Grub loader Error 21

[DMB2000uk]

I have Win XP on RAID-0. And on my second drive I have 4 partitions;
1) an ~180gig backup and files partition
2) an 18GB nix formatted thing (forgot the formatting >_<)
3) a 30GB Vista partiton
4) a 2GB swap partion for nix

The install went ok on partition 2. But when i rebooted, I was greeted with the following error:

"Grub loader Error 21"

I fixed it the only way I know how and repaired the MBR from the Win XP recovery disk console.

What should I be doing to get it to boot? The secondary disk is already bootable as Vista is booting fine from it (although it is a different partion).

Dan

[kenc51]

AFAIK GRUB doesn't like to be installed on RAID partitions!
When you're installing linux, you should create a "BOOT" partition on the non-raid drive.
Then linux will install GRUB and initrd to here. It only needs to be ~200MB.
You'll have to select "custom partitioning" when installing. Make sure you create a "/" partition for the root directory (on the RAID partition), a "/boot" (on the single HDD) and if you want a seperate "/Home" partition (again on the RAID partition) if you want to keep your personal files safe if you need to reinstall.
It will also just set your windows partition table to "non-boot", so if you need to revert back to the windows boot loader it should be easy.

I haven't tried this as I don't use RAID anymore, but I had this problem once and and while I didn't try the steps above, in theory it should work!
Ohh, and also set the BIOS to boot from the single drive! (all the PC will do is load GRUB from here though)

[DMB2000uk]

To confirm, I already have the 20gig partion on the non raid drive, is that what you thought you had read?

OK, so I should create another ~200MB partition and set that as "/boot" then try to install the "/" stuff in the rest of the 18gig? (and another "/home" one)

What would I have to do to make the PC boot back into windows?

Dan

PS.

Ohh, and also set the BIOS to boot from the single drive!

I think that is what I need to do to get it to work, so will have another bash at loading it and get back if it still doesnt work.

[skier]

i got that grub error a couple different times with XP/PCLINUXOS, i just reinstalled linux and it worked fine(my issue was- after installing linux and using it for a while, i tried to change the partition(linux) bigger, but there were no mount points anymore, so it didnt like it very much)

[DMB2000uk]

Ok, so I have tried reinstalling, but I don't think I followed your instructions right.

I want to keep the whole linux install on the secondary disk, so I made the following partitions (in Gparted):



In this pic, sdc5 was "/boot", sdc6 was "/" and sdc 7 was "/home", with the swap being obvious.
(First NTFS is backup data, and second NTFS is vista)

However even with this single drive set up as boot first, I can't get it to load. This drive set as first give me a "non system disk error" and the raid first gives me the "error 21".

Should I scrap all the linux partitions, and use the "guided partition resize and install" during the ubuntu installer? Would that make a difference?

Dan

[skier]

i always used the partion thing(liveDRAKE i think it was) off the liveCD, ive never even used Gparted

[DMB2000uk]

Hmm, I have made some non progress.

I swapped round the boot order in the BIOS and tired reinstalling ubuntu again (same partitions, single drive boot first, raid second).

Now after the install on booting with the single drive set to first, it tells me that it is a "non system disk or disk error" (or something), and swapping the RAID to boot first now gets me an "error 22".

I have one more idea before I run out of things to try.

*edit* Everything I do leaves me with either an error 21 or an eror 22 >_<

Dan