need help on dual booting

Hi, I just set up a dual boot of sabayon linux and windows xp on my old desktop before i attempted it on my laptop which is my main. I got it set up ok and linux boots fine but i went intot he xp and first time it did chkdisk then restarted and now on it just goes to the splash screen then sits on a blank screen with the cursor. Does that mean the xp is stuffed? Does that mean it would happen on the laptop also as i want to be able to use both.

 

dark,
are you using grub for your boot loader? It sounds like something happened to the Windows boot loader (NTLDR) and now Windows won't boot up properly.

Try this page for reference:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dual_Boot_from_Windows_Bootloader_(NTLDR)_and_why

I don't know anything about Sabayon but it sounds like you installed grub to your disk's MBR.

Try this at a Linux terminal console:
# grub
grub> root (hd0,1) (Specify where your /boot partition resides)
grub> setup (hd0,1) (Install GRUB in the boot sector of /boot)
grub> quit (Exit the GRUB shell)

The above assumes that your linux distro partition is on disk 1 and on the 2nd partition (we will assume that XP is on the first primary partition). So, there you installed GRUB boot loader to the root partition of Sabayon.

The other thing to try is to get a liveCD and use GParted to check out your partitions. You only want the Windows partition set to bootable.

If I said anything that is wrong or inaccurate, hopefully, someone will correct me.

I'm just learning, myself. I recommend using a separate grub partition and always installing the GRUB boot loader of any distro to the root partition or in other words, the first sector of the root partition (of that distro). Then, it's really easy to boot up and control things. You set up chain loading on the menu.lst file in the grub partition and it's just a matter of adding a grub entry to the grub partition each time you install a distro.

 

Yes I'm using grub as that was installed when it installed sabayon. I'll try that grub suggestion and then check it out and also loooking through gparted at partitions.

 

I've often seen windows run chdsk after re-partitioning. Apparently it does this because it didn't find things where they were expected.
When preparing for a dual-boot, I generally do it in steps and double-check at each step.

1) Push Windows aside. Either use the Windows partitioner (in Vista) or use Gparted to nudge XP/W2K to the "left". Sometimes this works, sometimes it fails. Sometimes, even after numerous defrags, there are parts of the Windows OS way out to the "right" hand side of the disk and you just have to take a chance that they will be moved successfully.
2) Restart the machine. Windows usually (always?) runs chkdsk but usually (in my experience) figures out where everything is. If it doesn't you may have to reinstall Windows or try a "Repair" if you have a genuine Windows CD. Most people nowadays don't. They only have "recovery" discs.

Note: re-partitioning is a crapshoot. You should never go into it unless you've saved your personal data off the PC and have a plan to rebuild the thing.

3) If you have to rebuild, make lemonade. Use GParted to wipe the drive clean, then create a primary NTFS partition, then create an extended partition for Linux. You can then install Windows to the NTFS partition and you're ready to install Linux to the extended partition. I recommend an extended rather than primary because you then have the freedom to set up a / partition, swap partition, and /home partition within the extended partition. Then I install Linux manually.

If things went sideways with one PC, it doesn't mean they will on the other. Are you fairly certain the sabayon disc is good?
Did you use good-quality media, burn it slowly (4X or so), check the disc for errors?

 

When ever I change my partitions outside of Windows I always press the key to skip that initial chkdsk. After you skip it and boot into Windows after a few minutes a message will pop up saying that you need to reboot to apply chages to your hardware. At that point I allow it to do any chkdsk it wants.

I've found odd behavior can happen when you do differently, although that may not necessarily be your issue. Either way you should be able to fix the XP installation using the 'repair installation'. You may need to reinsert the linux boot loader after that though...