Need help getting XP back

[Bob Bismal]

I thought for sure third time was going to be a charm. I tried 7.something on two different laptops with nothing but headaches. So I thought with 8.04 I'd try it on a desktop. Well got Ubuntu all set up and working, then tried to boot into XP and big fat nothing. Now all I want is to get XP back again.

I tried the sudo gedit/boot/whatever to get XP to load and nothing worked. Took out the HD and put it in another PC and deleted the Ubuntu partitions. Put the HD back into original PC and now I get a boot drive error. Where do I go from here. I really really want to save my XP without having to redo everything again.

Thanks
Bob

[tamoneya]

It isnt quiet clear what is on your harddrives to me. The simpliest way to clarify all this would be to put the ubuntu liveCD in and type
sudo fdisk -lThen we can go about recovering windows.(hopefully without a reinstall)

[Bob Bismal]

Thanks, put the Ubuntu 8.04 cd in and got:

(initramfs) [ 106.223391] ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
[ 141.201641] ata1: comreset failed (errno=-16)
[ 146.206522] ata1: comreset failed (errno=-16)
[ 146.206562] ata1: reset failed, giving up
[ 150.005861] 8139cp 0000:02:03.0: This (id 10ec:8139 rev 10) is not an 8139C+ compatible chip
[ 150.005909] 8139cp 0000:02:03.0: Try the "8139too" driver instead.

[Slim Odds]

Boot in the "Recovery Console" using your Windows CD, then type "fixmbr"

[Bob Bismal]

Boot in the "Recovery Console" using your Windows CD, the type fixmbr

Did that. After that's done I get a boot error.

[Kevbert]

You're halfway there. Run Fixboot from Recovery Console (Windows CD). If this does not work, you may also need to check that Ntldr and Ntdetect.com are in the C: (root directory) - I can't remember if these two files are hidden or not.

[janosaudron]

Boot in the "Recovery Console" using your Windows CD, then type "fixmbr"
fixmbr AND fixboot

[Bob Bismal]

It isnt quiet clear what is on your harddrives to me. The simpliest way to clarify all this would be to put the ubuntu liveCD in and type
sudo fdisk -lThen we can go about recovering windows.(hopefully without a reinstall)

K got Ubuntu disk to run, opened terminal, ran fdisk.

disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
disk identifier: 0x1549f232

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 8403 67497066 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 8404 9729 10651095 5 Extended

[Bob Bismal]

Put the XP disk in and ran fixmbr and fixboot.

When I try to start now I get the Compaq screen with the:

<Esc=Boot Menu> <F1=Setup> <F10=System Recovery>

then:

A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl=Alt=Del to restart

How now brown cow?

[Bob Bismal]

Only real difference I can see from how it was before is that now I have a 10GB unallocated chunk on my harddrive.

[Bob Bismal]

you may also need to check that Ntldr and Ntdetect.com are in the C: (root directory) - I can't remember if these two files are hidden or not.

Yes there both still on the C: drive

[Hymyly]

Seems to me your best bet is to pop in the XP-disc and choose install. Then it will hopefully tell you that it has found an existing installation and ask you if you want to repair it.

If that doesn't work, fetch the (unofficial) Windows XP LiveCD from http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ and manually backup everything you want to keep. Then wipe the disk and reinstall XP.

And I'm sorry to hear that your first Linux experience was such a bummer. Please do try again, perhaps on an unused computer or a virtual machine. Once you get past the quirky installer it is every bit as good as Vista (although still not as good as XP :)).