On Tue, 2009-02-10 at 20:14 -0500, Chris Knadle wrote: > On Tuesday 10 February 2009, Allen Weiner wrote: > > My desktop PC is a Dell. It is multiboot. It has Windows ME, Fedora > > 9, and Ubuntu 8.10. It has two HDDs. HDA contains Windows ME. GRUB > > is installed in the MBR of HDA. HDB contains Fedora and Ubuntu. > > > > I recently obtained possession of a Dell Windows XP installation > > CD. I'm trying to use this CD to replace Windows ME on HDA with > > Windows XP. > > > > The Windows XP installation procedure ran for 5-10 minutes and then > > restarted the PC (multiple PC restarts are a standard part of XP > > installation). At the time of restart, the XP installer indicated > > that the install would complete in 50 minutes. When the PC > > restarted, it displayed my standard GRUB menu rather than > > continuing the XP install. What do I need to do to have the Windows > > XP install run to completion? > > I think all you need to do is make another GRUB entry to chainload to > where you installed Windows XP. If you replaced Windows ME with > Windows XP, then the same exact GRUB entry should be able to boot > Windows XP now. >
Thanks for your reply. The install process was only 10% completed when it restarted the PC. It had not yet overwritten GRUB in the MBR. The solution turned out to be to select "Windows ME" from the GRUB menu. Control returned to the XP installer at the point where it had left off. The install process continued for another 50 minutes. There were numerous PC restarts. But for all subsequent restarts, GRUB had been overwritten. After the XP install, I used Knoppix to reinstall GRUB. I then rebooted into XP. At least for this first reboot, XP didn't mess with GRUB. > > Side note: The XP installation CD is supposed to be bootable. It > > didn't boot for me. When I restarted the PC (in order to begin the > > XP install), my GRUB menu was displayed. (My BIOS is set to check > > CD ahead of HDD. Knoppix CD boots OK). I started the XP install > > from Windows ME. > > Even though the XP installation CD is supposed to be bootable, it > sounds like it isn't. > The CD has an autorun file. The install instructions gave the impression that the CD is bootable. The tech-writer was writing from a perspective that all PC's have Windows and nothing but Windows installed. > -- Chris > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Mar 4 - TBD - 6th Birthday Mar 7 - Web Hack-a-thon - SUNY Newpaltz Apr 1 - TBD
