Booting Problem

[n8thn08]

Hey, another newbie here.
I just downloaded the liveCD and installed it. I was at the partitioning stage of the installation. From here i made the dumb mistake of "moving the window to the right workspace". So i lost the window and i was unable to get it back. I rebooted my computer and a new dialog comes up with the following options:

Try ubuntu without any changes to your comp
Install Ubuntu
Check CD for defects
Test Memory
Boot from first hard disk

I have tried all the options and message says "error reading boot CD"

i also tried rebooting my comp without the CD trying to get it to run Win XP but it promts me to insert the disk.

Sorry its so long.

Is my Win XP gone or excessable? did i ruin the comp? I just want to get back to the installation of Ubuntu.

[PirateChef]

Is my Win XP gone or excessable? did i ruin the comp? I just want to get back to the installation of Ubuntu.

Sounds like XP is hosed, yes. But your computer should be okay. You just have to get in there and re-partition the drive, since the partitioning was interrupted. Unfortunately, it sounds like there's something wrong with your CD drive or LiveCD. Have you had any problems before this?

If you have access to another computer, you could burn another copy of the disk, and see if that one works.

[n8thn08]

The CD drive is fine and im guessing the CD is fine as well since its only a couple hours old. What is the best way of partitioning the hard drive from this point?

[PirateChef]

The CD drive is fine and im guessing the CD is fine as well since its only a couple hours old. What is the best way of partitioning the hard drive from this point?

It doesn't have anything to do with how old it is. It could've gotten corrupted, or something. That's what the "Check CD for defects" option is for. Newly burned CDs can be defective, I've had it happen.

It says "Can't read Boot CD". You must've booted off the LiveCD, or else you wouldn't be seeing that menu. Therefore, the problem is the LiveCD, or the CD drive.

You could try burning another disk, or booting off of something else: USB drive, or even a floppy.

What error do you get when you try to boot without the CD?

[n8thn08]

Yeah that makes sence. Without the CD the DOS comes up and says "insert CD in drive and hit enter"

[PirateChef]

Does the "error reading boot CD" problem keep recurring?
The reason I ask is because I have a "moody" DVD drive, that sometimes won't read data. I had to install 3 times, before it would take!
Also, you got it to work once, which suggests you could do it again.
If the error is consistent though, you'll have to move on to something else. Personally, I'd give up after 3 or 4 reboots.

Try Googling your error messages. (You can do an exact search on Google by enclosing the words in quotation marks: "error reading boot CD")

There's a couple of threads related to this problem on this forum, one here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=405729

Try burning it at different speeds, or with different devices? If you can get your hands on an official Ubuntu disk, you should probably be okay.

You will need a boot disk of some sort, though.

[n8thn08]

piratechef:
I burned a new LiveCD and I got it to work fine. The original CD WAS corrupted.

thanks for the help!