Problem with Ubuntu/WinXp dual-boot

Ay-Karamba! · 09-07-2005, 12:42 PM

Hi, I have an ubuntu-winxp dual boot system, and having problem starting my windows since I installed ubuntu on my system. Everytime I boot it a blue screen appears saying windows was forced to shut down. I knew that we could do FIXMBR through WinXP installer CD (repair mode), but last time I tried that, It messed up my partition table, so the whole hardisk was flattened into 1 partition and I ended up losing data on it. Right now I'm abot to retry doing FIXMBR and reinstall grub, but not sure if this will help??

This is how my hardisk was divided: 20GB for WinXP, 120GB for Ubuntu(+swap), 20GB free space. Could it be possible that the free space causes this windows booting error?
Please help me to fix this windows booting issue.

here is my fdisk -l

Code:

isk /dev/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
116 heads, 43 sectors/track, 62666 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4988 * 512 = 2553856 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        8212    20480706+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2            8213       54221   114746446   83  Linux
/dev/hda3           54222       54808     1463978    5  Extended
/dev/hda5           54222       54808     1463956+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

And here is my /boot/grub/menu.lst (grub bootloader config)

Code:

default         0

timeout         3

hiddenmenu

title           Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10-5-386
root            (hd0,1)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386 root=/dev/hda2 ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
savedefault
boot

title           Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10-5-386 (recovery mode)
root            (hd0,1)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386 root=/dev/hda2 ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
savedefault
boot

title           Ubuntu, kernel memtest86+
root            (hd0,1)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
savedefault
boot

title           Other operating systems:
root

title           Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root            (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader     +1

koen plessers · 09-07-2005, 12:51 PM

Hello,

The free space shouldn't be the problem. Maybe the parameters for windows. These are mine:

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I have two hard disks, one of which is only for windows, so you might have to change hd0,0.

Bye

Koen Plessers

Ay-Karamba! · 09-08-2005, 08:13 AM

Thanks for your help but it didn't fix it. The blue screen still appears. I only have 1 hardisk, and I think the (hd0,0) is correct. I just want to know 1 more thing: last time I tried to do FIXMBR through windows CD, it messed up my partition table and I couldn't boot anything, does this mean I've lost all my data, is there any way to boot my linux if the partition table is messed up? And what happen if I erase my windows partition, reinstall it, and reinstall grub?? Can I do that?

morrolan · 09-08-2005, 08:39 AM

I apologise in advance as the details are going to be sketchy here, but I've been through this myself.

What I did was, I backed up my grub config file (somewhere in /boot) and then reinstalled windows.

This wiped the partition table as expected, but the partitions were still there as evident when using Knoppix. In case you didn't know, Knoppix is the second coming of christ.

I then used knoppix to look at my ext3 partition and, and confirmed that everything is still there.

Then, I booted my FC3 install disk (only moved to Ubuntu recently, but i've noticed it's the same method) and chose repair mode. I was then able to reinstall grub on the MBR, and voila!

Sorry for the distinct lack of detail, but it's been a while and I'm at work - I'll fill in the details when I get home unless someone else does it before then.

Ay-Karamba! · 09-08-2005, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by morrolan
I apologise in advance as the details are going to be sketchy here, but I've been through this myself.

What I did was, I backed up my grub config file (somewhere in /boot) and then reinstalled windows.

This wiped the partition table as expected, but the partitions were still there as evident when using Knoppix. In case you didn't know, Knoppix is the second coming of christ.

I then used knoppix to look at my ext3 partition and, and confirmed that everything is still there.

Alright, I get what you mean, thanks for that, but do we need to check the partition first using knoppix? (Since I don't have the cd, and too lazy to download 1).

Quote:

Then, I booted my FC3 install disk (only moved to Ubuntu recently, but i've noticed it's the same method) and chose repair mode. I was then able to reinstall grub on the MBR, and voila!

Sorry for the distinct lack of detail, but it's been a while and I'm at work - I'll fill in the details when I get home unless someone else does it before then.

Do we use 'grub-install /dev/hda' to reinstall grub (this is what i read from some other threads/howtos)? Will it automatically redetect our linux partition? Or otherwise if I backed up the old grub config to a CD, how do I restore it? Thanks..