Help with adding Dual Boot Win7 on a HD now running PCL (CLOSED)

[Cressida]

After doing more reading I thought the best way to get going again would be to do a clean / fresh reinstall from the PCL LiveCD.   You bet I was surprised when I did the fresh installation to the "/" partition and ended up with the same end result - two Grub lines appearing and then stalls out :

Grub Loading stage 1.5.
Grub loading, please wait...
-  (flashing dash)

After waiting for 5 minutes I rebooted and no change.  Next I did another clean install and watched it do the format of "/" and installation to the HD but the system still just stops after the above lines.

I took a look at the Grub Menu list and it looks good to me (sda2 = "/" or hd0,1 below) :

-------------------------------------------
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=66c19e56-47fd-4c7b-b06e-96b3cd9a74fd  quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on resume=UUID=8858bf4a-53d8-4a10-b8b8-e567c9c53897 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=66c19e56-47fd-4c7b-b06e-96b3cd9a74fd  quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on resume=UUID=8858bf4a-53d8-4a10-b8b8-e567c9c53897
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=66c19e56-47fd-4c7b-b06e-96b3cd9a74fd  quiet failsafe vmalloc=256M acpi=on
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd1,0)
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
----------------------------------------------------

Next I unplugged the power to the Windows HD to effectively take it out of the system.  Reboot and the same end results or no change.  

I then reinstall from LiveCD again to the "/" partition after taking the Windows HD out of the loop just in case.
No change, I still only get to this:

Grub Loading stage 1.5.
Grub loading, please wait...
-  (flashing dash)
  
Next I go into Bios and reset all settings to the defaults and try again with no end results.  The system will just not load PCLOS from the HD.  

I checked my HD status using the SMART test and it passed and the HD has been working fine.  

I am stumped and welcome what to try next as this makes no sense to me.  (I wondered if the HD was not spinning up quick enough during the boot process but I wouldn't think I would see the Grub loading stage if the HD wasn't being recognized?  Plus, I can see all partitions and files on the HD when I run from the LiveCD)

[Just17]

I would suggest you disable the BIOS setting which as default is usually Quick Boot or whatever it might be called.
That will ensure that the hardware, including memory, is tested during POST, which might have some effect on how Grub starts.

[Old-Polack]

After doing more reading I thought the best way to get going again would be to do a clean / fresh reinstall from the PCL LiveCD.   You bet I was surprised when I did the fresh installation to the "/" partition and ended up with the same end result - two Grub lines appearing and then stalls out :

Grub Loading stage 1.5.
Grub loading, please wait...
-  (flashing dash)

After waiting for 5 minutes I rebooted and no change.  Next I did another clean install and watched it do the format of "/" and installation to the HD but the system still just stops after the above lines.

I took a look at the Grub Menu list and it looks good to me (sda2 = "/" or hd0,1 below) :

-------------------------------------------
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=66c19e56-47fd-4c7b-b06e-96b3cd9a74fd  quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on resume=UUID=8858bf4a-53d8-4a10-b8b8-e567c9c53897 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=66c19e56-47fd-4c7b-b06e-96b3cd9a74fd  quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on resume=UUID=8858bf4a-53d8-4a10-b8b8-e567c9c53897
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=66c19e56-47fd-4c7b-b06e-96b3cd9a74fd  quiet failsafe vmalloc=256M acpi=on
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd1,0)
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
----------------------------------------------------

Next I unplugged the power to the Windows HD to effectively take it out of the system.  Reboot and the same end results or no change.  

I then reinstall from LiveCD again to the "/" partition after taking the Windows HD out of the loop just in case.
No change, I still only get to this:

Grub Loading stage 1.5.
Grub loading, please wait...
-  (flashing dash)
  
Next I go into Bios and reset all settings to the defaults and try again with no end results.  The system will just not load PCLOS from the HD.  

I checked my HD status using the SMART test and it passed and the HD has been working fine.  

I am stumped and welcome what to try next as this makes no sense to me.  (I wondered if the HD was not spinning up quick enough during the boot process but I wouldn't think I would see the Grub loading stage if the HD wasn't being recognized?  Plus, I can see all partitions and files on the HD when I run from the LiveCD)

Besides doing as Just18 instructed, while in BIOS check be sure that LBA (Logical Block Addressing) is set, so the data blocks are read properly.

Edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst to remove the quiet and replace silent with verbose. This will allow you to see what's happening if the kernel gets loaded, so you can see where the boot up actually hangs.

[Cressida]

Since I had free space at the beginning of this HD (sda1) I elected to install the PCLOS there and see what happened.  I was surprised the Grub Menu loaded right up and it included a line for the other PCLOS I had loaded earlier (sda2).    I selected that one first (sda2) but it didn't work so I rebooted and then selected the first line and the system booted right up like you would expect   

----------------------------------------
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=3cfe5bd3-083f-4036-939e-5db0785d95e5 quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on resume=UUID=8858bf4a-53d8-4a10-b8b8-e567c9c53897 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=3cfe5bd3-083f-4036-939e-5db0785d95e5 quiet vmalloc=256M acpi=on resume=UUID=8858bf4a-53d8-4a10-b8b8-e567c9c53897
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=3cfe5bd3-083f-4036-939e-5db0785d95e5 failsafe vmalloc=256M
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title PCLinuxOS (PCLinuxOS)
root (hd0,1)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

title memtest-4.20
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/memtest-4.20 BOOT_IMAGE=memtest-4.20

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the PCLINUXOS standard grub entries
title   
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think this will be good enough for now and I'll wait a few weeks to get stable (and refreshed) and then may redo my entire HD. 

I did forget to check and see what my user # was (I orginally let PCL choose so it should be either 500 or 501 I think).   I will use that to get the new "/" pointed to use my separate "/home" partition which has my settings instead of using /home within "/".   Can you tell me which of these user # is the default or if there is a way to tell which I was using so I can just do the installation once again to make sure I get it pointed to the separate /home.  (I am the only user on this machine).     

[Old-Polack]

Cressida:

Default for first user is UID 500 GID 500.