Dual boot windows 2000 Linux Redhat 8

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
good utility that makes dual booting windows 2000 and linux and multibooting in general much easier :D
make sure u read the documentation.. completely

not sure if it will help u since i dont completely understand what u want

Thanks for the information though I don't have fat16 primary partition as needed by winimage. Maybe I should try only one part of my first question:

How can I hide the Linux partitionS from Windows? Whenever I make any change to the grub.conf file I loose the ability to choose an operating system and am presented at the grub command line.

windows is on (hd0,0)
linux is on (hd1,7)

thanks again!

Windows Explorer cannot see Linux ext3 partitions, or anything other than NTFS/FAT/FAT32 partitions, unless you have special utilities loaded.  So I don't think Linux is what's crashing Explorer, I think rather that you have both a problem with your Win2K AND a boot problem.

I won't try to fix the Windows problem here, but I can tell you the simplest, quickest way to solve your boot problem is to install PowerQuest BootMagic.  Totally proprietary, true, but OTOH I've never known it to fail.  Version 8.0 is 50 bucks on Amazon.

BTW, no, I don't work for them. :)

If you want to try fixing this without buying more software, then please print out your partition table:

fdisk -l /dev/hda
fdisk -l /dev/hdb

...and post it up here.  We might be able to fix it simply by re-installing Red Hat in a better configuration for your disks and partitions.

Hello,

Here's my current setup:

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2495 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1      1275  10241406    c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2          1276      2495   9799650    f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5          1276      2495   9799618+   b  Win95 FAT32
[root@cool sbin]# ./fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 7294 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1             2      7294  58581022+   f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5             2      2551  20482843+   b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb6          2552      5101  20482843+   b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb7          5102      5786   5502231   83  Linux
/dev/hdb8   *      5787      5799    104391   93  Amoeba
/dev/hdb9          5800      5866    538146   82  Linux swap
/dev/hdb10         5867      7294  11470378+   b  Win95 FAT32

Need anything else? I'd like to try and fix this without a big purchase first. Everything's backed up btw.

thanks!

Amoeba, eh!  You've been busy, haven't you! :)

Here's an easy approach.  If this is a fresh install of Linux, and there's nothing much important on there yet, I suggest you go back and re-install from the boot CD.  
Use Disk Druid during installation to delete hdb7 (Linux /)and hdb8 (Amoeba), and create a new hdb7 (Linux /) running from 5102 to 5799.
Let GRUB install to the MBR on hda, set GRUB to allow Windows on hda as the default boot (I assume here that hda is your usual working boot).

If you decide later not to use Linux on this machine, you can always remove GRUB easily by booting to Windows, and typing at the command line:

fdisk /mbr

And please post back to let me know what happened next.

HTH,
--
JF

Hello jdfox!

Thanks for the input. I did exactly as you suggested but unfortunately I'm right back where I was before:
-Linux boots up fine
-Choosing Windows gives me Error 25 Disk read error. I get by this by temporarily changing GRUB's boot option 'rootnoverify' to 'root', but changing grub.conf won't allow me to boot into linux!

SO.... I just rewrote window's MBR, but that doesn't solve the problem (recap: takes forever to login, windows has problem seeing my drives, scandisk runs everytime I boot examining my M: drive where linux is)

I'm thinking maybe if could hide Linux's drives from Windows it would be happy- what do you think? I love a challenge but this has really got me stumped!

i dont know about you but it sounds more like a partition corruption or something in need of a scandisk
note im only saying it sounds like it ;)

ive dual booted windows and linux with no problems
course i used win2k boot loader and ntfs as the boot drive.. i made a copy of the boot sector of the linux partition (lilo)
for the win2k bootloader to load linux :D
was pretty fast with no problem.. dont see why that would be causing the problem

hm are u using fat32 to run windows 2000?
and why do u have so many fat32 partitions?

a url on how to multiboot with grub
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html

Hello sh0e,
My #2 drive is a week old and I just ran spinrite5 so I'm pretty sure my disks are OK, so I just formatted Linux out of existance and am going to try again (windows runs fine now -confirms my suspicion of a need to hide the linux partitions I think). The reason I had fat32 partitions was I just did a clean install of win2000 & I didn't know where to install Linux-I thought I read somewhere you can't convert NTFS to other partition types? But so many partitions? well just makes it easier with so many files to catalog :)

Does the method you used hide the Linux partitions? oh  -you just posted again while I'm writing this I'm going to try that when I get home tomorrow, thank you for the tips!

