Installing XP SP3 - fails to see HD

[Trevor Bramble]

1) Are you sure that's the correct partition?

Partition table was modified during Windows install (first partition was destroyed and recreated and formatted) but Ubuntu was booting fine after that. Otherwise there have been no partition table changes.

2) Is the partition no-longer marked bootable?

Good question. It's been years since I've looked at that. How should I check?

[compholio]

Partition table was modified during Windows install (first partition was destroyed and recreated and formatted) but Ubuntu was booting fine after that. Otherwise there have been no partition table changes.


Good question. It's been years since I've looked at that. How should I check?

If your first partition was destroyed to make room for windows then (hd0,0) is NOT the location of GRUB, you need to tell GRUB exactly which partition has the GRUB configuration files. If you know which linux partition that is then you can use the pattern:
/dev/sda1 => (hd0,0)
/dev/sdc6 => (hd2,5)

You can check whether the partition is bootable by using the Partition Editor on the Live CD, it's in the System | Administration menu.

[Trevor Bramble]

If your first partition was destroyed to make room for windows then (hd0,0) is NOT the location of GRUB

I hope I wasn't misunderstood. Before Windows, I had the following:

Primary:
50 GB NTFS (awaiting windows)
Extended:
128 MB Swap
200 GB Ext3
250 GB Ext3

Give or take a little on those sizes.

Windows complained that the 50 GB partition was unusable during install so I deleted it at that time and created it again, following through with a quick format and the rest of the install.

So, the partition table should not have changed, right?

Swapping hard disks to check bootable flag now...

[compholio]

I hope I wasn't misunderstood. Before Windows, I had the following:

Primary:
50 GB NTFS (awaiting windows)
Extended:
128 MB Swap
200 GB Ext3
250 GB Ext3

Give or take a little on those sizes.

Windows complained that the 50 GB partition was unusable during install so I deleted it at that time and created it again, following through with a quick format and the rest of the install.

So, the partition table should not have changed, right?

Swapping hard disks to check bootable flag now...

Your partition layout has not changed but if you're trying to instruct GRUB to use (hd0,0) as the location for the configuration files then it will fail. NTFS and Swap partitions cannot contain the GRUB configuration files, GRUB cannot mount these partition types. So, to fix this you need to tell GRUB to use either of your Ext3 partitions (whichever one has the /boot/grub/ folder).

[Trevor Bramble]

You were right that sda7 was missing the boot flag, which was applied to the NTFS partition (sda1). That was corrected and on reboot I encountered the same error.

Your partition layout has not changed but if you're trying to instruct GRUB to use (hd0,0) as the location for the configuration files then it will fail. NTFS and Swap partitions cannot contain the GRUB configuration files, GRUB cannot mount these partition types. So, to fix this you need to tell GRUB to use either of your Ext3 partitions (whichever one has the /boot/grub/ folder).

/ (including /boot) is mounted on sda7 (250GB Ext3)

From the live CD:

grub> root (hd0,6)
root (hd0,6)
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition
grub>

[Trevor Bramble]

Should I just re-install Ubuntu? I've got work to do.

I can tell the installer not to overwrite my partition where /home is mounted, right? And Windows is already installed so the installer will sort out all the boot configuration needs and but everything where it needs to be, right?

[compholio]

Should I just re-install Ubuntu? I've got work to do.

I can tell the installer not to overwrite my partition where /home is mounted, right? And Windows is already installed so the installer will sort out all the boot configuration needs and but everything where it needs to be, right?

GRUB problems are fixable, personally I recommend using google until you get the commands correct and get it going.

Things I've remembered doing in the past:
1) Using "find /boot/grub/stage1" to have GRUB search for the correct partition.
2) Using the GRUB repair option on the Live CD startup menu (I don't remember what it's called exactly though)
3) Using "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda" to double check that the partition type is correct (ext3 is partition Id 83), for some reason I've had to re-set the partition type before - I thought it was really odd as I did not remember changing it.

Edit: Important Note -> LVM uses a different Id, if you have that enabled.

[Trevor Bramble]

GRUB problems are fixable, personally I recommend using google until you get the commands correct and get it going.

Of course. I've been all over Google and these forums. Everyone says the same couple of things and I haven't been able to get any of it to work for me.

1) Using "find /boot/grub/stage1" to have GRUB search for the correct partition.

grub> find /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1
find /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found
grub>

2) Using the GRUB repair option on the Live CD startup menu (I don't remember what it's called exactly though)

I thought I remembered something like that too, but I can't find anything on my 8.10 amd64 CD here.

3) Using "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda" to double check that the partition type is correct (ext3 is partition Id 83), for some reason I've had to re-set the partition type before - I thought it was really odd as I did not remember changing it.

UHM. Well I'm confused:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000905d6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        6079    48829536   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            6080       60801   439554465    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            6080        6095      128488+  92  Unknown
/dev/sda6            6096       30410   195310206   93  Amoeba
/dev/sda7   *       30411       60801   244115676   93  Amoeba

Amoeba?! And the first partition is "Linux"??

This is all wrong. Why do they all look OK in GParted but not here??

In GParted they're:
/dev/sda1 ntfs
/dev/sda2 extended
/dev/sda5 linux-swap
/dev/sda6 ext3
/dev/sda7 ext3

[compholio]

...
UHM. Well I'm confused:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000905d6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        6079    48829536   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            6080       60801   439554465    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            6080        6095      128488+  92  Unknown
/dev/sda6            6096       30410   195310206   93  Amoeba
/dev/sda7   *       30411       60801   244115676   93  Amoeba

Amoeba?!

HA-HA! That's it, please run "sudo fdisk /dev/sda" and type "p" (enter) to list partitions (it should show the same list). Now repeat the following for each parition:
1) Type "t" (command to "change partition type") and hit enter
2) Type the number of the partition to edit and then hit enter
3) Type the hex code of the CORRECT partition type and then hit enter
when done type "p" (enter) again to confirm the new partition types, if they are correct then type "w" (enter) to write the new information (there is no turning back after you do this, but your partition table is obviously borked).

hex codes for the partition types you care about:
7 NTFS
82 Linux Swap
83 Linux (Ext3)

Edit: Reason: GParted using the filesystem information (higher priority) in addition to the partition table information.
Edit: for you the exact sequence SHOULD be:
t
1
7
t
5
82
t
6
83
t
7
83
p
-> make sure everything is OK
w

[Trevor Bramble]

Sorry, should've mentioned before rebooting that I'd found a post (keyword was "amoeba"!) that described exactly what you just posted.

So now I'm in my shiny new Ubuntu. Windows, however, still won't boot. Sat at "Starting Up..." message or whatever it was for about half an hour while the CEO chatted with me from the other side of the display. ;^)

Thanks for all your help, compholio. I'm very relieved to have my workspace available again without having to redo the hours of work I'd already put into it this week.

(Edit: Windows now boots after putting in the correct partition info in menu.lst--forgot to re-apply my edits earlier.)