dualbooting XP/ubuntu on 2 HDDs (problem: XP doesn't boot)

[causticburning]

So what do I actually do? I just want to be able to boot both windows and ubuntu, sorry if I'm spamming..

[caljohnsmith]

Since you reinstalled, how about posting the new output of:

sudo fdisk -lu

Also, for each of the drives fdisk lists, like sda, sdb, etc, please post the output of:

sudo xxd  -l  2 -p /dev/sda

So replace "sda" above with each of your drives. Note "-l" is a lowercase L, not a one. And finally, for each command above that returns "eb48", please post:

sudo xxd -s 1049 -l 2 -p /dev/sda

And replace sda with the drives that previously returned "eb48".

Are you able to boot your Ubuntu drive at all and get a Grub menu on start up? What happens on start up right now?

Go back and ignore everything that everyone said EXCEPT caljohnsmith. He knows the way. Follow him.

Thanks for the vote of confidence; I just try to help out like everyone else.

[causticburning]

fdisk

laren@Matilda:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
[sudo] password for laren: 

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf620b8c1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    39070079    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2        39070080   289073609   125001765   83  Linux
/dev/sda3       289073610   297491669     4209030   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4   *   297491670   312576704     7542517+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa7fe044b

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63   312576704   156288321    7  HPFS/NTFS

xxd

laren@Matilda:~$ sudo xxd  -l  2 -p /dev/sda
eb48
laren@Matilda:~$ sudo xxd  -l  2 -p /dev/sdb
fa33
laren@Matilda:~$ sudo xxd -s 1049 -l 2 -p /dev/sda
00ff

Currently I can only boot ubuntu from my grub menu but not my windows partition. I can access my windows partition through ubuntu (it automatically mounts it). If I try to boot the second drive from the grub menu I just get a flashing cursor and nothing happens.

[caljohnsmith]

So is Windows on sda4 or sdb1? Please post the output of the following:

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda4 /mnt/sdb1
sudo mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/sda4
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
ls -l /mnt/sda4 /mnt/sdb1
cat /mnt/sda4/boot.ini /mnt/sdb1/boot.ini

Note "-l" is a lowercase L, not a one.

[thiebaude]

Here's the best to dual boot: Install windows first then get your windows updates,after that install ubuntu and when you get get to the partioning part select how much HD space you want to allocate to ubuntu, then you should be all set, real simple, then grub, upon startup should give you a choice of operating systems.

[causticburning]

My windows partition is on sdb1 (the whole drive)

laren@Matilda:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/sda4 /mnt/sdb1
[sudo] password for laren: 
laren@Matilda:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/sda4
laren@Matilda:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
laren@Matilda:~$ ls -l /mnt/sda4 /mnt/sdb1
/mnt/sda4:
total 17883
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-08-12 07:50 AUTOEXEC.BAT
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root      340 2005-09-12 01:18 AUTOMODE
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root       14 2008-08-07 17:49 BLOCK.RIN
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     4096 2007-11-15 03:50 boot
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root      321 2008-12-02 11:58 boot.ini
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root   438328 2006-10-04 09:02 bootmgr
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-08-12 07:50 CONFIG.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root      117 2006-11-04 05:43 Desktop.ini
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root     8134 2002-09-11 02:14 Folder.htt
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2007-11-15 03:50 HP
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-08-12 07:50 IO.SYS
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-08-12 08:29 logdir
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17345622 2008-10-02 23:31 log_fs.log
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root      700 2007-11-15 03:03 MASTER.LOG
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-08-12 07:50 MSDOS.SYS
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root    47564 2006-10-01 12:00 NTDETECT.COM
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root   250032 2006-10-01 12:00 ntldr
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     4096 2007-11-15 03:50 preload
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root   181648 2004-11-23 01:28 protect.ed
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2007-11-15 03:50 RECOVERY
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-08-07 17:51 $RECYCLE.BIN
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     4096 2008-12-02 23:39 RECYCLER
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     4096 2007-11-15 03:50 SOURCES
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2008-12-02 22:58 swsetup
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     4096 2007-11-15 03:50 System Volume Information
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     4096 2007-11-15 03:50 Tools
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2007-11-15 03:03 USER
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root        0 2007-11-15 03:50 WINDOWS

/mnt/sdb1:
total 5239288
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root       4096 2008-12-02 12:26 Documents and Settings
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root          0 2008-12-02 12:06 EXP_INST
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3219574784 2008-12-02 23:39 hiberfil.sys
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root          0 2008-12-02 22:57 Intel
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 2145386496 2008-12-02 23:39 pagefile.sys
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      12288 2008-12-02 23:40 Program Files
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root          0 2008-12-02 23:19 RECYCLER
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root          0 2008-12-02 12:05 System Volume Information
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root      53248 2008-12-02 23:41 WINDOWS
laren@Matilda:~$ cat /mnt/sda4/boot.ini /mnt/sdb1/boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
cat: /mnt/sdb1/boot.ini: No such file or directory

[caljohnsmith]

How did you install Windows? Right now it looks like you have Vista installed on sda4 and XP installed on sdb1, and also XP's boot files are in Vista's sda4 partition. Are you just trying to get XP to boot, or are you also trying to boot Vista?

[causticburning]

I believe that the vista partition is the 'rescue' partion that came with the laptop. i'm not particularly fussed about nuking it. The only partions i want to load are the XP partition and the Ubuntu partition.

[caljohnsmith]

OK, that makes sense then. While you have sda4 and sdb1 mounted from the directions in post #24, next do:

gksudo gedit /mnt/sda4/boot.ini

And replace it with:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Save that, and then do the following, and please post the output of all commands:

sudo apt-get install tofrodos
sudo unix2dos /mnt/sda4/boot.ini
cat -A /mnt/sda4/boot.ini
sudo mv /mnt/sda4/boot.ini /mnt/sda4/ntldr /mnt/sda4/NTDETECT.COM /mnt/sdb1

Next do:

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

And replace your existing Windows entry with:

title	   Windows XP
root       (hd1,0)
map        (hd0) (hd1)
map        (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Reboot, choose Windows XP from the Grub menu, and let me know exactly what happens.

[causticburning]

laren@Matilda:~$ sudo apt-get install tofrodos
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-2.6.24-19-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  tofrodos
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 17.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 73.7kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main tofrodos 1.7.6-2 [17.4kB]
Fetched 17.4kB in 6s (2575B/s)  
Selecting previously deselected package tofrodos.
(Reading database ... 170057 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking tofrodos (from .../tofrodos_1.7.6-2_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up tofrodos (1.7.6-2) ...
laren@Matilda:~$ sudo unix2dos /mnt/sda4/boot.ini
laren@Matilda:~$ cat -A /mnt/sda4/boot.ini
[boot loader]^M$
timeout=30^M$
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS^M$
[operating systems]^M$
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect^M$
laren@Matilda:~$ sudo mv /mnt/sda4/boot.ini /mnt/sda4/ntldr /mnt/sda4/NTDETECT.COM /mnt/sdb1

gonna reboot now.. wish me luck