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html
better howto :D

note the second howto depends on the nt boot loader.. so its very close to the way i did it
the nt boot loader must still be on the mbr for this howto to work

in all the places ive looked online

title Windows 2000
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

is consistent with all the dual boot setups..
and none of them seem to have trouble as long
as windows2000 is on the first partition which urs appears to be

nobody has any mention of the need to hide anything if win2k is on the primary partition..
which supports that hiding partitions is needed only during bootup
so in my opinion the problem does not lie in grub or clash between ext2 parts and win2k

Very strange.  May I ask: is it an IBM disk?  There is a known bug with lilo and some recent IBM disks.

Pardon, I meant grub, not lilo.

I have had the exact same problem in the past (Win2k and Red Hat 7.2). I'm afraid I can't offer a full solution, but here is some. You can hide the linux partitions in Windows disk manager (if I recall correctly). I'm not at a windows machine now, but I think it is somewhere under administrative tools. This resolved the sluggishness of windows and taking ages to see the drives, but not the running of scandisk at startup.
I have heard of some other people having the same problem, but not many. The problem appears to be specific to win2k, but many people experience no problems. (Which probably is why I never found a solution, the problem occurs infrequently).

I ended up 'solving' the problem by removing Red Hat and moving to Mandrake.  I have never taken the matter any further, as Windows had no problems with Mandrake, so I still don't know exactly what caused the problem or why my moving to Mandrake solved it. However, if this is a fresh install, you might what to consider giving Mandrake a shot. Being a newbie myself, I found it a lot easier to use (and set up). BTW, I've got nothing against Red Hat, except that, in my case, it made running windows impossible.

Cheers,

Daniel

ahh it is a redhat specific problem?
i always considered redhat bloatware.. this confirms what i thot :p

I know of one person besides me and IPfreely that had the same problem. That other person also had RedHat and win2k

thats really strange.. what would cause this? perhaps redhat has corrupted grub?
or does the grub settings incorrectly?
i dont see how other than directly modifying settings in win2k
or messing up partitions.. or messing up the boot loader or its settings could this problem arise

I know of one person besides me and IPfreely that had the same problem. That other person also had RedHat and win2k

Oops, sorry for that double post. I did run into some problems installing redhat. Diskdruid would not do the automatic install, so I had to try the manual install. I have played around with the location of the different partitions, but did not manage to solve it. And, as it is not a very well documented problem, I was quite happy when it went away under Mandrake. Being a newbie, I also didn't quite feel up to researching it any further, as nobody seemed to be able to suggest a solution.

The strange thing though is that Redhat ran fine, it is just the fact that the partitions show up in windows (which they shouldn't) really messed up windows.

Hello guys
I'm *so* glad to hear someone else has had this problem danielf. It wouldn't do the auto install for me either. I'm going to attempt the suggestions in order as posted because I really want to figure this out and anyway I have no gf right now :P What motherboard did you have and SP were you running if you remember? Trying to rule more stuff out.

idfox - Both drives are WD's so thankfully that's one less problem to worry about :)

sh0e - I tried that exact combo of GRUB commands but to avail, so I'm really not sure what's happening, but excellent link!

I also ran integrity checks on the installation CD's to rule that out. Plan: going to re-re-install RedHat, try hiding drives, then going to try using NTbootloader over GRUB, wiping out 2nd HD and having only RedHat on it,then try Mandrake, and if NOTHING works, well I'm breaking out the C64 and crackin a beer ;)  Well here goes again...

That failing auto install sounds dodgy.

I think my motherboard is MSI (Microstar International) K7 Pro (MS 6195). I'm not 100% sure, but it's one of the 61 series anyway. It's one of the early Athlon boards.

I was running SP1, but moved to SP3 (no change there). You're a brave man to go ahead and try to figure this out. Let me know the results. I'm as interested as you are. Well, maybe slightly less, as I've already gotten rid of Redhat.

Alright, I'm starting to seriously dislike linux....
I've installed RedHat 7 times and and even tried Mandrake 5x's (won't do past video configuration). There must be something with my particular setup. If anyone from the Linux community reads this thread in the future and knows what the fark is going on please let me know. Here's my complete setup:

SuperMicro P6DGU Award BIOS
Dual PIII 550s, 512ram
WD20G, WD60G
Windows 2000
m1) ATI Radeon AIW 7500 m2)ATI Radeon 7500
SoundBlaster Audigy Ext
1 frustrated user

thanks for all your input guys :)

Hmm, that is odd. All I can say is that Mandrake 5x might be a bit old. I think they are up to version 9 now. Is your video card supported under Mandrake 5? I've got Mandrake 8 on my system, and installation was a breeze. But, by the looks of it, my system is quite a bit older than yours (I'm still on an Athlon 600). If you're still up for it, you could try a newer version of Mandrake, but otherwise, I wouldn't know.

Cheers,

Daniel

I SOLVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
solution: ditch grub and use LILO. Installed Redhat (for the 10, 11th? time) and put LILO on the primary boot partition of the first disk. Redhat was installed on the second HD.

