I loaded the latest issue of Ubuntu. It's set up a dual-boot with Windows XP and everything appeared to be working fine. I subsequently activated the "secure zone" feature Acronis true image. It rewrote my boot file and I can no longer get into Ubuntu. I searched the help files and found the following explanation.

"When Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is activated, it overwrites the master boot record (MBR) with its own boot code. If you have any third-party boot managers installed, you will have to reactivate them after activating the Startup Recovery Manager. For Linux loaders (e.g. LiLo and GRUB), you might consider installing them to a Linux root (or boot) partition boot record instead of MBR before activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager."

I assume I still have Ubuntu on a computer, I just don't know how to get to it. I would appreciate any suggestions and help I can get.

Winger

What exactly would you like to accomplish? Do you want to boot your computer with Acronis Startup Recovery Manager? Can you boot with this? You can put the Grub boot files on the root partition of Ubuntu as suggested in the help file you referenced although it appears they suggest you do it before activating. I don't know what this program is so can't advise you on that. It's a pretty simple task to re-install Grub but I'm not sure that's what you want to do. If so, run the command: sudo fdisk -l (lower case Letter L) from a terminal and post output here.

What I would like to accomplish is to be able to login to Ubuntu and Windows. Right now I have Windows only. As far as I remember, Acronis did not warn me about losing my dual-boot. What I put in my e-mail was something I dug out of their help files after-the-fact. The Acronis program gets good reviews from the PC magazines but I don't like and I would gladly sacrifice the Startup Recovery Manager to get back where I was.

At the moment all I have is Windows. I tried to run the command:"sudo fdisk -l" but Windows does not recognize the command.

Although I have been registered at this site since 2002 I know very little about Linux. After a month or two of frustration fighting with Magellan I gave it up as a lost cause. I recently I've been reading about Ubuntu being a very user-friendly and I thought I'd give it another try. I want a dual-boot so I can ease my way into this.

winger

I assumed you still had your Ubuntu CD, that command will only work in Linux so if you have your Ubuntu CD, load it, open a terminal window and type it in and post the output. If you don't have it, I would suggest you download Puppy Linux and run "fdisk -l" command. Very small download.

The fdisk output will tell us your partition information so that you can be advised on how to install the Grub bootloader to boot both Ubuntu and xp. It is usually a very simple process.

I assumed "sudo" was a Linux command when windows wouldn't take it,but I had forgotten that the Ubuntu CD loads as a demo. I'm a little slow on the uptake. I appreciate your staying with me.

winger


To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8c0f8c0f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13057 104880321 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 56667 60801 33214387+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 49372 56666 58597087+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 60316 60801 3903795 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 56668 60314 29294496 83 Linux


=======================================================

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8c0f8c10

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 6528 52436128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 6529 60801 435947872+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 6529 16319 78646176 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 16320 60801 357301630+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x24ef24ee

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 4881 39206601 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2 4882 10059 41592285 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdc3 12829 14593 14177362+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc4 10060 12828 22241992+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc5 12829 14593 14177331 b W95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Yes, the partitions below are the Linux partitions and I assume sda3 is the root partition with the Grub directory? Do you know if that is correct? Did you create a separate /boot partition? Ubuntu doesn't usually do this.

You have some options here and I don't know how exactly you want to do this. You have two 500GB drives with a bootable window partition on the the first partition of both drives and you have a bootable windows partition on the first partition of the 120GB drive. Only the first 500GB drive (the one labelled sda) has Linux (Ubuntu) on it.

It looks like you have a windows OS on each hard drive but maybe those are just data partitions? Assuming your bootable xp is on sda1 and the Ubuntu root directory is sda3, use your Ubuntu install CD or whatever Linux CD you can get with Grub on it, enter the following to install Grub:

sudo grub (don't use Ubuntu so I don't know if you need password?)
if you get a grub prompt (grub>) enter the following:

root (hd0,2)
setup (hd0)
quit

After typing quit and hitting enter key, you should be back at prompt. What this will do is install Grub to the master boot record pointing to the Ubuntu partition for remaining boot files. If this works and you can boot Ubuntu, again login as root using sudo, navigate to the /boot/grub directory: sudo cd /boot/grub and enter the following in the terminal: ls -l, you should get output of directories and files so look for one named menu.lst. While in the directory do: cat /boot/grub/menu.lst to view this file and look for an entry for window, it will probabloy be listed as Other and should look like:

title windows xp
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

If it's not there, put it there with a text editor, I think gedit is on Ubuntu so in the terminal do:

gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst to access that file and edit it. If it doesn't have gedit, you'll have to find another editor.

