On Mon, 06 Nov 2006 13:34:00 -0800, sd wrote:

> I installed Ubuntu linux on the second hard drive of a Windows machine
> to make it dual boot. Windows was running on the entire system before,
> and all drives are IDE. Ubuntu is supposed to have installed the grub
> boot loader [on the Master Boot Record, I believe]. But when I reboot
> my machine after the installation, it hangs with a grub message of
> error 21 without being able to boot either OS. I gather that this is
> because grub cannot see one or more of the partitions on the computer.
>
> In my Bios, here is how the hard drive settings look:
>
> SATA Primary drive: off
> SATA secondary drive: off
> Primary Master drive: Hard drive
> Primary Slave drive: off
> Secondary Master drive: CD ROM
> Secondary Slave drive: off
> IDE drive: UMDA
>
> I believe that the second hard disk (the one on which Ubuntu is
> installed) is being called UMDA, which is why grub is having a problem.
> I have no idea why the second drive doesn't show up as Primary or
> Secondary slave drive on BIOS.
>
> Someone, please throw some light..
>
> -sd
>
grub can be thought of as a separate mini OS. Its purpose is to act as the
loader for other OSs. It uses its own nomenclature for drives and
partitions which is unique to itself.

Are you sure the BIOS isn't telling you that IDE drives are using _UDMA_,
not UMDA. UDMA is ultra DMA.

Question 1: Did you modify your BIOS settings after you installed Ubuntu?

You may be up against a bit of project to get your system working again.
You may need to do some homework now, if you omitted this step
previously. It is important not to panic, though.

--
Douglas Mayne