Hello,

I recently installed Linux. I did this with the intention of dual-booting with Windows XP. Linux runs fine and I'm using the GRUB bootloader. The problem I have is that when I try to boot into Windows XP I get the loading screen but soonthereafter I recieve the message "xmnt2002 program not found - skipping autochk" followed by "autochk program not found - skipping autochk". After these error messages the system restarts as if it suffered from a critical error.
(1) Before I installed Linux I split my main partition with Partition Magic.
(2) The partition with Windows XP on it is labeled as a Hidden NTFS partion in linuxs' fdisk program. Should I change this to a NTFS partion?

Thank you very much for any help you can provide.

Steve Leonard
-- Linux Noob

Guess what!

I took a risk. Even though I wans't sure what I was doing I decided to try what I had suggested in my previous post anyway. Using one of linuxs' fdisk program I changed the partition type from Hidden NTFS to plain simple NTFS and my system booted just fine. If you have experienced this same problem and need to know how to fix it step by step just post here or e-mail me and I'd be happy to respond.

Steve Leonard
-- Linux Expert

Hello I have encountered the exact prob, but I have Fedora installed and I am having probs with finding NTFS and finding the fdisk prog. Please help!!

when you split your partitions, and you want to dual boot, both partitions must be primary. it sounds like partition magic made it a logical or extended partition, changing it was the right call.

Jason

OK I found the prob... The XP partition is hidden, so you need to get GNU parted for you kernel version and run on a terminal and then follow directions in order to change from hidden to not hidden.. This will work, I promise good luck

Stepon

I've a similar kind of problem. I'm using lilo for the dual boot. everything works fine except that one of the NTFS partiotions doesn't shows up on windows (I've two NTFS partitions) as a hidden partition. I don't get any error messages while booting either to windows or linux. I tried using PQMagic to unhide the NTFS partitions and it does that. But when i boot up again in either windows or linux the partition is listed as a hidden one. How do i get this partition without having to delete and recreate it. I already have data on this partition and don't wanna lose it.

Thanks for the help.
akshay.

I recently had this very problem with a customer. Partition Magic had an error in it while you were editing your NTFS partition. I'm afraid that because it never finished telling the Master Boot Record where the end of the partition is, you must delete the hard drive and start over. if the hard drive is over 64 GB however, your copy of windows FDISK may not read it's size correctly so please follow these steps:
1. install linux using all but 50 GB of the drive.
2. go into dos and install whichever windows you wish to on the 50 GB. your fdisk should read it no matter what.
3. edit your boot loader to include a windows option. the root should be listed as (hd0,0), the chainloader as +1, and make it an active partition. *include ( ) because they will tell the linux kernel to start and stop the command line*

ALSO MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING THE GRUB BOOT LOADER IF POSSIBLE

trying to help,
you kansas friends at Badger, Inc.

Hello,

I'm facing a similar problem. Just installed SuSE 8.1 on one partition, I originally have Win XP on another partition. SuSE works fine, and my boot loader is GRUB. I modified the GRUB to have a boot in Windows option. At startup, I select the Windows option but I get the message "autochk program not found, skipping" and after this the system restarts. Looking under "partitions" in Control Center I find that my Windows partition is labelled "Hidden NTFS". That must be the problem, so could someone tell me how to unhide it?

Missing my files in the Windows XP partition sorely.. please help!

Michael Ong (total Linux newbie)

I have the exact problem that Su Gin Ong has could someone please help. Step by Step if possible, still new to Linux but a fan so far.

Thank You,
Sean

Haha I found a solution after scouring the Internet for guidance. All it takes is editing GRUB, the Boot Loader. Open YaST2 and go to "Boot Loader". You will have to enter ur root password.
There you will need to add a few new lines of code to enable booting to Windows and to unhide the Windows partition (manual/expert editing).

title Windows
unhide (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

"hd0,0" means that your Windows partition is the first partition on ur first hard drive;
"makeactive" means Windows will be the default boot option (it will be selected when the boot menu appears)
"chainloader +1".. I'm not sure! But it has to do with the boot loaders

WinXP booted like a charm afterwards. Experts out there could u please let me know me whether the code I'm using is complete? Also,how can I get GRUB to auto boot into Windows without me needing to hit "enter" at the boot menu? Right now, it waits for me to hit "enter" each time.

Thanks

hello,

I have (almost) the same problem as the original poster (Steve Leonard): when I try to boot into winXP, I get the message "autochk program not found - skipping autochk", and then the computer restarts.

