sabbathpriest

Hi Danleff! From the depths of despair I report that: 1) I zero wrote the Slave Drive 2) I reinstalled FC4, configured to install GRUB to /dev/hda 3) Got an "error informing the kernnel about modifications to partition /dev/hdb2 - device or resource busy. This means Linux won't know about any changes you made to /dev/hdb2 until you reboot - so you shouldn't mount or use it in any way before rebooting" 4) Chose "cancel", then rebooted 5) Booted to XP first, then shut down the computer and then started it again and booted from the FC4 DVD 6) Installed FC4 completely (not the upgrade choice) again, same configuration (GRUB installed on /dev/hda) 7) No error messages this time.. but rebooted nicely... to XP! No signs of GRUB. 8) If I try to boot for the Primary Slave drive I get a "Disk read error occurred, press ctr-alt-del to restart" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhh!!!!!!! (sorry, I needed to let it out!)

Hi Danleff! In answer to your questions: 1) The BIOS now shows the two Hard Drives as Primary Master and Primary Slave, and it's booting from Primary Master. 2) I'm booting fine into XP 3) I have the CD version of MaxBlast 4) I have the full version of XP pro 5) When I get home tonight (7:00 PM EST/GMT -5) I'll try the "Zero Write" on the Primary Slave Hard Drive. Thanks thanks thanks!!! [Edited by sabbathpriest on 2005-09-07 11:25:09]

HI Danleff! here's the latest update: I sent Maxtor the followig letter, I'm awaiting reply: "I have installed a Maxtor 6Y1209 as a secondary drive. My primary is a Maxtor 6B1209. When I installed the 6Y1209 I did run MaxBlast, but I believe that I set the drive to boot/master drive by error (I intend to install Linux Fedora Core 4 as second OS on the 6Y1209, I have WinXP pro on the 6B1209) and now my system does no recognize the Unified Boot Loader because apparently it got installed on the Secondary Master Drive (6Y1209). I would run MaxBlast again to see if there is a way to revert the settings, but when I insert the disk the only option I get is to uninstall MaxBlast from my system. My questions are: 1. Can I safely uninstall MaxBlast and reinstall it later? 2. Can I set my Primary Master Drive (6B1209) as the Boot / Master drive from MaxBlast? If my Secondary Master (6Y1209) is set as Boot / Master, can I safely change this settings to my Primary Master (6B1209)?"

Thank you danleff for your help! In order: 1) Not a Gateway of Dell system, I built this one myself: Abit KV7-V Motherboard, AMD Sempron 3000+ CPU etc (see above) 2) I re-run'd the FC4 DVD and changed GRUB to boot from the primary drive. The first time I attempted this I did it as an update and at the very end of the installation I got a "No kernel was loaded, no changes were made to the boot settings", so then I completely reinstalled FC4 erasing all data from the drive in the process and making sure that GRUB was set to boot from the master drive (were WinXP resides). 3)After the full install was done I rebooted to this message: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer" blah blah if this message repeats check for viruses and remove any hard drives you've installed blah blah error [sTOP 0X0000007B (0XF894E640-0XC0000034-0X0000000-0X0000000)] 4) After reboot WinXP starts normally... no signs of GRUB or FC4. Danleff you tell me "The problem is that if grub was set up with the drives as secondary master and slave, grub and Fedora is pointing to these designations. The /etc/fstab file (tells grub where the root system is) will also be pointing to the secondary slave drive as the root of the system, which you do not want." Did I solve that problem by clearing the BIOS after re arranging the Hard Drives to Primary Master and Primary Slave and reinstalling FC4? Once again, very many thanks for yor bearing with me and for your help. It goes without saying that if I had a similar problem with WinXP I'd be lost in the desert of customer support with no hope of rescue.

Update: I've set the Hard Drives as Primary Master and Primary Slave now, and again set the BIOS to boot from the Slave Hard Drive first. That got me a "NTLDR IS MISSING" message. I tried to fix that by loading the safe mode in the BIOS, but that got me nowhere, after rebooting I would not get past the first screen and I could not get to BIOS. I cleared the BIOS and rebooted to windows XP, still no sign anywhere of my Fedora Core 4. I'm very confused now... Recap: 1) Installed slave Hard Drive for FC4 2) Installed FC4 successfully on Slave Hard Drive 3) Set Hard Drives as "Primary Master" and "Primary Slave" 4) Cleared BIOS and loaded default settings 5) On reboot I do not get the option to boot from FC4 or WinXP, the system boots directly to WinXP Thank you for you patience, and very many thanks in advance if you can help me!!

I did set up the drive with MaxBlast and successfully installed FC4. During the installation I chose FC4 to be the default at startup. Now when I start the system it boots directly to Windows XP. I tried going to Boot Menu and selected my second hard drive (where FC4 is installed) as the first boot device, but still no luck. I'm thinking that I have Both Hard Drives set as secondary (Seconday Master and Secondary Slave) because the cable was too short to reach the IDE 1 motherboard connection... is this the problem? Thank you for you patience with me, and very many thanks in advance if you can help me!!

Thank you! I'll try today, I have the MaxBlast CD.

Respectful Greetings Linux community: Sick of Microsoft I've decided to give Fedora Core 4 a try. I've purchased a "Red Hat Fedora and Enterprise Linux 4 Bible" by Chris Negus with the bootable DVD and CDs, I've installed a second Hard Drive on my computer and I've tried to install Fedora on it, but so far no success, because of something I'm doing wrong Fedora cannot see my second hard drive and it just prompts me to either partition my main drive (where Windows XP professional is installed) or erase all partitions (which if I'm not wrong will erase all the data on my hard drive...) My system Info: AMD Sempron 3000+ 2 Ghz 512 MB of RAM Abit KV7-V Motherboard Maxtor 120 GB 6B1209 Hard Drive (Windows XP is there, Master Drive) Maxtor 120 GB 6Y1209 Hard Drive (This one is the Slave drive, nothing is there)If you are wondering YES I've changed the jumper to make it the slave drive. I also have set the system to boot from DVD and I've run knoppix already... Thank you for reading this, and very many thanks in advance if you can help me!!