Oh sorry danielf i meant mandrake 5 'times'

This is a very nice community! - thanks

GOOD MAN!!!!!!!!

I had been wondering if the problem was related to
GRUB, as I had no problems with Mandrake which uses LILO. It still begs the question if the problem is with redhat's GRUB, or whether it is a general GRUB problem that occurs with some versions of Win2k. Like I said earlier, I've only heard of the problem occurring with Redhat, but apparently there are loads of people who don't have any problems. Anyway, I'm amazed at your persistence, and really glad you managed to pull it off. Congratulations. I hope you like Linux. You certainly deserve it.

Cheers,

Daniel

Hi!

Onca I had the same problem :
 - w2k complained about some error on a partition that was from linux
 - slow boot
 - event viewer revealed that some"disk manager" service failed to start , so Disk Management did not work

This happened after I created a new partition under linux.
"Fixed" it by deleting the new partition.

I used the native windowsNT/2000 loader to boot w2k and linux ( by jumping to a LILO boot block ).

This is a windows bug, as far as I am concerned.

A note about hiding partitions : I used a mix of windows NT4.0, win98, win2000pro and linux for years and I never used any partition hiding. I recommend the same for everyone else, unless they are :
 - an expert
 - 110% sure that hiding is necessary

After all, the partition has type 0x83 and contains a FS not known to windows, so it has no business reading and "fixing" it.

Did you contact MS about this problem ?

stein

Hi, I have tried to install RedHat8.0 last week and meet something similar.
40G Harddisk
a) win98 15G fat32
b)win2000pro(SP3) 12G fat32
c)free 12G
I installed linux on the free 12G, automatical partition, Grub bootloader. Everything OK for Linux(one SWAP + some ext3), programs, printers, speed, etc.
Now, when I go back to windows, win98 is OK, normal as before since it doesn't recognize any linux partition. Win2000 takes about 10 minutes to load, and it treates all the linux partitions as health but unknown partitions. Some programs run OK (for example, some administrator tools), but whenever I need to open a file or save a file, the programs (like word, photoshop, etc) will die.
Then I totally removed linux and win2000 is normal again.
So I think the problem is win2000 tries to recognize the linux partitions, which it should not, and cause the system to become unstable.
I will try LILO first as IPfreely has got it to work. Let you know the results when I got it done.

Hi, I have tried with LILO, still takes a long time to boot win2000, which means it still tries recognize the partitions of linux. After boot in, in disk manager, it still shows the 6 partitions of linux (I use auto-partition again) as health but unknown-filesystem partitions. But all the programs are fine now.
So, the question is, is there a way to get win2000 boot up at its usual speed? I mean, 1 min, not the now-at-least-four-minutes.
Thanks.

Windows 2000 + Linux Dual Boot Solution

The reason why Windows 2000 only sometimes slows down when there are linux partitions around is because Windows 2000 (and possibly XP also) insist that each physical drive has at least one active partition. If you install on just one hard drive you will be okay since that clearly must have a Windows partition on it. If you use more than one disk however, and one or more of those disks contains linux partitions, but no Windows partition, then you will experience this problem.

Since nobody seems to know how to hide the partition, the workaround I have used is to put a small Windows partition onto each physical drive. It need only be 8mb, and provided that it is the active drive, as configured in the Computer Management control panel, you will be fine.

You can use either the NT Boot loader or Linux's Grub or LILO boot loaders, and it makes no difference, but, from what I can make out from reading stuff on the web, the following rules should be observed:

1. Install Windows first if you are using Grub or LILO, and Linux first
   if you are using NTLM as the boot manager.
2. Install Windows as the first parition on the first disk (either FAT,
   FAT32 or NTFS)
3. Install Linux where you like, but the boot partition must go on the
   first disk, and if you are using LILO then it must also start at
   before the 8MB mark on the disk (does not apply to Grub).
4. There must be at least one Windows partition on each physical disk,
   and if it is not done automatically, it must be marked as the active
   partition in the Computer Management control panel (wait a few minutes
   after selecting 'Disk Management' and it will display the panel.

As far as I know that's it. Have fun.

In Windows there exists the ability to create a registry key to hide any and all Drives (Physical and Logical).  This helps keep you out of any MBR or other Disk issues.

In a nutshell in in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer hive add a new REG_DWORD key named 'NoDrives'.  In the value data section you will need to enter a Decimal Value corresponding to the drive(s) you want to hide.  To hide multiple drives add the values for those drives together.  After you exit Regedit and reboot your machine the drives will not be visible in Explorer.

