New FC3 Install for Dual Boot w/ WinXP Fails After BIOS

[Steven Erat]

The symptoms for this problem FC3 were different from the symptoms with
the FC2 Dual Boot issue.  In FC2 I got the grub menu, but got Disk Read
Error when booting Windows.  In FC3 I was endlessly rebooting after the
BIOS screen.

However, it turns out that the solution for FC2 worked with my FC3
install.  On a whim, I reinstalled FC3 choosing exactly the same install
options, but this time I started the install by specifying the hard disk
geometry garnered from the fdisk -l /dev/hda output:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

At the boot prompt for FC3 installation, I just entered "linux
/dev/hda=4864,255,63" and once the installation completed I was able to
boot both Windows XP and FC3 successfully.

This problem was reported to be fixed in FC3, but it is very apparent to
me that it is not.

Thanks to everyone who offered assistance.

Steve



--- Steven Erat <stevenerat at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> > Hmm...  One other option comes to mind.  When you did your install, it
> > probably created a lilo configuration file in /etc/lilo.conf.anaconda
> > which you could use to install LILO.  Maybe you'll have more luck with
> > that... (IOW replace grub completely)
> 
> Got it.  I'll reply tomorrow.  Thanks.