This should allow you to boot Ubuntu from sda3 and xp from sda1. I don't know what you have on the other drive, if they are just data partitions or other OS's. If they are other OS's, additional entries will need to be made to boot them.

Looking over your last post, I noticed something odd. The end number for sdb1 is "6528" and the start for sdb2 is "6529". The end number for sdc1 is "4881" and the beginning for sdc2 is "4882". However, the end for sda1 is "13057" and the beginning of sda2 is "56667". Were you trying to re-partition or change partitions or resize something earlier?

I currently have this computer is screwed up beyond belief. I tried following your instructions and I kept getting, "selected disk does not exist. I then tried different partitions on hd0. From this point on I'm not sure what happened. When I try to boot I get the grub menu, however, when I select the Windows option the selection immediately jumps back to the top option, "Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6 .28--15--generic."

When I try to boot using that option I get the following:
Boot from (hd0,5) ext3 followed by a long series of numbers
Starting up . . .
[ 5.281839] Not Responding.
[ 6. 553238] ACP I: Expecting a [Reference] package element, found type 0
[ 14. 381034] ata3.00: revalidation failed (errno =-5)
[ 20. 256633] ata3.00: revalidation failed (errno =-5)
[ 27. 917596] ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno =-5)
[ 33. 801496] ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno =-5)
at this point a flashing line appears on the monitor and the computer remains in that condition until I pushed reset.

If I select the second option "Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6 .28--15--generic (recovery mode.)" It will eventually give me a menu box as follows:

Recovery Menu
resume resume normal boot
clean try to make free space
dpkg repair broken packages
grub update grub bootloader
netroot drop to root shell prompt with networking
root drop to root shell prompt
xfix try to auto repair graphic problems

I have tried to grub option but it did not help. If I select resume normal boot the computer will boot into Ubuntu, but when I try to use the command: "sudo cd/boot/grub" I get the message," command not found." I considered reinstalling Ubuntu to see if would correct the problem but I was afraid of doing even more damage.,"

I have no idea what to do to recover Windows. I had an image of the entire disk made by Acronis True Image. I used this to restore the master boot record and first partition. The program said the restoration was a success but it didn't change a thing. What is more discouraging is that the windows XP system disk will not boot. I get the message NTLDR is missing. I have never heard of the situation where the Windows system CD would not boot. This would mean I couldn't even reinstall XP.

The reason I have more than one boot sector is that when I put together this computer I took the 120 GB drive from the old computer and used True Image to clone the Windows partition to one of the new 500 GB drives. I never bothered to clean things up properly I guess. I have done a lot of partitioning and repartitioning. There is about 340 GB unallocated space between the Windows partition and the first Linux partition. There are 2 Linux partitions and a swap partition that Ubuntu set up upon installation.

There are only two possibilities for Grub installation and both are on your first drive, sda, and the partitions are sda3 and sda6. So if you tried my suggestion from the previous post below:

and this did not work, the only other possibility would be:

root (hd0,5)
setup (hd0)
quit

When do you get "selected disk does not exist", when trying to install Grub? after installing and trying to boot? Ubuntu? vista?

Doesn't look like you had a space after cd, which you need like this:

sudo cd /boot/grub/

On which drive? If you did this on sda, then your Grub was overwritten.

That's actually pretty common and I read about here on the Linux Questions site on an almost daily basis. Do you have and xp installation CD, not the Recovery but the full installation CD. You can use it to repair the mbr to boot xp. If you have this CD, you could try repair the mbr to boot xp since you seem to be a lot more familiar with windows and I assume you have some data there. If you don't have the CD, post back, there are alternative methods. Use the cd /boot/grub/ command to see if you have a menu.lst file and if you can post the output, use command: sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst to access that file.

I did the root setup quick procedure with (hd0,5). I believe that was when I lost the ability to boot into Windows.

I got the selected disk does not exist messages when I was working from Ubuntu CD.

