Hi,

I just bought a new computer with vista already installed. I have never used linux, and after reading several articles about it, decided to give it a try. I installed Ubuntu on my computer and now cannot boot windows (all the [apparently old] articles about linux said I would be given a choice at start up as to which OS I could boot).

I have downloaded a GRUB. That didn't help much (being a newbie and not knowing where to go after I rebooted with the GRUB in my cd drive). I read many web pages on how to boot Vista with Ubuntu (mostly dealing with codes & terminals, but I am not sure how/where to utilize them most the of the time).

Please help (if you can), it's been about 4 hours and I've about had it with linux. I was excited, at first, to use an OS with open-source coding, but now my hard drive space is halved, my previous files are hidden, and I cannot boot with Vista to get to them. Help, pretty please.

Well hopefully you made backups of anything you wanted to backup. You shouldn't be getting pissed at Linux for your own foolishness.

You need to say what process you used to create, what I'm guessing, was meant to be a dual boot system. List the steps you took. In the future, be specific in your posts.

I do have backups, although most of the files I want to use on Ubunto need to be converted, or something other. I figured having a recovery disk for Vista would suffice as a backup, although, I cannot access it.

What I did, specifically, was download Ubuntu 7, burn the iso image to cd, rebooted, checked for integrity, started Ubuntu, installed ubuntu, rebooted (with cd removed), made sure the internet and other apps worked, found my hard drive space halved without any previous files on it, rebooted, never got an option to start up windows, downloaded a GRUB, burned GRUB to cd, tried GRUB with no success, searched multiple sites for ways to boot Vista, and then found a few that called for coding in the terminal. I would enter grub (as directed). I would then be in the GRUB directory or whatever it is, I don't know. The next direction was to type "root (hd0,1)" or "root (sd0,1)" if the first didn't work. Neither of these worked, nor did any combination of numbers. I would get an error message of "Error while parsing number" or "Selected disk does not exist".

That is everything I've done to this point.

grub is already installed, ubuntu installs grub by default, all you have to do is press the Esc key when it tells you to when it it starts up and it will give you the grub menu

If you are talking about the 2 seconds just before Ubunto begins, I have tried it. I get a menu of 3 items. I have tried all 3 and Ubuntu always starts up. I have read that this GRUB menu doesn't work with Vista.

EDIT--I may be all wet. Search LQ for dual-boot Vista. My comments are more generic.

I assume that you can boot into ubuntu...

Open the terminal, and type "sudo fdisk -l" Post the results here.

Also, do the same for "sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst | grep -v ^#"

sudo fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 15191 122021676 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 29748 30401 5253255 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 * 15192 29747 116921070 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 30075 30401 2626596 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 29748 30074 2626564+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order




/////////////////////////////////////





sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst | grep -v ^#

default 0

timeout 3

hiddenmenu





















title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=eaa938b7-6d12-497b-b5ca-4cf21307e186 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=eaa938b7-6d12-497b-b5ca-4cf21307e186 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

This article might also help you understand what's what as you try to get it together with the help you'll get here:
http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_b...nstalled_first
EDIT: Funny, there's no Windows on that drive according to fdisk -l

It looks like you've deleted your Windows partition(s).

OK--there is no Windows partition. That maybe means that you selected the option to give the whole disk to Linux.....BUT: The partitioning is not what the installer would have done--it looks like you set these up manually.

Tell us what configuration you would like, and we can get you there.....

You're right, windows is not an option in the GRUB menu, but I never agreed to give the whole disk to Linux.

I'm not sure what configuration you are talking about.

It wouldn't have done it by itself.

How do you want your drive partitioned?

If you had any data in Windows that you want to get too, stop right there and don't do anything. It can be recovered.

Forget the GRUB menu--there is no Windows partition. We may not be able to reconstruct how you got there, but Windows is gone...

I simply asked how you would like to set up your computer. Do you want dual-boot with Windows?

I think we've just witnessed the first steps to AI.



With Windows still on it.