I was able to boot up and select which OS to start, Ubuntu 8.10 or Windows XP pro, without any problem. Unfortunately I had cause to reinstall Windows XP pro, which appears to have overwritten Grub. As Windows now starts automatically when I boot up

Can anyone help me to sort this problem out, without having to reinstall Ubuntu 8.10 again, as this would mean, I believe, losing all my current files.

Thanks in anticipation

Welcome to LQ!!

From any Linux "live CD", you can re-install grub. Open a terminal (or ctrl-alt-F1 (or F2) for a command prompt) and:

fdisk -l ##confirm what partitions are seen by the system. Let's assume that Linux /boot is on /dev/sda2. To grub, this is (hd0,1).
grub ##opens the GRUB shell
root (hd0,1) ##Points GRUB to the the Linux /boot partition
setup (hd0) ##Puts GRUB on the MBR of the first drive.

What do you mean by:

1 - "Live CD"? All I have is the CD I created from the Ubuntu download.
2 - I am sorry, but I don't understand what you are trying to tell me.

I am new to Linux and as yet do not fully understand the "techie" talk.
Please excuse my ingorance.

Exactly. That's what pixellany is referring to. Live CD because it has the operating system and can be used for many purposes without installing to your hard drive. You insert your installation CD, let it load and open a terminal/konsole and enter the commands pixellany suggested:

sudo fdisk -l #(lower case Letter L)This give partition info so you know which partition has Ubuntu boot files. Assuming your Ubuntu partitions is sda2 you would enter command suggested above. If the partition is different you need to make appropriate changes.

Sorry if it was confusing.

Many different versions of Linux give you a full install live from the CD. From there, you can open a terminal from the menus.

For just about ANY bootable Linux disk, you can get a terminal using ctrl-alt-F1.

Once you have a terminal, you enter the commands in order. (Note that I put comments in with ##--the only thing to be entered is the stuff before the ##)

Take the time to learn the basics in a terminal (AKA "console" or "command-line") This is the most efficient way to do some things---and has largely been taken away from Windows users.

I don't see how reinstalling Grub will help in this instance. If the OP re-installed Windows, it's probably overwritten the Ubuntu installation entirely. Windows AFAIK assumes it's the only OS in the world and can therefore use the entire disk.

The assumption is that the OP is using seperate disks.

Try to download and use SUPERGRUB. It worked for me.

It has a help menu that explains everything. Read everything carefully. You ill be able to install a GRUB with dual boot or at least boot into UBUNTU and from there you can reinstall GRUB with the old specifications.

If I recall correctly, Windows DOES give you the option to install on a partition which is smaller than the whole disk.

pixellany you are right unless it is a recovery disc.

Thank you pixellany, your explanation worked completely.

I am now fully up and running.

Thank you once again.