Can't boot XP after installing Ubuntu

[anxiousdog]

Well I think I've finally dug a hole deep enough that I need to ask for direct help. I've been Googling and reading this forum for days and everything I've tried isn't working.

First, I have a PC that has WinXP on an 80gig hard drive. I wanted to keep XP and dual boot Ubuntu until I could be sure that I didn't need Windows anymore. So I used the Hardy live CD to install and chose to manually partition giving about 20gig to Ubuntu (to start). During the install, the CD failed and asked me to reboot. When I did the reboot, I saw a black screen that said:



Starting Up....
Disk Read Error
Press Ctl+Alt+Del to reboot


Ouch. Nothing I could do would get XP to boot so I just reinstalled Ubuntu via the live CD. That went swell the 2nd time and I was able to use it like normal. The boot screen said that I could boot to Windows, but I got the same error every time I tried.

I have tried all the regularly suggested things which include

- updating the menu.lst
- Running repair from the XP cd
- bootcfg /rebuild
- Fixmbr

After I did the fixmbr last night, I was unable to boot to Ubuntu at all. Every boot results in the same screen I mentioned above. When I run the XP cd, it does recognize that Windows is installed on C:/Windows so I think the data is there but maybe the partition is damaged. Ideally I'd like to save the data on Windows, but I can stand to lose what's on the Ubuntu partition if I have to.

What can I do from here?

[Pumalite]

Post:
sudo fdisk -lu
Also; if your XP is bootable Super grub will do it.

[anxiousdog]

Sorry, I was just about to do that.



omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf806f806

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 7081 56878101 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 7082 9629 20466810 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 9562 9623 497983+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 7082 9561 19920537 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 9624 9629 48163+ 83 Linux

[Pumalite]

Try Super Grub and see if you can boot Windows:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html

[anxiousdog]

Try Super Grub and see if you can boot Windows:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html

Ok I downloaded SUD and put it on a floppy. I was able to run it just fine but nothing has worked so far. I tried several options:

- Windows (Activate Partition)
- Boot Windows
- Fix Windows (uninstall grub)
- Restore Backup (restore windows partition (NTFS) Boot backup same partition

I can now get to the grub menu, but when I select the Windows XP boot, I get



Error 12: Invalid device requested
Press any key to continue


And when I try to boot any of the ubuntu options, I get


Error 15: File not found

So where do I go from here?

[caljohnsmith]

Anxiousdog, based on what you've said so far, I think fixing your problem might be really easy. Please boot up your Ubuntu Live CD, open a terminal, and do the following:

sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
[This should return your Ubuntu partition with Grub as (hd0,4), if it does proceed with:]
grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
What the above will do is reinstall Grub to your MBR, and it will point to (hd0,4) or /dev/sda5 for its configuration files. Let me know if you encounter any problems or errors.

EDIT: Wait, I think I may have misread your previous post. Do you get the Grub menu on startup now? If so, skip the above steps. Instead, boot a Live CD, and in the terminal do:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
And post the output please.

[Pumalite]

You might be trying to boot Windows from a logical partition: post a screenshot of Gparted.

[anxiousdog]

Caljohnsmith: Thanks for the help... maybe I'm still a bit of a ways off from the 'easy' fixes!

I tried your first suggestion and here is what I got:


grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found


I followed your second suggestion and here is the output:



ubuntu@ubuntu:/$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mount: /dev/sda5 already mounted or /mnt busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sda5 is already mounted on /mnt
ubuntu@ubuntu:/$ cat /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
cat: /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst: No such file or directory

[anxiousdog]

You might be trying to boot Windows from a logical partition: post a screenshot of Gparted.

Looks like you're on to something... attaching a screen shot of the terminal + gparted.

[Pumalite]

sda is enterily unallocated. No OS in that drive according to Gparted. Your fdisk tells a different story. Are you able to boot Ubuntu with Super Grub?

[anxiousdog]

sda is enterily unallocated. No OS in that drive according to Gparted. Your fdisk tells a different story. Are you able to boot Ubuntu with Super Grub?

