Where's my Mint installation?

[SlyReaper]

I'm confused. I installed Linux Mint on my PC as a dual boot with Windows XP. But on startup, it just goes straight into Windows without giving me the option to boot into Mint. Which is strange because I watched it install the Grub boot loader. If I put the Mint HDD above my Windows HDD in my boot order, it just says "NFS not found" (I think).

I've installed Ubuntu on this system before without any problems like this. Followed the exact same procedure with Mint, but no luck.

Help?

 

[BigglesPiP]

looks like it installed Grub stage 1 to the MBR of the wrong drive.

Maybe try putting /boot (make it 100MB, certainly no more), on the same drive as windows.

 

[SlyReaper]

What? How do I do that?

 

[BigglesPiP]

Grub comes in 2 parts.

A small stage one, which sits in the boot sector of the primary hard drive, it directs the PC to open stage 2.

Stage 2 sits in your /boot directory (often its own small partition), this gives you a purdy menu to choose the OS you want. It's separate because it's too big to fit in a boot sector.



What may have happened is that it's put GRUB stage 1 in the boot sector of the 2nd drive. And the WinNT boot loader is still in the primary drive's boot sector. Your BIOS picks the drive it considers "primary", and loads the software in the boot sector on that drive, inadvertantly picking the WinNT one.

Go through the installer again, see if you can set the target drive for Grub stage 1.

 

[SlyReaper]

It occurs to me: would it be easier to just unplug all my hard drives except the one I want to install on?

 

[eXor]

It occurs to me: would it be easier to just unplug all my hard drives except the one I want to install on?

If your BIOS allows you to choose a drive at boot time, then yes.

 

[BigglesPiP]

It occurs to me: would it be easier to just unplug all my hard drives except the one I want to install on?

No, that would be a common cause of this problem.

 

[brummie]

just swap the drive cables over

 

[BillytheImpaler]

No, that would be a common cause of this problem.

I agree, unless you want to use your BIOS to select your OS rather than a interactive bootloader.

don't like to switch priority in the BIOS since it takes do darn long.

Imaginary illustration of your system if you use the BIOS to switch
HDD1 - Windows bootloader, Windows
HDD2 - Grub, Mint

That's a hassle. I'd prefer it like so if I were you:
HDD1 Grub, Windows
HDD2 Mint

since Grub can boot Windows easily but not vice versa.