windos xp nt loading

[Anoop Jose]

hi,
i was running ma system with windows xp and i installed ubuntu 12.04lts also. after installation m unable to load xp. it doesnt ask which os to be loaded. it directly loads ubuntu. pls help

[lisati]

When you boot or restart your computer, hold down the left shift key. You should then see a menu offering a choice of which OS to start.

[Anoop Jose]

i tried the same but no response. ubuntu is loading as before

[AnaheimSam]

Hate to tell you this Anoop Jose, but you probably got rid of Windows when you installed Ubuntu.
It happened when I first installed Ubuntu.

You need to find out if you really did get rid of Win when you installed Ubuntu, so go to Disks. (Ubuntu logo>Type in "Disks">Press "Disks") and click on your hard drive. If you do not see any kind of NFTS partition or partition labeled as such, you know that you got rid of Windows.

[Mark Phelps]

When you installed Ubuntu, it overwrote the MBR to replace the Windows code with Linux code -- so now, it boots directly into Ubuntu.

When in Ubuntu, open a terminal and enter "sudo update-grub" -- and see if it finds Windows.

When done, reboot and see if you then get an OS selection menu.

[Anoop Jose]

this is wat i get

arun@arun-desktop:~$ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for arun:
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-29-generic-pae
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-29-generic-pae
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done
arun@arun-desktop:~$

[darkod]

From ubuntu, open terminal and post the output of:

sudo parted -l

Lets see what partitions you have first of all. You should have ntfs partition for XP there. Maybe just the boot files are missing, especially if you had them on another partition separated from your XP partition. Windows can do this without even telling you, so later when you delete some partition you are in for a surprise.

[Mark Phelps]

this is wat i get

arun@arun-desktop:~$ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for arun:
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-29-generic-pae
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-29-generic-pae
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done
arun@arun-desktop:~$

Not good ... no indication of Windows boot files found.

Go with darkod's suggestion -- I'm afraid you may have replaced XP when you installed Ubuntu.

[Anoop Jose]

here

arun@arun-desktop:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for arun:
Model: ATA Hitachi HDP72502 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 4000MB 4000MB primary linux-swap(v1) boot
2 4000MB 250GB 246GB extended lba
10 4000MB 26.2GB 22.2GB logical fat32
5 26.2GB 73.4GB 47.2GB logical ntfs
6 73.4GB 105GB 31.5GB logical ntfs
9 105GB 115GB 10.5GB logical ext4
7 115GB 199GB 83.9GB logical ntfs
8 199GB 250GB 50.8GB logical ntfs

[darkod]

That is not an automatic setup. You made it manually. The sda1 partition still has the boot flag but now it's linux swap partition. Do you remember whether it was ntfs before? I think your XP boot files were there. Windows needs as minimum the boot files to be on primary partition. All your other partitions are logical.

You have the size of the partitions there. Try opening your XP partition and browse if the data is thee. I think it should be.

When you open nautilus, on the left side under Devices you will have all these partitions listed. Clicking on one will open it so you can look around.

I assume you will only need to add the boot files but you can't do that on logical partition. And you have no unallocated space to make a new primary partition.

Why do you have so many different partitions? Unless you really need them I would suggest reorganizing the disk, with less partitions. Making too many partitions is not efficient because you have to have some free space on each, instead of using few partitions with combined size.

In any case, you could consider deleting sda1 and making primary ntfs partition in its place, but then you need to make a swap partition somewhere. Ubuntu can work without it, but depending on your RAM size and the tasks you use on the computer, you might need swap.

Bottom line, this has nothing to do with ubuntu, it seems you deleted the partition where the XP boot files were.

PS. Out of all those ntfs partitions, which one is the XP?