Decimal Value to Drive Letter Table:

A  1
B  2
C  4
D  8
E  16
F  32
G  64  (x2 going forward in additive fashion)

For example on my Dell Laptop, I have Win2K in the first Physical Partition (C) and Red Hat 8 in the second with 3 logical drives D,E and F.  I wanted to hide the Red Hat Drives so my NoDrive Value is '56' =  D:8 + E:16 + F:32.

For more details visit:  http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/148

As with any registry editing serious complications can arise, please back up your registry prior to making any changes and just in case be prepared to reinstall your OS (if the worst happens).

To dominicc,

While I don't doubt what you are aying is true, I don't think it is the complete answer. I am going from memory here, (I'm afraid Linux has disappeared completely from my system), but I'm pretty confident that my setup was Linux and Win2k on one disk, and a second disk with a backup copy of Win2k. The problem still occurred. Also, it went away when I changed from RedHat to Mandrake (or from GRUB to LILO), as it did for Ipfreely. No change from two disks to one there. Jaleen also appears to have only one disk. So, I think some specifics of the LINUX distro enter the equation as well. But then again, Jaleen had no luck with LILO either, though it solved the problem for Ipfreely.

I also have problems running Win2K and Redhat 8 on the same harddrive. I think it's not a Redhat 8 problem, and not a boot loader problem, it's just between Win2k and ext3.
This would explain why some people don't have any problems. ext3 comes with Redhat 7.2, 7.3 and 8. Maybe they have earlier Redhat, or they didn't use ext3.

An excellent thread!

I have a 40GB drive partitioned as follows.

Win98
W2k
WinXP
Red Hat 8.0 with GRUB!

Win 2k is running very slow and Explorer is locking up.
This post is to let them know I too have the same problems and will try LILO and report back on this thread.

Cheers
Steve.

Found the problem with mine! as provided by Danielf.

In the Computer Management snap in,

Disk Management node

select the Linux partition that Windows 2000 has allocated a drive letter by right clicking

choose change drive letter and select to remove the drive letter.

Note*-* the snap-in laboured a long time trying to analyse the drive and to change the letter but if you wait it will respond.

All immediatley better.

Steve.

Yes thankyou for pointing that out danielf. I was reading another thread where I happened to notice that the people with problems seemed to all have two drive systems, but I couldn't post there because of membership probs' so I posted here instead since I wanted to share my fix too.

Interesting though! I would love to know what the full story is here because at the moment it is all a bit hit and miss. That ext3 suggestion sounds interesting. I would love to try it out but since my machine is finally working there is no way I shall be experimenting any more.

Thanks everyone!

Dominincc,

Yes, I agree completely. It would be very nice if we could figure out the full story. With all due respect, Sharries, I consider hiding the partititions a fix, rather than a solution (or an understanding of the cause). Hiding partitions shouldn't be necessary. While this thing doesn't affect me anymore (I've ditched Linux), I can vividly remember the frustration when it did affect me, about a year ago (RedHat 7.2), and I was unable to find -any- reference to it. I posted on linuxnewbies back then, and people were very surprised at the problem. I got the tip on hiding partitions from someone on computing.net after one person posted about this problem (RedHat again). I was quite happy to see this thread come up, and am happy now to see it come to life again.

I'm curious about the ext3 thing as well, but, rereading the thread, it is always people with RedHat that are experiencing the problem isn't it? I am not very knowledgeable about Linux, but ext3 isn't specific to RedHat is it?

Dominicc, could you please post the url for that other thread? It may well be relevant to the discussion here. I'm definitely interested.

Daniel

By the way, my Linux partititions were ext3. Also, anyone experiencing problems, did Diskdruid run ok, or did you resort to manual partitioning?

Daniel

I have Red Hat Linux 8.0 running happily along with Windows 2000 Professional. The problem I encounter was that Win2k would try to recognize the secondary hard drive that I have Red Hat installed on, so I went into the Device Manager Control Panel in Windows and disabled the secondary hard drive. Now both OSes boot and run just fine.

I have Red Hat Linux 8.0 running happily along with Windows 2000 Professional. The problem I encountered was that Win2k would try to recognize the secondary hard drive that I have Red Hat installed on, so I went into the Device Manager Control Panel in Windows and disabled the secondary hard drive. Now both OSes boot and run just fine.

By the way, my Linux partititions were ext3. Also, anyone experiencing problems, did Diskdruid run ok, or did you resort to manual partitioning?

Daniel

By the way, my Linux partititions were ext3. Also, anyone experiencing problems, did Diskdruid run ok, or did you resort to manual partitioning?

Daniel

By the way, my Linux partititions were ext3. Also, anyone experiencing problems, did Diskdruid run ok, or did you resort to manual partitioning?

Daniel

A fix it is!  I too would like to know why exactly this is happening.  Has Red Hat been approached on their support service?

