Multiboot Help Ubuntu/WinXP/Win7

[seraieis]

Hello all!

I'm a recent convert to Linux and am having trouble setting up a multiboot environment. Origionally, I had Windows 7 on my computer, and then I created a new partition and installed Ubuntu 9.10 along side of it, and the two played nicely. Then, I installed Windows XP on another partition, and like the typical younger sybling, he ate my boot loader. With the LiveCD I was able to reinstall GRUB1.97 but now I can't access either of the Windows partitions. At this point, I think I have all the information I need, but I have no idea what to do with it.

Here's my setup:

SATA Drive 1, Partition 1 = Windows 7
SATA Drive 1, Partition 2 = Windows XP
IDE Drive 1, Partition 1 = Ubuntu

Any advice on how I get GRUB and the boot.ini files working in harmony again?


daniel@daniel-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x445a445a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 18707 150263946 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 18708 19457 6024375 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 18708 19457 6024343+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x18cf299a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 21729 174532246+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 21729 24322 20826112 7 HPFS/NTFS

[darkod]

You should have kept windows bootloader on the windows disk and grub2 on the ubuntu disk. Also, when installing windows, remember: It ALWAYS puts the bootloader on the disk set as first boot option. It was enough to set the windows disk as first boot option and grub2 wouldn't have been deleted, not if it was on the ubuntu disk.

The first thing to try is:

sudo update-grub

If that doesn't help find both windows installs, run the boot info script as explained here and post the content of your results file:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8844901&postcount=4

[tommcd]

First, be sure to get all the updates for Ubuntu. There have been several updates for grub2 (i.e., grub1.97) since Ubuntu 9.10 came out. So be sure you are running with the latest grub2 updates.
Then for the (hopefully) quick and easy fix, open a terminal and run:

sudo update-grub
Hopefully this should add entries for your XP and 7 installs and allow you to boot them.
If that doesn't not work, then you may need to add custom entries for XP and 7 in the /etc/grub.d/ directory like this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2#User-defined%20Entries
Since grub2 originally detected your Windows 7 install though, it should detect it again after running update-grub.

And welcome to the Ubnuntu forums!

[darkod]

The main worry is that windows combines boot files for two versions. And in case XP is installed after 7 I don't know how exactly it would work.
Running the script will show the boot files and their location, so we will know more.

[seraieis]

You should have kept windows bootloader on the windows disk and grub2 on the ubuntu disk. Also, when installing windows, remember: It ALWAYS puts the bootloader on the disk set as first boot option. It was enough to set the windows disk as first boot option and grub2 wouldn't have been deleted, not if it was on the ubuntu disk.

The first thing to try is:

sudo update-grub

If that doesn't help find both windows installs, run the boot info script as explained here and post the content of your results file:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8844901&postcount=4


I've attached my results file. From the looks of it, I have too many boot sectors (and not a CLUE what to do!).

[darkod]

I've attached my results file. From the looks of it, I have too many boot sectors (and not a CLUE what to do!).

Grub2 is on /dev/sda which is where it's supposed to be.
You have old grub2 on /dev/sdb which won't work any more. You could return generic mbr on that disk, it's the windows disk anyway.

Boot ubuntu and execute:

sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sdb mbr

That will write generic mbr on /dev/sdb.

After that try to boot from /dev/sdb, the 200GB disk. My guess is that you will not be able to boot any windows. The windows boot files seem broken, and that's the reason grub2 can't boot them too. Grub2 just passes the job on to the windows boot files. If they don't work, it doesn't work.

You could try repairing the windows boot process for both XP and 7 but I'm not sure in which order to do it. I never had two windows versions at once.

[oldfred]

If your win7 boots when you try to directly boot sdb, then you can add the missing files to the XP partition.

Similar thread on reinstall XP files
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=813628

If you move the boot flag to the XP partition (gparted will do this), you can test if your XP then boots as the windows boot loader in sdb only looks for a boot flag (active partition) and jumps there to boot.