Dual Booting, how to select the other OS

[Churchwarden]

When I installed Ubuntu this morning I chose to install it alongside W vista HP. Starting up the computer always takes it into Ubuntu, without giving me the option of selecting windows.

What have I done which I ought not to have done or not done that which I ought?

Nick

[hansolo4949]

first of all, there is a good chance nothing bad has happened, so don't panic. Second, open up a terminal and type

sudo update-grub2

Then reboot. If you do not get a selection screen, reboot and press shift while you are booting up, that will force a grub screen to pop up. If windows is not on there, then immedately go into your windows partition, and get all of the data you need out of there, because any further fixes will get hairy.

[col48]

Churchwarden
You probably only hit the boot-it bit of the Windows partition from my reading elsewhere. Hansolo's suggestion checks this.

All your Windows data will still be there. I'm sure Hansolo will guide you home. And welcome to Ubuntu.


You presumably have Lucid (10.04) or Maverick (10.10).

[Churchwarden]

first of all, there is a good chance nothing bad has happened, so don't panic. Second, open up a terminal and type

sudo update-grub2

Then reboot. If you do not get a selection screen, reboot and press shift while you are booting up, that will force a grub screen to pop up. If windows is not on there, then immedately go into your windows partition, and get all of the data you need out of there, because any further fixes will get hairy.

Thanks, Hansolo4949 but how do I "open up a terminal"?

I really am very new to this!

N

[Quackers]

If you are still having problems please go to the site below and download the boot script to your DESKTOP and then open up a terminal and run

sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will produce a results.txt file on your desktop. Please copy the contents of that file and paste them in your next post between CODE tags. For CODE tags click on New Reply (not quick reply) and then click on the # symbol in the toolbar.
This will give a full overview of your current system.
Thanks.

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

[Quackers]

Thanks, Hansolo4949 but how do I "open up a terminal"?

I really am very new to this!

N

Applications menu > Accessories > Terminal

[col48]

To Open up a terminal it will be something like

Applications>Accessories>Terminal

(only something like because the path may have changed since v8.04)

NB prefixing a command with sudo is the standard way of running it as the administrator.

[Churchwarden]

Applications menu > Accessories > Terminal

Oh no!

Thank goodness I have this old desktop working. I can't even log into my laptop now. the Ubuntu log in screen is not accepting the password that I have used at least 5 times!

I will go and have a look at those other links that we given to me a bit ago.

I fear that my brain is beginning to hurt!

Nick

[Quackers]

Check that your shift lock or num lock is not selected on your keyboard.
My brain hurts all the time. Isn't that normal?

[Churchwarden]

first of all, there is a good chance nothing bad has happened, so don't panic. Second, open up a terminal and type

sudo update-grub2

Then reboot. If you do not get a selection screen, reboot and press shift while you are booting up, that will force a grub screen to pop up. If windows is not on there, then immedately go into your windows partition, and get all of the data you need out of there, because any further fixes will get hairy.

Managed to log in eventually.

Right: Having got into the Terminal and entered the code, I still boot up with no option to choose Windows. I have tried holding down the shift key while booting up and it goes straight through to the desktop.

What's next?

Nick