Mine is ext3 and disk Druid worked fine for me.  I am pretty sure I tried ext2 some weeks back to no avail.

This may not be related, however I tried ghosting the image to another computer and the process failed and completely trashed the hard drive!  Not sure if it wasn't just a drive failure.

Four times? I did post that after coming back from the pub, but I did not post it four times!

I sent the following to one of redhat's support addresses. Let's see if someone replies.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I'm not quite sure whether this is the appropriate address to send this to, but it seemed the most appropriate one to me.

Some people have been experiencing problems with dual booting RedHat and Windows 2000. The problem is that for some reason, Windows will recognize the Linux partitions, and will choke on them. Windows will take very long to boot, and runs extremely slowly (in practice, it is unusable). As a workaround, it appears to help to hide the linux partitions in Windows, but that is a workaround.

From what I've seen of the problem, it appears to be specific to the combination of RedHat (7.2 through 8) and win2k, as all people reporting the problem were running RedHat and win2k. I have not heard of anyone encountering this problem with other distributions of Linux. Several people are quite puzzled by this problem, but we have been unable to pinpoint the source of the problem.

It is discussed in the following forum (further details/ diagnostics can be found there). We would be very pleased if someone could look into this.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20412213/Dual-boot-windows-2000-Linux-Redhat-8.html

Kind Regards,

(name withheld)

had a few before posting 'eh danielf? ;) i was really hoping this post was going to help some people and it looks like folks have started to find it! sending the problem directly to redhat is a good idea though i'm not sure anyone's listening there. i sent them a letter as well but received no reply -let's hope someone's paying attention :)
btw my w2k/linux setup is still running very smoothly

I was succesful with DiskDruid after creating the extra FAT partition, but tried a pure fdisk solution with no luck before that.

I also had no problems when using just a single drive regardless of whether I used DiskDruid or fdisk.  I have read that DiskDruid only causes problems with certain drive geometries, so perhaps I was lucky in that respect.

ryasko,
you mentioned disabling your second drive from the control panel. How do you do that? Or did you use novodar's registry hack?

danielf,
the thread where they mention the second drive problem is here <http://www.netalive.org/topics/5713>. Particularly go to the second page of posts.

Also, there is a guy who reports experiencing this problem with Mandrake 9.0, so it is not just a Red Hat thing. It may be ext3 related since I understand that most distributions are still using ext2, by default at least. If sharries could remember if he definately tried ext2 to 'no avail', then we could rule that out.

dominiccc:

I went to Control Panels->System->Hardware->Device Manager
and then right-clicked to get properties on the secondary HD and disabled it.

Ipfreely: Good to see you back. Yes, it looks like people are starting to find your thread, and some people are helped by it (Could it be more people are being affected?). I'm not too optimistic about receiving a reply from redhat, but you never know.

Dominicc: That forum you link to is one ugly forum. It's not very easy to read is it?

Anyway, it does look like this problem has occurred with Mandrake as well, so that's my 'theory' out the window. Also, you say you had no problems using a single drive, but did with two. Do you mean that you had two OSes living happily on one drive, got a second drive, migrated Linux to that, and then had windows slow down? That is really weird. It also doesn't quite help diagnostics. Not for me anyway...


Sharries: Like Dominicc said, how certain are you thay you tried ext2?

I am certain.  It was one of the first things I thought of at the time as I had used ext2 with RH7.x before and had not experienced this problem so it seemed the most likely cause.

Great thread, guys-
So, I'm givin' back to the comunity by documenting what worked (and DIDN'T work) for me:

My Setup:
Two drives -
  Drive 0 = 80 Gig Western Digital
  Drive 1 = 20 Gig IBM

Partions (now that it's working):
Windows:
  W2K on 45 Gig Primary partion on Drive 0 - NTFS, C:
  Shared on 28 Gig Extended Partition on Drive 0 - FAT 32, D:
Linux:
  / on 5 Gig Primary on Drive 1 - EXT3
  Swap on 256 M Primary on Drive 1 - Linux Swap
  /home on 14 Gig Primary on Drive 1 - EXT3

I had this same "slow booting" problem on my previous W2K/MDK install, so I wanted to fix it up right this time around. I found that by using W2K's Disk Manager to create the 3 Linux partitions as _PRIMARY_ partitions - not just the first one as Mandrake's DiskDrake does during the installation - W2K would be fat & happy w/Linux installed. Not slow to boot, not slow to pull up the Disk Management applet in Computer Mgmt. W2K apparently doesn't like having non-Windows partitions in an Extended partition.

I created each of the primary partitions in Disk Manager without assigning a drive letter, or formatting them. There was a repeatable hitch after creating the third one - Disk Manager seemed to hang, and I had to go back it to it and remove the drive letter that was automatically assigned. Following that, reboot w/MDK Linux 9.0 CD 1 in the CD drive and install Linux, using these previously created partitions by setting their Type to EXT3 and specifying the Mount Point.

