I think you should post output of fdisk -l /dev/sda
so someone can tell you what's there.
You'll find that xp is most likely still there.

A thousand apologies. The fault is mine for not checking what I wrote before posting. I'm sorry for wasting your time.
That should have been

The problem you're experiencing is that you can only have 4 main partitions. When you installed ubuntu it only recognized the first 3 + ubuntu.

Unfortunately you have got some bad (unfortunate) advice in this thread. It's hard to know what you have where now. From Ubuntu (or the liveUSB if you have to), go to sf.net and get, and run, the bootinfoscript. That will create a RESULTS.txt - post that. It will tell us what boot loader code is where, what partitions, ...
We can't help without (correct) data.

@yancek,

I did try to read the very detailed grub tutorial at http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html.
However Im afraid it's a bit too technical for a newbie like me.. :-).
I can only do a few Sudo commands from the Terminal, anything more and i might do more damage...

I did however from that link, saw another link http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/d...-7-ubuntu.html on How to Install Windows 7 and Ubuntu side by side (Dual-boot). I find it to be very informative and I think Ill be using that guide sometime soon (even if Im using XP, now Win7)

@impert,

no worries. was able to try the correct command, still no luck though. thanks anyway.

@Eddy1,

Im sure XP is still there, i can see and access it from within Ubuntu. Its Booting it thats been giving me problems.

As for partitioning, I got lost there. I had 2 Windows Partition (1 XP, 1 Hidden for Recovery) and I CREATED 2 new partitions for Linux (1 EXT, 1 Swap). Didnt know I needed more. I do remember a couple of years ago I managed to dual boot (even triple boot) Ubuntu without all these issues and worrying about partitions etc. (unfortunately i forgot how I did that and it was a few iterations ago of Ubuntu)

@syg00,

Thanks so much for the tip! I did what you said and here is the contents of Results.txt (it's a bit long) ..

hope that helps...

This is my output of fdisk and I only have 2 os'es

I basically have 3 primary partitions 2 of them were for windows if I add another wins it would have to be in my extended because it'll create 2 more primary partitions and you can only have 4

Looking at that, your XP system is gone. Somehow, you (or the installer) has installed grub2 to the XP partition. That ain't ever going to work - except wubi maybe, but I've never tried it.

Simple fixes (fixboot/fixmbr) aren't going to be sufficeient to fix this - you'll need to re-install XP. And then fix grub2 probably - it's a better boot-loader than M$oft.

SUCCESS!!

I managed to fix my dual-boot problem!

This is what happened:

From my very first post, I had an idea that the problem is the Ubuntu Install messed Window's MBR. Research showed the solution is to boot to Windows CD and use Recovery Console. Problem is I dont have a CD drive in the laptop. (at the same time, since Im not 100% sure that was the problem, I thought it could be a GRUB or Linux Partition issue)

I was looking for Linux-fixes that will fix Windows MBR without the need for Windows CD. There were some promising fixes I read (installing MS-SYS, SuperGrub2 etc) but it seemed what I read was outdated or Im back with the no-cd drive problem.

Along the way I tried everything that anyone can suggest to me.

Some of the tips here actually helped me arrive at the conclusion that my first thought was right: i just need to fix it if i can only access Windows Recovery.

(for example, the Grub Tutorial guide posted here showed me a guide on how to dual boot Windows and Ubuntu. The guide actually showed step by step what procedures to do.. and STILL THE GUIDE SHOWED WINDOWS WONT BOOT. "Dont Panic!!" , the guide says, simple solution pop in Windows Recovery CD and it will fix it! (Unfortunately the guide didnt show us how to do that if the laptop doesnt have a CD drive)

So I searched "How to boot Windows Recovery from USB" and similar searches.

The results were few, and have DIFFERENT approaches, some very complicated, some not so. Many need you to use the Windows Setup CDs (which I'll have to dig up), some need BARTPE, some requires you to boot to a CDDrive (in a PC), some just needs to access the i386 folder, and then finally I found this site:

Creating a USB bootable XP recovery console

It was easy to follow, required only a small download file, and I was done in a few minutes!
(it didnt need or ask for the Windows CD or i386 folders). Took up little space in the USB disk.) Booted my laptop successfully, it entered windows recovery console and ended in a Command Prompt (I was expecting a windows GUI, but I guess its more like a command line interface) I typed "FIXBOOT" and in 1 second it says its FIXED! Rebooted, I still have GRUB2 as the loader, chose Windows XP and it BOOTED!! Yaaaayyy!!

LOL! It was that EASY and FAST and it took me several days to figure it out!

I am just wondering why there is no LINUX script that can do the same thing, figure out where
Windows OS is, get the Boot info and rewrite the MBR.. from what i've seen, this problem pops up more often than you think...

Anyway, it seems the final solution seemed to be Windows-related and not really Linux issue. I just thought there was something that could be done from within Linux.

I'll be marking this thread as SOLVED and I typed up all of this in case some poor noob in the future does a search and maybe stumble here..

I'd like to thank EVERYONE though for their patience and effort in trying to help me here. For me its not about the results, its about the way people try to help you any way they can. For that Im really grateful. LQ is one of the friendliest and helpful forums Ive been in, now that I have both Windows and Ubuntu on my laptop, I think Ill be needing more help soon! :-P

Cheers!

Congrats glad you could resolve that issue.
Success is always nice.