How do I get grub to boot Windows from a second hard drive

Question

I normally boot into Linux using grub so have linux as the first hard drive in my machine. I have Windows installed onto a second hard drive and am trying to get grub to boot it.

The grub config file contains

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader +1
makeactive

but it does not work.

Answer 1

My reading of the hd(1,1) means 2nd drive, 2nd partition- is that where it is?

Answer 2

The Windows boot loader assumes it's the first disk in the system. You need to tell grub to remap the two disks as part of the Windows entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst:

map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)

This is only an in-memory change to the way the chain-loaded boot loader sees the disks.

Answer 3

I had the same problem at one time, but like Ted said, you have to change the way the chain-loader sees the disk. Here how my grub menu list looks.

# on /dev/sdc1
title    Windows Vista Ultimate (loader)
root     (hd2,0)
savedefault
map  (hd0) (hd2)
map  (hd2) (hd0)
chainloader +1