I ran the restore program on the first petition on the C Drive which I believe Linux calls sda. As I said, the Acronis restore program indicated that the restore was completed successfully. This is why I was so surprised that nothing was changed under drug program was still there. It should have been overwritten.

The disc I was trying to boot is an original Windows XP installation disk. I have never known anyone who reported that this disc would not boot, regardless of the condition of Windows. I will check the bios again however, other discs are booting from the CD drive so I don't believe that could be the problem.

I have a couple more things I want to try before I give up. I will let you know tomorrow if I had any success.

winger

Hi yancek,

Something came up and I have to travel out of town for a few days. I should be back Wednesday. I think what I will do when I get back is to reinstall Ubuntu. I plan to move everything on the 125MB disk somewhere else and make Ubuntu the only program on that disc. I am also hoping that the reinstallation will cure my boot up problem but I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking. I'll let you know how things come out. Thanks a lot for the help so far, I really appreciate it.

winger

You xp installation disk should work in Recovery mode. You should have that option. Windows seems to have a difficult time recognizing a non-windows entry in the mbr and that's what creates the problems. Using the Recovery option usually works though. The Recovery disk people sometimes get with OEM installs doesn't work. To overwrite your master boot record, repair it so xp boots. These are the instructions I usually see posted to fix xp mbr:

use xp cd, enter "R" (for recovery?) in setup, select xp from list, enter password, enter FIXMBR, if that doesn't work enter "FIXBOOT"

Never used xp so I have no personal experience with it.
Here's a link that explains this process in a little more detail with graphics:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art.../wxprcons.html

These procedures will restore your ability to boot windows, won't do anything to help boot Ubuntu, in fact, after doing these steps, you will definitely not be able to boot Ubuntu. Probably a good idea to put Ubuntu on a separate disk if you reinstall, makes it a little easier if you have limited experience. Just take care you get the right disk, if it's a different size that shouldn't be a problem.

Hi yancek

I'm back. I succeeded in getting Windows up and running correctly. I then disabled everything but the 120 GB drive. I cleared everything off that drive and deleted all partitions so it was nothing but unallocated space and loaded Ubuntu allowing it to have the entire drive. I let it load strictly using its defaults. I rebooted it. It came up with the message 'grub loading' then 'error 18' and then it continues to boot the program.

The 120 GB drive is an IDE drive so the BIOS consider it drive one. The other two drives are SATA so no matter what priority you give them in the BIOS the IDE always loads in front of them. This means that Ubuntu always boots and I can't get to Windows unless I disable the 120 GB drive and then I can't get to Ubuntu.

It appears that I have once again outsmarted myself.

winger

If you can now boot Ubuntu on the 120GB drive, run the command "sudo fdisk -l" and post the output with new partition information. It just seems like you need entries for windows put in the grub menu.lst file. If you had the other drives disconnected when you installed Ubuntu there is no way for Ubuntu Grub to know what else is on your computer and you will need to do this manually.

If I understand correctly, you can boot Ubuntu and if you disable the IDE drive you can boot windows?? Do you have only one windows operating system?

Right. I can disable either disk and boot from the other. I have only one windows boot file. It is SATA drive 1 which I assume is sda1. I don't know why the other keeps showing as a boot drive.

winger

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6e3897d8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 16319 131082336 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 16320 60801 357301665 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 16320 22847 52436128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 22848 51059 226612855+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 51060 60799 78236518+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 60800 60801 16033+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x78d4aef8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb2 * 2 60801 488376000 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 2 13058 104880317+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 13059 60801 383495616 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3d0385ef

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 13995 112414806 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 13996 14593 4803435 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 13996 14593 4803403+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
bill@bill-desktop:~$

Your sda drive partitions look OK. sda1, I assume is the windows system files and the other partitions ntfs data. sdc looks good also, the root filesystem on sdc1 with your extended and swap partitions. sdb does not look right, what happened to sdb1? sdb2 is marked as bootable (with the *)
and it's an extended partition so it can't hold any data. so sdb5 and sdb6 are just data partitions?

What does your /boot/grub/menu.lst entry for windows look like?

Try this option in menu.lst file for windows, boot from the Linux drive set to first boot priority:

title windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

If that doesn't work, try:

title windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1