Nope. I can see the list of OS but no matter which one I try to boot I get an error. The Linux errors are "Error 15: File not found" and when I boot XP it says "Error 12: Invalid device requested".

[Pumalite]

Boot a Knoppix Live CD and try to save data. Otherwise start from scratch.

[caljohnsmith]

Something has got to be wrong with that gparted screen shot you provided, otherwise fdisk wouldn't show partitions and Grub would not get as far as showing you a menu on startup.

Please boot the Live CD again, and before you do anything, mount both sda5 and sda6:

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda5
sudo mkdir /mnt/sda6
sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6
ls -l /mnt/sda5
ls -l /mnt/sda6

Please post the output from the above commands.

Next see if Grub can find its stage2 file, because if you get a menu on startup, you should have a stage2 file somewhere:

sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage2
grub> find /boot/stage2
grub> find /grub/stage2
grub> quit
And please post the output.

[anxiousdog]

Here is the first output:



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/sda5
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/sda6
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -l /mnt/sda5
total 96
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-08-15 13:58 bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root ubuntu 4096 2008-08-15 08:37 boot
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root ubuntu 11 2008-08-15 08:37 cdrom -> media/cdrom
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2008-07-02 10:26 dev
drwxr-xr-x 125 root root 12288 2008-08-19 03:02 etc
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-08-15 08:44 home
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-07-02 10:16 initrd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root ubuntu 33 2008-08-15 03:47 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 2008-08-18 13:34 lib
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 2008-08-15 08:37 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2008-08-19 03:01 media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-04-15 05:53 mnt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-07-02 10:16 opt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-04-15 05:53 proc
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2008-08-19 03:00 root
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-08-18 13:34 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-07-02 10:16 srv
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-04-19 05:05 sys
drwxrwxrwt 5 root root 4096 2008-08-19 03:02 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 2008-08-15 13:53 usr
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 2008-07-02 10:34 var
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root ubuntu 30 2008-08-15 03:47 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -l /mnt/sda6
total 18497
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 422667 2008-07-12 05:30 abi-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80049 2008-07-12 05:30 config-2.6.24-19-generic
drwxr-xr-x 3 root ubuntu 1024 2008-08-19 03:00 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7911819 2008-08-18 13:35 initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7497036 2008-08-15 14:05 initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic.bak
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 2008-08-15 08:37 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 103204 2007-09-28 10:06 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 905170 2008-07-12 05:30 System.map-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1921432 2008-07-12 05:30 vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic


Here is what I got with grub:



grub> find /boot/grub/stage2

Error 15: File not found

grub> find /boot/stage2

Error 15: File not found

grub> find /grub/stage2
(hd0,6)

[caljohnsmith]

grub> find /grub/stage2
(hd0,6)

Are you sure that was what Grub responded? :-k (hd0,6) is the same as /dev/sda7, but according to your fdisk output in post #3, you don't even have a /dev/sda7 partition. Unfortunately it looks like there might be something wrong with your HDD's partition table. Either that or Grub has lost its sanity.

Please post the output of the following from a Live CD:

sudo grub
grub> geometry (hd0)
grub> quit

And while you're at it, check again that "sudo fdisk -l" matches your post #3.

But before we go any further, I would recommend backing up any important files you have in Windows. To do this, I would first try booting your Windows Install CD and running both:

fixmbr
fixboot
"Fixmbr" will put the Win XP boot loader back in the master boot record (MBR), and "fixboot" will fix the boot sector of your Windows partition. If that doesn't allow you to boot directly into Windows on startup (and then save your important files), your other option is:

Boot a Live CD
Open a terminal and do:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
That should mount windows to the /mnt directory. Then you can use a file browser to go to /mnt and copy files from there to a USB stick or something. Let me know how it goes.

[anxiousdog]

I'm pretty sure that fixmbr/fixboot won't let XP boot up since I've tried it a few times including using Super Grub. :\



grub> geometry (hd0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 9729/255/63, The number of sectors = 156301488, /dev/sda
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 6, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83




ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
omitting empty partition (5)

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf806f806

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 7081 56878101 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 7082 9629 20466810 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 9562 9623 497983+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 7082 9561 19920537 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 9624 9629 48163+ 83 Linux


Looks the same... is there a way to reinstall grub so that it will work correctly?

