Dual booting Windows [solved]

[buar42]

I am moving away from Windows Server, but until I get Zentyal working, I need to be able to boot back into Windows when I'm not working on Zentyal.

I'm trying (with almost no success) to boot back into Windows.

I've learned that I need to edit my Grub configuration file, but when I looked online and found an example and modified it to my needs, I just get errors from grub-mkconfig, and it won't make the config file.

I have Windows on /dev/sda1 and Zentyal created an extended partition (/dev/sda2) containing the Zentyal partition (/dev/sda5) and a swap space (/dev/sda6)

Can someone tell me how to modify my /etc/default/grub so that it'll work?

Thanks.

[robb]

Wouldn't it be the easiest thing to just reinstall grub2?

[buar42]

I don't know, would it? 

Like I said, I'm a newbie moving from Windows.

I'm not sure if reinstalling would help, since it didn't detect Windows the first time.

How do I reinstall Grub2?

Thanks.

[ap1821]

Try grub-mkconfig to and post the output. Distros like mint have os-prober script which finds all other os'es when you do grub-mkconfig. If it does find Windows, then grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg and reboot.

[buar42]

Thanks. I'll try that tonight when I'm back with the server.

[buar42]

Hi there.

Possibly relevant to this discussion is that my Windows server is quite old, specifically, Windows 2000 Small Business Server.

I ran grub-mkconfig and this is the output:

error: cannot seek `/dev/sdd'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sde'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sdd'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sde'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sdd'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sde'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sdd'.
error: cannot seek `/dev/sde'.
/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: 39: /etc/default/grub: hd0,0: not found

The last line is because I added this to the end of my /etc/default/grub file, following instructions I found after a Google search yesterday:

title=Windows
(hd0,0)
rootnoverify (hd0)
chainloader +1

I have 5 disks in the computer: the mail boot disk, SDA; partitioned as SDA1: Windows, SDA5: Zentyal; two 500GB SATA disks, SDB and SDC; and two 750GB SATA disks, SDD and SDE. I have used Windows Dynamic Disks to link each 500GB disk with a 750GB disk to make a spanned volume with 1.25TB. I assume that's why it says "cannot seek."

Edit: Gparted tells me that the 750GB disks, SDD and SDE, are formatted as NTFS, but corrupt (because there's a large part missing!) and that the 500GB disks, SDB and SDC, are formatted as 'Unknown'

Thanks,

[buar42]

Update: I ran update-grub which found Windows 2000 and now I can dual boot. Mark thread solved!