However, I never completely managed to install Gentoo Linux on my machine I use the LILO bootloader, and after trying to boot into Linux, the system crashes.. I can still boot into Linux using the Linux installation CD or whatever.. so I should be able to use the Linux fdisk program. Anyhow, the problem with gentoo isn't that relevant right now, I would just like to get winXP to work again.

Now, since all my valuable data is on the NTFS/winXP partition, I would like to know, step by step, how Steve Leonard managed to fix his problem I would try to fix it using the other pieces of advice in this thread, but I would probably mess my system up completely since I am a total noobie in these things

So if you could help me recover the hidden NTFS partition so winXP will boot again, I would be very grateful


Mark

Btw...did ya mount ur NTFS drive onto ur Linux System Before?
If yes....
did ya umount it?
maybe that might have caused the data to go bonkers..
ie: if ya din unmount it....and then directly shut the pc off..!!!
let me know abt that!!!

I had a similar problem, with a FAT32 partition though. I could access the data through linux and also through the xp recovery console. I unhid the partition through linux fdisk & partion magic. I also tried through windows fdisk(by marking it active) with a win98 boot disk - a fix resolution posted in another forum. XP then recognized it as active, but still hidden. I was about to do a repair install(reluctantly) of xp when I decided to try one last thing: BootIt NG. Also, I should mention I was using lilo and had recently broken my Knoppix install. Apparently lilo got messed up(although I could boot into all 3 of my OS's) and that was the source of the problem. Anyways, I installed BootIt and everything worked perfectly. Excellent program.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

...Ryan

I have just tried to install mandrakelinux 10.1 community. I have two hard drives, both 120gb. They are combined in windows, but in setup, they become hda (with windows) and hde (nothing). when i unstalled mandrake on hda (created partitions in p magic) the bootloader said couldn't find OS. I cannot change hidden NTFS to normal NTFS withing mandrake setup. I then tried installing onto hde, but then my BIOS cannot find a boot device besides a CDrom. do you have any ideas on how to get rid of linux and make the NTFS unhidden?

check this webpage, it will be very helpful, i think this is the exact reason
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/powerquest.nsf/56d21993ad...amp;csm=no

I have the exact same problem. I'm running XP Pro and Fedora. The XP just stopped loading anymore after I installed Fedora.

How does that link make sense, it's asking me to download BootExecute.exe and run it but my whole problem is that I can't get into Windows because I get the same error as the original poster.

Hi
i am using on the same Hard Disk two System Partitions ,XP & Linux.
How can i from the LINUX System invoke the boot.ini file in the NTFS (XP) partition.!!

Thanks; Itzik

SOLUTION:

I have had this problem just recently and have found a way to fix this under grub. I saw a post above that mentions the unhide command. What happens is that if you used the wizard in partition magic to install a new partition, it automatically hides the old partition in the proccess. This results in the wacky error and occasionally a reboot. This is what to do:

When grub loads, find your windows partition and press enter. You will then see a list of configurations. On one of them you should see similar to this:
root (hd0,0)
Remember those characters after "root ". Press c to open a command line from grub and type in this:
unhide (hdX,Y)
where the X is the hard drive number and Y is the partition number. In "root (hd0,0)" both X and Y would be 0.

Press enter, then type reboot
Boot into your windows partition and run it through, you should see partition magic telling you that it is done with its process, and boots normally.


Edit: This does work with both NTFS and FAT32. I have not tested with other filesystems. Also, I am not responsible for anyone that makes a mistake in this process. I am not sure of the negative consequences involved with such mistakes, just make sure you read the instructions carefully.

Hope this helps!

It helped me immensely with my dual boot problem. The solution was very clearly described. Thank you!

I had this same problem and booted into Gentoo Linux (Which would boot) and used fdisk (/sbin/fdisk /dev/sda)
to change the active partition and the system ID of the hidden HPFS/NTFS partition as follows.

p to print the partition list
a to change the active partition
m for help to get the command for changing the sytem ID as a can't remeber it off hand but you need to change it to system ID 7 to get it to work.

Good lucK

I had the exact same problem. Finally fixed it by downloading Ultimate Boot CD. Start it up with File System Utils (F3). Then pick the first utility under the bootloader section, it's called Smart Boot Manager. You can simply hide/unhide the partition using this tool. Just select the partition that's hidden and hit F5 to toggle the hide flag.

For more info about hiding/unhiding partitions, look at docs here:
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/docs/user-guide-4.html