I am trying to set up a dual boot system with Win XP and Ubuntu (Dapper Drake release). I installed it on on a new drive (brand new right out of the box). Machine specs are:

Pent 4 1.3 ghz processor
512 ram
160 hdd
lucent winmodem (the only reason I still want XP)
not sure of the sound card, but I have sound in Ubuntu
52x Memorex CDRW (works in Ubuntu and XP)

When I install Ubuntu, everything works fine (except for modem). It's when I go out and try to go back into XP that I have problems.

I have formatted, reformatted, installed/reinstalled, you name it 5 times, but always the same BSOD. I've tried it with Windows creating the partitions and with Ubuntu creating it's partitions. I've used qtparted to create partitions. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I just know that I am very new at this but I really want it to work. It's getting frustating and I honestly believe they're getting tired of my questions at their home forums. lol

Someone please help.

First off, welcome to LinuxQuestions. So long as your questions are as well put as this (and you don't cross-post ) we'll never tire of helping people.

In any case, does your system work if you ONLY have WinXP on it? What does the BSoD say? Can you show the contents of 'fdisk -l'?

The normal way of setting up a dual boot system with XP & linux on 1 HDD is to:
1. Partition your drive how you want it (eg 1 for XP 1 for linux and 1 for swap)
2. Install XP on the 1st primary partition
3. Install linux anywhere else
4. Make the linux partition bootable
5. Install the bootloader on the MBR

What setup did you choose?

I did a search yesterday on Google with the problems I'm having and I believe it's not a Linux problem but a Windows problem instead. The error message I am receiving tells me that Windows has detected an error and has shut down in order to prevent damage to my system. Then it says UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. After that it precedes to tell me how to use the recovery console and to use chkdsk /r to fix it. It didn't work. Then it said if that didn't work to use fixboot. That didn't work either. I am on dial-up. It's all that's available in my area. So when I bought the new drive, I didn't bother to update my fresh Windows installment because it's 3 or 4 days of d/l'ing to get all the security/critical/service pack updates. So, I am going to give it 3 or 4 days to get all the updates installed and try again. Either that or just buy a new modem that works with Linux. As for how I installed Linux this is what I did:

1. Installed new hard drive.
2. Installed Windows, creating Windows partition of 60 gig.
3. Used livecd on first attempt, alternate cd on 2nd.
4. Allowed Ubuntu to install on largest unused portion of drive.
5. Completed install and played around in Ubuntu.
6. Restarted system to go back into Windows.
7. Got BSOD

I have also tried manually partitioning my drive wtih these specs:

hda1 ntfs (windows)
hda2 ext3 / 5 gig
hda3 ext3 /home 74 gig
hda4 ext3 /swap 1000 meg

I actually had some unused(unpartitioned) space left on the hard drive.

I've followed all the installation guides I can find on Ubuntu. I honestly believe my problem won't be resolved until I can get at least Service Pack 2 installed on my machine.

I'd go back and give you the fdisk -l contents but it's becoming a huge pain having to install Ubuntu to check something then turn around and have to reformat and reinstall everything all over again just to get back on the internet.

Understood. You should be able to use a LiveCD to get at it. Make sure you make your NTFS partition bootable. It technically shouldn't care, but hey, it's windows.

I'm hoping after all the updates have installed that it will work. Until this, it's slowwwww surfing around the net while Windows does it's thang. Seriously I'm trying to get away from Windows altogether and I wouldn't even bother to put it back on except for the modem problems. In theory, I should be able to get my lucent modem to work and can go through all steps in setting it up until I get to the point I have to load the drivers. When I input the following:

$ sudo modprobe ltserial

I receive an error that says:

FATAL: Error inserting ltserial (/lib/modules/2.6.15-23-386/ltserial.ko: Invalid argument

I'll probably get sick of the Windows updates before they're finished and just break bad and buy a new modem. lol

~* Ash *~

After days of trying to install Ubuntu to dual boot with my Win XP on a new hard drive, I finally got it to work. If after you install Ubuntu and you reboot to the menu, chose the Windows XP option, and then receive the BSOD, be sure you've updated your Windows to service pack 2! That will fix it!