I'm trying a dual-boot installation of Ubuntu 9.04 parallel to an exisiting Windows XP. On first Ubuntu boot I get a Grub error 18. As I already found out the reason therefore is a unfortunate combination of problems:
- The Ubuntu partitions are at the end of the partion table probably too far in the back to get found by the old BIOS.
- I'm installing on a rather old laptop with a BIOS where I can't set the HDD mode (from LBA to CHS or normal). This was mentioned as a workaround to get Grub boot from drives too large for old BIOS (in my case 250GB).
One workaround mentioned was to create a boot partition as a first partition on the drive. But as the Ubuntu installer can't move partions, just resize them I can't make any free space that way.
Would there be any problem regarding my existing Windows installation if I used another partitioning tool to resize and move my first Windows partition a bit to the back?
If doing so would I still be able to reenable the Windows boot manager with fixboot/fixmbr?