Before getting it to work this way, I also tried using EXT2 instead of EXT3, having DiskDrake create the partitions. That didn't do it.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi,
    I met this problem too. From a linux forum I got these intructions on how to fix it.

    The purpose is to make Windows 2000 recognize ext2/3 file system, we are using the drivers from ext2fsnt(closed source?)

1. copy ext2.sys %systemroot%\system32\drivers\
2. import the registry file below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ext2]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Type"=dword:00000002
"Start"=dword:00000001
"Group"="File system"

3. Reboot, should be OK now.

The author has packaged all files and you can download from
http://www.linuxfans.org/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=download&id=3076
, just install_ext2.bat and reboot.

Links:
1. Original Post(Chinese, may need sign up): http://www.linuxfans.org/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=14554&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
2. there are open sourced ext2 drivers for Win2K, such as:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winext2fsd
not tested yet.

Carton_he,

This looks positive, although I could not get around on that Web site at all in chinese!

I did a search and found this site which offers a beta installable driver for Windows 2000 for ext2 & ext3.  Going to try it today hopefully and let you know.

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm

Hi guys,

The same with SuSE 8.1 Pro & Windows 2000 Pro (SP3).

   - Slow start.
   - Event system errors and warnings on every boot:
        - WinMgnt ID 61
        - EventSystem ID 4106
        - Service Control ID 7022

I tried to disable Perfdsk activity (using a resource kit tool) and decrease the timeouts (scratching the registry) without any change.

IPfreely started this thread 3 months ago, reports are sent to the big guys and I can't find (here or in other forums) an effective and clean solution.
 
Is it possible that SuSE and RedHat have forgotten us?

Some body has more info to share?

By the way, the ext2/3 driver solution didn't work to me. The installer isn't able to find linux ext3 partitions, althoug I force the Disk administrator to asign a letter to them.

Worried regards.

I downloaded the drivers from the site I posted http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm
and now explorer, Disk Manager, Defrag etc are all working sharp.

I still have no drive letters assigned to the Linux (RH 8.0) partitions, although the disk manager snap-in would happily oblige.

The only problem I seem to have now is on boot I get a drive inconsistency warning from W2k - It gives me no option to check and then continues to boot.

Is this as good as it gets?

Have you tried all the solutions that have been posted here -- there are a number of solutions that have worked for different people, but nobody has a definitive understanding of the issue yet.

To recap:

1. If you have two hard drives then disable the Linux drive completely (see ryasko), or make sure it has a Windows partition and make that the active partition (see dominicc).

2. Use Lilo instead of Grub (see IPFreely)

3. Explicitly hide the Linux partitions from Windows using a registry mod. (see novodar).

4. Try fdisk instead of DiskDruid (unconfirmed??? -- apparently works for some disk geometries)

5. Use NTLM as the boot manager instead of Linux (search google)

6. Install ext2/3 drivers on WIndows (see carton_he)


Hope that is of some help.

IPfreely,

Thanks for creating this thread.  I experienced the same problem as you only I'm using a single drive attempting to install RH 8.0 and Win2k Server.

Grub boots RH 8.0 fine, but when attempting to boot Win2k Server I get the "rootnoverify chainloader +1" issue.

After about a week of trying to install and installing RH 12 times or so.. its 4am so I'm going to try to trash grub and try LILO.

I'll post another day

IPfreely,

Thanks for creating this thread.  I experienced the same problem as you only I'm using a single drive attempting to install RH 8.0 and Win2k Server.

Grub boots RH 8.0 fine, but when attempting to boot Win2k Server I get the "rootnoverify chainloader +1" issue.

After about a week of trying to install and installing RH 12 times or so.. its 4am so I'm going to try to trash grub and try LILO.

I'll post another day

IPfreely,

Thanks for creating this thread.  I experienced the same problem as you only I'm using a single drive attempting to install RH 8.0 and Win2k Server.

Grub boots RH 8.0 fine, but when attempting to boot Win2k Server I get the "rootnoverify chainloader +1" issue.

After about a week of trying to install and installing RH 12 times or so.. its 4am so I'm going to try to trash grub and try LILO.

I'll post another day

Okay.. This sucks

I can get this thing to work.  I'm attempting to install RH 8 with Win2k Pro..

Several errors have occured which include the "root noverify" and the "ntldr" issues.

Can anyone point me to the correct location and/or steps to correctly Install a dual boot single drive (20gb) of Win2k Pro and RH 8.0

xcaliber26 :

1. wipe the disk ( in linux : dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=100 ; replace "/dev/hda" with your disk, if it is something else.)
2. install windows 2000 pro
3. install RH8 or RHL9, now that it is out.
   just use the offered default settings for grub

This worked for me many times.

