I just installed Mandrake Linux. When I reboot, a screen comes up letting me choose my OS. When I choose one of the Linuxes it's ok, but if I choose windows it says Starting Windows then a line of funky symbols then goes back to the choosing screen. Is there any way I can fix this? Please help

: I just installed Mandrake Linux. When I reboot, a screen comes up letting me choose my OS. When I choose one of the Linuxes it's ok, but if I choose windows it says Starting Windows then a line of funky symbols then goes back to the choosing screen. Is there any way I can fix this? Please help

You might know this but I don't know if you do. You have to make sure Windows is the first OS partition because of the MBR. If it is already first, then try to reinstall Windows.

: : I just installed Mandrake Linux. When I reboot, a screen comes up letting me choose my OS. When I choose one of the Linuxes it's ok, but if I choose windows it says Starting Windows then a line of funky symbols then goes back to the choosing screen. Is there any way I can fix this? Please help
:
: You might know this but I don't know if you do. You have to make sure Windows is the first OS partition because of the MBR. If it is already first, then try to reinstall Windows.
:

this is only the case if you are using the same HD and the NT/2k/XP line. If both OSes are on a seperate HD there shouldn't be a problem...and there is no problem if you're using any Win9x like Win95/98/ME. I've been told that the grub boot loader now works with 2k/XP but I haven't tried it first hand.

: : : I just installed Mandrake Linux. When I reboot, a screen comes up letting me choose my OS. When I choose one of the Linuxes it's ok, but if I choose windows it says Starting Windows then a line of funky symbols then goes back to the choosing screen. Is there any way I can fix this? Please help
: :
: : You might know this but I don't know if you do. You have to make sure Windows is the first OS partition because of the MBR. If it is already first, then try to reinstall Windows.
: :
:
: this is only the case if you are using the same HD and the NT/2k/XP line. If both OSes are on a seperate HD there shouldn't be a problem...and there is no problem if you're using any Win9x like Win95/98/ME. I've been told that the grub boot loader now works with 2k/XP but I haven't tried it first hand.

Yep, I meant if both partitions were on the same HD but I didn't specify that so thanks for clarifying.
Grub does work for XP. I installed XP over my 98 install with RH on the same disk. After the XP intstall, I was able to reconfigure grub.conf for the boot loader to ask which OS to boot to.
I haven't tried it with 2K but am hoping to find out soon but it should work fine with 2K since grub works with XP.

: : : : I just installed Mandrake Linux. When I reboot, a screen comes up letting me choose my OS. When I choose one of the Linuxes it's ok, but if I choose windows it says Starting Windows then a line of funky symbols then goes back to the choosing screen. Is there any way I can fix this? Please help
: : :
: : : You might know this but I don't know if you do. You have to make sure Windows is the first OS partition because of the MBR. If it is already first, then try to reinstall Windows.
: : :
: :
: : this is only the case if you are using the same HD and the NT/2k/XP line. If both OSes are on a seperate HD there shouldn't be a problem...and there is no problem if you're using any Win9x like Win95/98/ME. I've been told that the grub boot loader now works with 2k/XP but I haven't tried it first hand.
:
: Yep, I meant if both partitions were on the same HD but I didn't specify that so thanks for clarifying.
: Grub does work for XP. I installed XP over my 98 install with RH on the same disk. After the XP intstall, I was able to reconfigure grub.conf for the boot loader to ask which OS to boot to.
: I haven't tried it with 2K but am hoping to find out soon but it should work fine with 2K since grub works with XP.
:
I'm guessing you repartitioned in a nondestructive way, I believe mandrake can do that. However, I suspect you did not scandisk and defrag the windows drive before stealing some disk space from it, and now it's a bit upset, and the bootloader can't even find the windows kernel.

: : : this is only the case if you are using the same HD and the NT/2k/XP line. If both OSes are on a seperate HD there shouldn't be a problem...and there is no problem if you're using any Win9x like Win95/98/ME. I've been told that the grub boot loader now works with 2k/XP but I haven't tried it first hand.
: :
: : Yep, I meant if both partitions were on the same HD but I didn't specify that so thanks for clarifying.
: : Grub does work for XP. I installed XP over my 98 install with RH on the same disk. After the XP intstall, I was able to reconfigure grub.conf for the boot loader to ask which OS to boot to.
: : I haven't tried it with 2K but am hoping to find out soon but it should work fine with 2K since grub works with XP.
: :
: I'm guessing you repartitioned in a nondestructive way, I believe mandrake can do that. However, I suspect you did not scandisk and defrag the windows drive before stealing some disk space from it, and now it's a bit upset, and the bootloader can't even find the windows kernel.
:
I'm not sure if this reply is to me but I'll comment anyway:
When I first installed everything, I partitioned using fips(I think this is the name, it's close anyway) and created a Windows FAT32 and a Linux ext3.
Since this time, I reinstalled Windows changing from 98 to XP. The linux partition is still there but when XP booted, it would only boot to XP. The MBR was overwritten where grub was.
This is where I booted to linux using rescue disk bootup and reconfigured grub.conf.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

X

If you install Windows after installing Linux it overwrites the boot sector so then it will boot straight into windows. Damn M$.

I started from scratch with my Mandrake Linux installation. I formatted my drive, installed XP, then installed Mandrake letting installation to automatically partition my drive to the right sizes.

The best way is just to bite the bullet and start from a fresh drive. (backing it up of course)

That's my story. :)