Should Ubuntu show when I boot to XP disks?

[DrQuincy]

Hi

I installed Ubuntu and then XP on this machine. Ubuntu works fine but XP is totally trashed and I need to reinstall it. I have no idea how this works but when I boot to the XP disk it gives me the choice of a single 130 GB partition to delete or overwrite. Should the Ubuntu one show here? It says it's an Unknown partition. I ran:


sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3ccf3cce

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 16708 134206978+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 16709 38156 172281060 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 38157 38913 6080602+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 38157 38913 6080571 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Is 134206978+ in any way related to 130 GB? I'd like to leave my Ubuntu install untouched as it's taken me ages to get everything how I like it. What is the relevance of the * on boot? It boots to GRUB...

[tom66]

It might be advisable to partition inside Ubuntu, then install XP in this new partition.

[housam]

Open Gparted and post a screen shot of the image. by this way you'll be sure about the sizes of your partitions.

[meierfra.]

Should the Ubuntu one show here? It says it's an Unknown partition.

It should show you an NTFS partition and two unknown partitions.

[DrQuincy]

It should show you an NTFS partition and two unknown partitions.

That's what I thought. Something has seriously gone wrong with my XP partition. It won't boot (just gets to the loading bar) even in Safe Mode and Command Line. I have tried the diagnostics like CHKDSK and FIXBOOT (or whatever it's called) and none of them will work - it say it has an unrecoverable error. What should I do? :S Can I save this Ubuntu install or should I start over?

[meierfra.]

Follow housam's advice and look at the partition with gparted. If the Ubuntu partition looks fine, follow tom66's advice and reformat you Windows Partition with Gparted. Maybe then your Windows CD will recognize all the partitions.

To install Gparted:


sudo apt-get gparted

to run Gparted: System->Admininstration-Partition Editor

(or type "gksudo gparted"in a terminal)

[DrQuincy]

thanks so far for the great advice.

Looking at gParted the NTFS partition is indeed ~130 gig. It has an alert sign against it saying it is unreadable; this must be to do with the problem Windows is having booting / repairing. To get the XP CD to recognise it should I delete it or format it. If that latter what do I format it to?

Thsnks again.

[meierfra.]

Should I delete it or format it. If that latter what do I format it to?
Just format it to "NTFS". Also make sure it has the boot flag.

[DrQuincy]

NTFS is greyed out. :( It will let me do ext 2/3 and fat16 or 32. What will happen if I delete it?

[meierfra.]

Strange. Delete it and then see whether the Windows CD recognizes all the partitions.

You might also try the Gparted LiveCD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/),

[DrQuincy]

Thanks, will do. TBH honest I think something has gone seriously wrong without. LEet's hope deleting it and starting over solves it.

Thanks everyone.