Well, just to add a bit more confusion to the initial thread, I have been trying to use a Debian-based distro (called LinEx, architected around a Debian Woody release).

I have now given up, because (GUESS):

My Win2000 freezes, takes almost 5 minutes to start, and then crashes continuously.

This happens ONLY with this Debian distro. setup.

I've also used the following, with no problems affecting Win2000:

SuSE 8.1 Pro
Lycoris Desktop Amethyst (Build 46)
Mandrake 9.0

Anyone would have a "definite" answer for this quite absurd problem?

Many thanks,

Arthur

I hate you Arthur, ;-D

You are so lucky... My SuSE 8.1 Pro didn't work sharp with my Windows 2000 Pro. I tested some of the solutions without success.

I will try with LILO when I have time.

Regards.

Do hate me, please!

I just hope that a DEFINITE answer is given for good!

Just a stupid thought:

Why do different people, using the same method and the same distro get different results?,

and

why do different people, using the same method, with different distros, get the same results?


I know I'll take the heat for this, but why do the above situations happen so much with Linux?.

And please don't tell me that it is due to users not knowing what they are doing...

I just wish I had no idea what I am doing, so I could blame myself.

Here is more information to work with.  Mine is not a dual boot system, so lilo and grub issues can be ruled out.

I'm using vmware: the host is a Win2000 machine, and the guest is RH8.

I used to have one 80 gb harddrive, formatted entirely in NTFS.  With vmware, the virtual linux machine creates a virtual EXT3 drive, which appears to the Windows machine simply as several of files (ie. the EXT3 drive is stored within the files).  Everything works fine with this setup.  

Then I decided to add another harddrive (via a portable ide rack) that I wanted to port between a native linux machine and the virtual linux machine described above.  I formatted this new drive in EXT2 using the native linux machine (also RH8).

The drive works fine on the native linux machine.

When I insert the drive into the native Win2000 machine and try booting up, the same problems described by others occur: slow bootup, Windows offering to check for errors, slow window manager, and generally a painful slowdown all around.  However, the virtual linux machine can read this portable drive without problems when I mount it in the virtual linux machine.

When I REMOVE the portable drive, Win2000 boots up without a hitch and works at "full" speed.

This suggests the issue is with Win2000 having problems dealing with a linux drive (in this case EXT2, with no windows partition on it).  I have data on the EXT2 drive now, but when I get a chance, I'll try reformatting it, and putting a small windows partition on it as suggested by dominicc).

hey guys,

i'm going to try and update to redhat 9 soon (i've been hearing rave reviews about it) and though LILO worked for me who knows what will happen this time. i happened across an interesting alternative solution for our mysterious win2000/linux incompatability:
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/howto/story/0,24330,3425846,00.html
this might be a much less frustrating solution for some of the less stubborn users. have fun :)

Yes, I guess that solution would work. Another option would be to go into the bios and change the bootup disk when required. Sounds easier to me...

IPfreely:
This old question needs to be finalized -- accept an answer, split points, or get a refund.  For information on your options, please click here-> http:/help/closing.jsp#1 
EXPERTS:
Post your closing recommendations!  No comment means you don't care.

Move the thread to Win2000 category, as it is a windows problem, not linux :

"...Windows Explorer totally freezes..."

At least it will get some new audience.

Hi,
  I'm running Win 2k with SP4 (plus latest updates) + Redhat 9 and have been suffering this problem (long boot times + long time to start the disk manager) over multiple reinstallations.
I've finally solved the problem though! Initially I had a 100Mb linux ext3 boot partition (primary), a 20Gb NTFS partition (primary), a 256Mb Linux swap (primary) and the rest in a ext3 linux partition (extended). For boot selection I was using Grub.

I used the Win2k disk manager to completely remove the swap and ext3 (extended) partitions, leaving the boot partition. I then used the disk manager to create 2 new primary partitions of the same size: neither were formated or assigned a drive letter though.

I then reinstalled Redhat, telling disk druid to format the existing boot, swap and ext3 partitions. I also switched to lilo.

Win 2k now boots normally and disk manager starts quickly!

Hopefully this info will help other users out there.

closing comments - ok guys i've been told to close this and in retrospect i'm probably going to *suspect* it was my motherboard all along because of other bizarre issues i'd run into like not being able to fdisk,  couldn't install OS's right from the cd rom, had to search for new hardware everytime i started the machine to use the CD rom, other commands it simply wouldn't obey from the command line, etc....  but anyway thanks everyone for their help and i hope this has guided some frustrated people to a solution!

-IPfreely (my NEW machine works great!)

