New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

[rpaskudniak]

Again, thanks, abn. I'm still reading the docs. However, linke much of this forum (as well as the supergrubdisk forum) the orientation seems more at rescuing Linux boots, rather than Windows, thoug I do see windows mentioned. There a LOTTA doc in there! I will continue reading the docs until my eyes cross

Not giving up...

[rpaskudniak]

SIGHHhhh....

This system rescue CD business is looking like another wild goose chase. I have wasted 3 cd's so far and Brasero always comes up with an an error at the very end of the data integrity test. The third time, I tried version 1.0.2 rather 1.0.3. I used brasero rather than the default burner because brasero allows me to slow the write speed to 2x. It was Brasero that allowed me to successfully burn the SuperGrubDisk when the default burner failed me.

I may take it up with the author of SystemRescueDisk, joining yet another forum, but I feel I am getting nowhere with this approach.

Thanks for the efforts. I will keep looking back in case someone has other ideas.

[rpaskudniak]

Thanks to all those who have sent helpful suggestions.

Despite my depressing most recent note (with the ), the SystemRescueCD did actually burn successfully. (I guess a Brasero bug kept giving errors.) I discovered this when I inadvertently booted it and accepted some defaults. As far as I can see, I have Ubunto off my system, though it may still be there in the second partition.

All is not yet well - the Windows banner page still slides for 23 minutes (better than forever) before finally presenting the login screen. I tried to run Partition Magic (from before Symantec bought it as a slum property ) and it complained about the disk geometry, not a ghost of an attempt to fix the blessed thing!

Since my problem is no longer an Ubuntu issue, I will consider this now a Windows problem. I have some ideas on how to fix the partition and I will post them on PC Help Forum (www.pchelpforum.com).

Once this is fixed, I will retrun to this forum with my scheme for partitioning my main hard drive as well as my external drive for a (hopefully) more fortuitous installation.

Again, thanks for the leads.

[rpaskudniak]

Ahh, after 3 weeks, I finally got my Windows straightened out.

I walked into J&R and bought Acronis Disk Director Suite 10. Scandalous to actually pay for commercial software but nont of the free options were working.

I booted the ADD disk and used the app to display the partitions. It showed 2 partitions: the 92GB NTFS partition and the 90GB EXT3 partition. I used ADD to delete the EXT3 and it again displayed the partition table. This time, in place of the EXT3 partition, was a 1.8GB Linux boot partition.

So I now see what was wrong: The "Guided" Ubunto install overlapped the boot and EXT3 partitions. Unfortunately, since this was booted from the Acronis CD, there are no screen images to post. It would have been a clearer explanation of the problem.

Now that both extra partitions are gone, my PC boots in is usual, sluggish way. (It is, after all, a dinosaur.)

In a totally different thread, I will post my schemes and ask for feedback on their possibility of success.

Thanks very much for the help you have provided. It got me past the initial big disaster (when it would never come up).