Grub & Windows XP

[ubseamus]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the ubuntu family. Exciting...

Anyway. I have a new 64bit notebook from MSI & I'm running Ubuntu 9.04. The machine came with Vista, & I installed 8.04 along side vista & was booting both for a while. I also loaded XP64 and wanted to upgrade to ubuntu 9.04. Did a clean install not an upgrade & I also wanted to get rid of vista & ubntu 8.04. So I deleted the partitions for what I didn't want & added a new one for Ubuntu 9.04.

Grub is loading Ubuntu, but it doesn't see XP. The partition is still there & I can mount it from Ubuntu, but I can't boot in XP.

Can I setup grub to load windows with my current setup? or is this going to call for an os install again?

Thanks guys, hope sombody can help?

):P

[Saint_]

Yeah, do this by going into the terminal and typing
sudo kate /boot/grub/menu.lstFrom there scroll to the bottom of the file and put the following after ### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1


Now reboot and hit ESC when the grub boot loader launches and you'll see Windows XP at the bottom of the list.

Edit: http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_linux_and_windows_xp_linux_instal led_first.htm?page=5

That's the url with step by step instructions along with pictures, just incase ya need it.

[merlinus]

Since the OP is running ubuntu, better do this:



gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst


Also, to be certain which partition xp is on, post results of:



sudo fdisk -l

[telescopic]

I want to join in. I had similar problem as Ubseamus. The worst is that the xp partition (drive) does not even appear in Ubuntu. How to mount the XP partition in command line of Ubuntu? I tried following 1):

mkdir /media/window
mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/window

it gives:

''Unexpected clusters per mft record (-1).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around? ''

2) I also corrected the menu.lst file, as I reboots in Grub, and choose to load XP, it gives error message:

"Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format"

3) I tried the XP recovery disk, get a F:\windows prompte, execute "fixmbr" then reboot. It just comes out the word 'Grub' at left upper corner and stops.

What can I do to at least to retreive some files from my XP partition?

:KS

[merlinus]

IIRC, mount commands need to be prefaced with sudo, e.g.


sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/windowsAlso, does the partition show up with gparted?

And what are the results of:


sudo fdisk -l

[telescopic]

XP was in /dev/sda1. When I install Ubuntu and was asked to install Grub, I went ahead even XP window is not on the list of detection.
Under reboot, the Grub gives me option to load Ubuntu and it works fine; it has no option to load XP. So I change the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as mentionned above. I reboot again with XP option. It does goes back to the Grub list.


1) use XP recovery disk and get to F:\window and run "fixmbr", and reboot, It stops with a Grub prompt. So I have to use Xubuntu alternative CD to get back the Grub list.


2) I had some experience with Gparted before. This time, I run Gparted live-cd and it did not load the program, as there is lot of error on hda or hd0 something during the loading process. I think it fail because not recognizing the /dev/sda1


3)So, Xubuntu works well but cannot mount the /dev/sda1 where my XP sits.



Here is some info.

root@ubuntu:~# sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x282d282d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 8142 65400583+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 8143 8148 48195 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 9599 9729 1052257+ d7 Unknown
/dev/sda4 8149 9598 11647125 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

root@ubuntu:~# cd /media/window
root@ubuntu:/media/window# cd /

root@ubuntu:/# sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/window
"Unexpected clusters per mft record (-1).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?"



grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,3)

4)Does above mean Grub stage1 is in /dev/sda3 ? I am not sure what is in /dev/sda3, would the MBR sits at there? or, MBR has to be in /dev/sda1?


5) I will try Super Grub disk later, but I doubte it would help. I just want at least to retrieve some files from XP partition.

Appreciate any suggestion.

[merlinus]

One problem I can inmmediately see is that there is a boot flag on your swap partition. It needs to be on sda1 in order for xp to boot. Linux does not need boot flags.

May I suggest you run from the live cd, open gparted, and change the boot flag.

The other thing is that you must create the mountpoint for sda1 first.



sudo mkdir /media/windows
then



sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/windows

[GrandpaK1939]

I have a Dell 1525 laptop running Vista. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 in a previously partitioned portion of my drive. It worked well. At some point it malfunctioned. I could not fix it so I uninstalled it. I tried Xubuntu. It worked well so I thought I would uninstall it and tried to redo Ubuntu.
Now I get a dual boot screen. When choosing Ubuntu, I get a sent to grub> . From there I get the message that grub/root/stage1 does not exist. I have tried several installs and online proposed fixes. None seem to work reporting various files missing and error notes.
I am currently downloading a new copy in order to try to redo the whole thing.
Any ideas. (other than I seem to be a bit flakey)?
LeRoy
grandpak1939@charter.net

[telescopic]

119388


I run gparted inside Xubuntu, i believe it works the same. The first thing appears is the message: Fail to mount "1G volumne".

I chose "manage flags" , so now the boot flag move to /dev/sda1

119389

The info on the /dev/sda1 show the partition can not be mounted.

Close the program and reboot, XP still won't boot.

:KS

-Telescopic

[telescopic]

@GrandpaK1939, twice I messed up with the Grub boot, and stalled at Grub>, I booted with the Alternative-cd where there is an option of Recovery. Then it asks you where to make a /root drive. I tried by error to choose anyone from the list as /root until it accepts. Then it gives you option to re-install Grub. This at least fix the Ubuntu option at reboot.

[ubseamus]

Thanks for the info guys.

Didn't have much look tough.

I ran fdisk & got:

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7825fcd7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6972 56002558+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 27879 38914 88638464 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 1 498 4000122 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 499 6972 52002373+ 83 Linux


So it looks like XP is on /dev/sda3 as it is the only NTFS dir, But I was not sure if I should be using "Id" or "Device" as root root in menu.lst so I tried a few different combinations....

title Windows XP (hd0,7)
root (hd0,7)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Windows XP (hd0,3)
root (hd0,3)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Windows XP (hd3,7)
root (hd3,7)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Windows XP (hd3,1)
root (hd3,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

all returned "Error, no such partition"

What did I do wrong?

& what is that cylinder boundary message? Is it because there is still some unpartitioned space on the disk?

Thanks

[merlinus]

title Windows XP
root (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Also, try removing the boot flag from sda1 and activating it on sda3.

[ubseamus]

Thanks Merlin,

I think that worked to find the partition, but still not loading windows. "NTLDR is missing" :(...

That says to me Windows is broken. Any Ideas?

Sorry for being two weeks, busy, busy, busy, but help is appreciated.

[merlinus]

Try supergrub:

http://supergrubdisk.org

It can fix the NTLDR problems.

[ubseamus]

Sounds good,,

anybody got a blank CD i can use ;)

[oldfred]

You seem to have installed Windows into an extended partition. Windows should really only be installed in a primary partition.

A previous thread has this info, Herman has an answer #17 that may be a solution for you.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1192147

[ubseamus]

I could not figure out how to fix the NTLDR problem on the existing installation, & I was getting tired of messing with it, so I repaired XP using the installation cd. I was unsure what would happen to GRUB after doing this, & as I feared, the machine booted windows directly [without grub] & I could not load Ubuntu.

Using the supergrub cd I burned from http://supergrubdisk.org (http://supergrubdisk.org/) [thanks Merlin], I was able to reinstall grub & after an edit to boot/grub/menu.list I can now load XP & Ubuntu as wished.

Thanks everybody, problem solved =D>