[caljohnsmith]

We may be able to get your Grub temporarily working, but in the end I think you're going to need to run some integrity tests on your HDD and check for errors. There definitely seems to be something wrong with your partitioning.

But to see if we can get Grub going again, from the Live CD try:

sudo grub
grub> root (hd0,6)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
Also do:

sudo umount /dev/sda6
sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
ls -l /mnt/grub
cat /mnt/grub/menu.lst
Please post the output.

[anxiousdog]

Okay, before I do that let me tell you that I *finally* got Ubuntu to boot and everything is intact nice and safe - just how I left it.

I rebooted and when I got to the grub menu, I hit "e" to edit before I booted. I saw an entry that said "root (hd0,5)" I edited that and changed it to "root (hd0,6)" and then hit "b" for boot. Came up just fine!

1. So now how do I make that permanant? Is it the menu.lst file?

2. What about the XP boot issue?

3. Do I still need to do the commands above?

[caljohnsmith]

Okay, before I do that let me tell you that I *finally* got Ubuntu to boot and everything is intact nice and safe - just how I left it.

I rebooted and when I got to the grub menu, I hit "e" to edit before I booted. I saw an entry that said "root (hd0,5)" I edited that and changed it to "root (hd0,6)" and then hit "b" for boot. Came up just fine!

I guess I don't understand, because previously you said you had reinstalled the Windows XP MBR, so that you weren't able to boot anything. How did you reinstall Grub and get your Grub menu back?


1. So now how do I make that permanant? Is it the menu.lst file?

Yes, to make the change permanent, just edit your menu.lst file which should be on sda6 in the /grub directory.


2. What about the XP boot issue?

You'll first need to post your menu.lst so we can check that:

sudo umount /dev/sda6 [it's OK if it returns an error, I'm just making sure it is unmounted so we can mount it to /mnt]
sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
ls -l /mnt/grub
cat /mnt/grub/menu.lst
Anxiousdog, I really think you should run some disk checking programs on your HDD to see if it is OK. Whether things seem to be working, something is not OK with your HDD or you wouldn't have conflicting info from fdisk, grub, and gparted. But it's your computer, I'm just warning you that you may be in for alot of problems if you don't get to the root of the partitioning enigma.

[anxiousdog]

I was able to run the Super Grub disk and run "Fix boot of Linux" early on. I just didn't realize that it was trying to boot to hd,05 rather than hd,06. Once I changed that I'm back to the issue with XP. Here is my menu.lst:



## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,6)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=fb481ecc-e004-4484-ac96-f41f684274b3 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=fb481ecc-e004-4484-ac96-f41f684274b3 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,6)
kernel /memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot


When I rebooted and tried to boot XP, I got "Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format".

What tools do you suggest I try to verify the HD?

Sidenote: it seems like nothing is ever easy with me...

[caljohnsmith]

To fix your Windows entry in the menu.lst, use the following:

title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Note there should be no "boot" line at the end. And of course to fix Ubuntu just change all those "root (hd6,0)" lines to "root (hd5,0)".

Do you have a CD with disk checking tools that came with your HDD? If not you could download and use The Ultimate Boot CD (http://www,ultimatebootcd.com).

Also. boot up your Live CD and run the following:

sudo apt-get install testdisk [I don't remember if it is on the live CD]
sudo testdisk

Go through the prompts and choose the "analyze" option, and see if it returns any errors. Please post the output.

[anxiousdog]

Well let me preface this again with the fact that nothing is easy with me. :)

I ran testdisk and didn't seen any obvious errors, and gparted is looking rather nice again (see attached screenshot).

However, now when I try to boot I see the Ubuntu splash which runs forever and finally ends up at the initramfs terminal. Oy.

XP still won't boot, so I'm back to the live CD.

