benefit of having BOTH XP and Linux running at the same time.

    vmware server 1.0.3 is freely distributed.

    Larry

  13. #13
    pfinet Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by larryt
    Just to muddy the waters,

    You could always just install vmware (or any other virtual machine server) into your Linux partition, and then within that install a XP VM client. It won't be nearly as fast as a dual boot when your running on the XP side, but on the other side, you get the added benefit of having BOTH XP and Linux running at the same time.

    vmware server 1.0.3 is freely distributed.

    Larry
    I have the same problem and I'm using just this solution: virtualize Windows XP from Fedora with Qemu (on a old AthlonXP 2000).
    It's not as fast as a native XP installation, but for things I do it's sufficient.

    When Fedora8 will be ready, I'll format the whole disc and install XP first and Fedora8 then.

  14. #14
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    Okay, thanks all. I think my next step will be to attempt to move my "/boot" and make NTFS first. I'll backup the /boot data and delete that, ntfs, and fat16 and then re-create a ntfs volume and set it active. If that doesn't work, I'll have to blame things on LVM (which I really don't like very much anyway)...

    I'll keep you posted.

    Thanks much,

    Scott
    Scott K Logan
    CottsayNet
    logans@cottsay.net

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by brr872002
    The problem is with LVM never use LVM in dual boot systems.
    Better you backup your data in hda2/sda2(FC7,)

    Use any live cd
    #fdisk /dev/hda
    p (print par.table)

    d (delete)

    n(add new)
    delete hda3 and hda4

    add ramx2x for swap hda3
    hda4 /

    or your disk allowes extend parttions go for it
    and do logical parttions for / /home /opt

    Best ways is

    Delete hda3,hda4
    Load win xp allot free space to Bill 30Gb +

    After Xp finishs
    Now transfer all data from hda2 to hda3(3+4)
    run live cd for fdisk or Gparted live GUI delete
    hda1 ,hda2

    make new partitions

    hda1 Fat32 5gb to 7gb ( very useful for future hard disk installs)
    hda2 extended
    hda5 ,hda6--------- for Fc7 (Logical)
    For FC&7 with dual boot best option disk partitions

    Device Boot
    /dev/sda1 * 30 gb NTFS(WinXP)
    /dev/sda2 40 GB EXTENDED (Linux)
    /dev/sda3 10 GB FAT 32
    /dev/sda5
    /dev/sda6 sda7 Logical (Linux)

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