Botched Dual Boot

[shade34321]

I know but when I was using the manual install for ubuntu it wouldn't let me format it NTFS so I went with FAT32 to change it to NTFS later.

[shade34321]

Here's what it said.

shade@OH-YEAH:~$ cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=89725809-8a98-43da-bf5c-0150d6df8a2e ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,1)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=89725809-8a98-43da-bf5c-0150d6df8a2e ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=89725809-8a98-43da-bf5c-0150d6df8a2e ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

[caljohnsmith]

Your Windows entry in menu.lst should work just fine to boot Windows, so I think you have a Windows problem and not a Grub problem at this point. If you have your Windows Install CD, boot that up, go to the "recovery console", and run the following commands:

fixboot
chkdsk /r

Then reboot, and let us know exactly what happens when you choose Windows from the Grub menu again. It is likely we will have to use testdisk to repair the boot sector of your Windows partition, but do the above first and report the results.

[shade34321]

Sorry it took so long for me to reply, school work and work keep have been keeping me away from completing this. The fixboot command gave me FIXBOOT cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid. And chkdisk /r gave me the volume appears to contain or or more unrecoverable problems.

[caljohnsmith]

Sorry it took so long for me to reply, school work and work keep have been keeping me away from completing this. The fixboot command gave me FIXBOOT cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid. And chkdisk /r gave me the volume appears to contain or or more unrecoverable problems.

"Unrecoverable problems"? That's not a good sign. Since XP is a fresh install, how about just reinstalling at this point? It will overwrite Grub in the MBR, but first confirm after installing Windows that you can directly boot into it. Once you are sure of that, you can reinstall Grub with these simple steps:

sudo grub
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

Let me know how it goes.

[shade34321]

Well I went to do a fresh install and it kept looping back into an install, it would wouldn't finalze the install. So I'm not quite sure what's up with this. It did this before as well. So I think I might just leave it with Ubuntu only and then have XP on my laptop. I don't know....we'll see.