Here is the latest fdisk:



ubuntu@ubuntu:~/testdisk-6.10/linux$ 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: 0xf806f806

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 1 7081 56878101 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda2 7082 9629 20466810 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/sda5 7082 9561 19920568+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda6 9562 9623 497983+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda7 9624 9629 48163+ 83 Linux


Here is the testdisk output after I did the quick search:


Disk /dev/sda - 80 GB / 74 GiB - CHS 9730 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 7080 254 63 113756202 [SysPart]
L Linux 7081 1 1 9560 254 63 39841137
L Linux Swap 9561 1 1 9622 254 63 995967
L Linux 9623 1 1 9628 254 63 96327
P Linux 9629 0 1 9728 254 63 1606500

[caljohnsmith]

There has got to be something going on with your HDD, because nothing has been consistent. How about running the following from your Live CD:

badblocks /dev/sda | tee ~/Desktop/bad_sectors.txt
Also:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
Check the output from the above command to see if your HDD is "SMART" enabled, and if so run:

sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda
Note the above command will immediately terminate, but your HDD will continue running its self-diagnostics. To check its progress and results, use again:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda

[Pumalite]

Try reinstalling Grub:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

[anxiousdog]

Hey again Caljohnsmith... I'm very thankful for your diligence in helping me with this. I'm sure that you're right with the HDD issue. When I tried Pumalite's suggestion to reinstall grub, I got a 'badblocks' error message.

I've run the command you gave me for smartctl but I guess I don't have it:



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
sudo: smartctl: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


I also did the bad_sectors.txt with the following:


ubuntu@ubuntu:/$ sudo badblocks /dev/sda | tee ~/Desktop/bad_sectors.txt


The terminal window is just hanging, but it did create the bad_sectors.txt file - though nothing is in it. ARGH. Wait, maybe it's just taking a while?

I'd blow the whole thing away and start over, but I have about 30gig of data in Windows that I'd like to keep and I don't have a very good way to offload it. I don't think our server has enough room (I'll check with my husband) and not sure if we have any other hard drives readily available.

Thoughts this morning?

[caljohnsmith]

My mistake, I forgot that neither "badblocks" or "smartctl" are programs installed by default. You can install them with:

sudo apt-get install e2fsprogs smartmontools
I would definitely try to make a backup of all your important files at this point, as I think the only possible realistic, long-term, and reliable solution would be to wipe your HDD clean and start over; but only if we can prove that your HDD is still in good health. Let me know the results you get when running "badblocks" and "smartctl".

Also, do you have a diagnostic tools CD that came with your HDD? Please run that if you do. If not, you could download the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com) as that has a plethora of HDD diagnostic tests you can run.

About backing up your files, do you have a USB stick or maybe some DVD-RW disks you could use to back up with? If you're really desperate for a place to back up to, you could always upload to some place like www.drop.io (no need to create an account). Let me know how it goes. :)

[anxiousdog]

Ah thanks! Ok to start here is the output from smartctl:



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and 7200.7 Plus family
Device Model: ST380011A
Serial Number: 5JV91D5M
Firmware Version: 3.08
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2
Local Time is: Wed Aug 20 14:31:41 2008 UTC
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 430) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 58) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 061 057 006 Pre-fail Always - 2858034
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 098 098 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 7
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 089 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 830248440
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 062 062 000 Old_age Always - 33467
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 211
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 045 048 000 Old_age Always - 45
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 061 057 000 Old_age Always - 2858034
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

[anxiousdog]

Wellllll, I finally gave up with all the errors I was getting and blew away the Ubuntu partition. I tried to rebuild XP but it gave me an error so I decided to rebuild Ubuntu instead.

I have it installed and working and I even mounted to my windows files so that I can see my data (and back it up). I'll back it up and then blow away the windows partition. I ran several diagnostic tools on my hard drive but it didn't throw any obvious errors. I think the issue was with the partitions. Not to mention that my XP install is ancient and probably just waiting to die on me.

I won't mark this solved just yet since I worry that after the re-install of XP I still may not be able to dual boot, but we'll see.

[Pumalite]

Glad you decided to do it and finally got it working.

[anxiousdog]

Glad you decided to do it and finally got it working.

Thanks for your help. I'm very happy to be using Hardy full-time. Now as soon as I can be sure I don't need no stinkin' windose at all, I'll ditch it.