Hey, I found the problem!

First a solution:  Zero out the first block of a partition before creating an ext2 or ext3 filesystem in it, at least if there might have been a Windows filesystem starting at that location on the disk.

The problem:  

Windows sucks.  No wait, we knew that.  How Windows sucks this time:

Basically, Windows 2000 does _not_ ignore the contents of partitions that it should ignore (partitions with non-Windows partition type codes (defining that per fdisk's partition type strings))

Apparently, Windows looks for Windows file systems even in partitions that don't have Windows partition type codes.   (It definitely did not ignore the contents of a partition with type code 83 hex.)

If the partition's contents look enough like a Windows file system but aren't a valid Windows file system, Windows ends of slowing down some partition-level operations horribly.

mke2fs does not overwrite the first 256 bytes of the partition.  If you create a FAT (FAT32?) file system in a partition,
change the partition type to 83 hex (or delete the partition and create a type-83 partition starting at the same block), and create an ext2 or ext3 file system, the first 256 bytes of the FAT/FAT32 file system will remain intact.  Apparently that is what Windows recognizes.  (Zeroing out the first block of the partition fixed the Windows slowness for me.)

What made this tricky to diagnose is that when Windows was reacting slowly (e.g., populating My Computer or opening the Disk Manager pane), there was no high CPU usage or high disk usage.  I'm guessing the long time delays were timeouts between Windows services or processes.

Agh!  Why has Bill Gates gotten away with only a pie in the face?  And what about his thousands of co-conspirators (in the creation of bad software)?

Great work Dan76 !

You deserve all the points and more !

Is there a way to transfer point to you without opening a dummy thread ?

> You deserve all the points and more !

> Is there a way to transfer point to you without opening a dummy thread ?

Points?  What points?  I assume the points you refer to are a good thing?

(I'm not familar with Experts Exchange.  I just found this topic via a Google search, and signed up (what a pain in the butt!) just to post my discovery close to the already-posted questions to help anyone else who had similar problems.)

Daniel

Points here are reward for good answers.
The guy who posts a question also sets the number of points for reward and when someone gives a good answer, he assigns those points to him. He can also split the point between multiple answers.
In this case, he already gave the points to some "lame" answers, so you can't get them any more :-(

I'm not really at home here either, so I do not know what you can do with the earned points :-)
I gues you can use them to reward answers to your own questions and maybe to get high on some top list.

 I installed Debian Linux after installing Win2k and Dos dual boot.  I can only access Win2k after selecting the other drives option in the Linux boot menu.  It takes about ten minutes to boot to Win2k at this point.  During the bootup, Win2k snags on chkdsk and it shows the F: Drive (Linux) as Fat 32 instead of the Linux drive.  In addition, Win Explorer won't open up and I am unable to access disk management.  Also, I can't save any files without a fancy time consuming work around.

  My Drive is partitioned into six logical disks:
 
      1)  Dos                     Fat 16                   c:    drive
      2)  Dos backup          Fat 16                   d:    drive
      3)  Win2k                 Fat 32                   e:    drive
     4)  Linux                   Linux                     f:     drive
      5) Removable                                      g:     drive
      6) Win2k backup      Fat 32                   h:     drive
      7) CD                                                  I:     drive        
      8) CD Burner                                       j:      drive

   What should I do to fix this sucker?  I have switched the boot drive a couple of times during the Linux setup from Dos to Linux?  Can I run Dos, Linux, and win2k all on the same drive?
Should DOS be the primary boot drive in this format?  I can't get dos to work at all in any configuration when running Linux and win2k.  What should I do?

ZCorker

Possible solutions :
 - don't use windows :-)
 - get M$ to fix this bug
 - did you format a fat partition into a linux partition ? If yes, then clear its first sector like this : dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda4 bs=512 count=1

Make sure you replace "hda4" with the name of your linux partition.

  I would like to keep win2k, Dos, and Linux on my system.  Dos an Win2k were installed first.  Debian Linux was installed last.  I am running a LILO boot loader.  Linux boots up fine, but my Win2k has become unstable.  It takes a very long time to bootup (ten minutes).

  I am a little unclear as to how or why I should clear the first sector of Linux Partion.  The LInux partion was changed from Fat 32 to Linux partition during the Debian Linux setup.  There is no problem booting into Linux and the problem is now booting into windows.  What do I need to do to make Windows more stable?  I recall an earlier posting in this forum that offered a registry fix for dual boot Red Hat Linux and Win2k with similar problems such as mine.  Can I use this same registry fix?  My problem is virtually identical to the person IPFreely who posted the original question in this forum.  The one thing that is worse is that I am unable to view disk manager or
my computer.
 

I already told you the solution. Should I tell it again ? OK : zero out the first sector of the linux partition.