Question : RAID 0 issue with Windows 7 and Mandriva

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:27 am    Post subject: Dual Boot Mandriva 2010 with Windows 7 on RAID 0  Report

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Hi there. Well I have problems trying to install Mandriva 2010 with Windows 7 already installed on RAID 0.

I have RAID 0 from 2x Sata HDD. Windows 7 was installed first. Installation of Mandriva was successful. The installer loaded device driver "BIOS.RAID" and saw RAID 0 properly as one disk. I've installed Mandriva at free space of disk, and created there three partitions(root/swap/home). In GRUB chapter at installation I chosen MBR.

After finishing installation, Windows 7 boots without selection of other OS.
I have tried to write GRUB to both array 0 and 1 with no success. In fact nothing at all. It ignores any everything I try. I have tried writing GRUB to the root's first sector and used EasyBCD 2.0 beta build 93 to effect a boot. It just reports that it can't load anything on that partition. I get no error messages back from the bootloader writes. This makes me think the problem might be two fold. One that is GRUB is not actually getting written to the right place. But I have no corruption problems. Two things are not well on the root partition either. It might not like the fake RAID0 stripped system. I favour that it is a bootloader problem. As the install seems to work. I can't confirm that as I cannot get at the partitions themselves.


Can any one help with this issue?

Answer : RAID 0 issue with Windows 7 and Mandriva

You need to add the Mandriva boot instruction into the windows 7 boot section as an option.
Check under windows 7 start up options.
I am however uncertain what the entry should be in the windows 7 bootloader to launch mandriva.

I would have thought it better to install Mandriva first and then add windows 7 leaving the GRUB bootloader manage the booting of the various OS.

On a separate matter: RAID 0 provides no safeguard to drive failures which will lead to total data loss.