All peripheral hardware is disconnected?

cheers for the resonses, I had two primary partitions.
I'll see if I can reduce that to two.

failing that, I reckon I'll have a root around with grub and mbr.

I'm not trying to bash Ubuntu, I've just never been able to get it to work on any system. It even crashed on me when helping someone configure ftp and additional accounts (restricted users, office environment). It barfed all over itself when I added an account.

I'm currently running Sabayon 3.5. I should clarify that by self healing it's got a simple way, through the installation, to configure boot loader only. It just reads the existing configuration from /boot and re-writes the MBR only, with the info it needs to access /boot for the initial boot information. But it is very pretty. ^_^

Grub is universal configuration. It's a boot loader environment that has it's own shell. My issue with it is the same issue I have with emacs: why do you have to take something that can be so obscenely simple, yet powerful, and pile a bunch of stuff on it and then call it "functionality"? Sounds like adding Aero to windows and saying it's "added usability features". Let's call apples apples and all...

Gryyphyn, out.

Hello Hilliard,
I believe that this laptop has a SATA hard disk, in which case, Windows
XP will not recognise the hard disk
You have two choices
1) Enter the BIOS and see if you can change the mode of the hard disk
from Sata to IDE emulation.
2) Use nlite software to slipstream the sata drivers into an XP install
disk. You can also slipstream SP2 or SP3 into the installation
You can find more on http://www.nliteos.com/

Hello,
I use a dual boot laptop all the time. I tend to replace the xp system files instead of reloading the o/s.
The basic method requires the xp system install disk used on the current xp install. It must be the same.

With the disk in the CD tray, go to the <run> box on the start menu and enter <sfc /scannow> and windows will replace all of the essential xp system files that may be damaged. You can also used remotely cached system files, but I prefer to keep it simple and just use the disk itself.

SFC revitalizes the xp install to like new status. It does remove the sp2 and subsequent updates, at least with my version 2500 install disk, [pre-sp2]. So I keep SP2 and SP3 on a cd and reinstall them directly, thus avoiding 2 large downloads. I usually have just a few patches to install after that, and xp does that for me automatically.

Here is the link explaining the endless details of syntax and possibility. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747:

quoting kb310747:
"System File Checker gives an administrator the ability to scan all protected files to verify their versions. If System File Checker discovers that a protected file has been overwritten, it retrieves the correct version of the file from the cache folder (%Systemroot%\System32\Dllcache) or the Windows installation source files, and then replaces the incorrect file. System File Checker also checks and repopulates the cache folder. You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to run System File Checker. If the cache folder becomes damaged or unusable, you can use the sfc /scannow, the sfc /scanonce, or the sfc /scanboot commands to repair its contents."

I hope this helps someone to avoid the 'need' for a reinstall of the o/s. Often things can be refreshed instead.

fallsoff

Hi,
I also set some extra partitions for XP. Using maybe a 30Gig C:\'XP Pro' base; I also like a separate ~5Gig D:\ 'XP Swap' partition to minimize fragmentation on C:\. I use a ~5 Gig E:\Program Files partition for all apps. Then I make a !5-25Gig F:\'Data' partition. I recreate 'My Documents' there, including 'My Pictures' and so forth. I then make desktop shortcuts to the new partitions that I heed access to the most: maybe 'my Documents', 'My Music', 'My Pictures', etc.

I can install applications by just changing the drive letter in the installer, because that new partition is named exactly as the original MS 'My Programs' folder. I also copy the installer and place that in the program's folder as well. All the above makes for an easier app install if I do have to wipe the C:\ partition and start over.

I duplicate all of the standard MS folder names for ease of use; I just place them on different partitions. The original 'My Documents' and other folders are written in stone and sit unused and unwanted in C:\ for all eternity.

I have lost too much data and had too many problems storing everything on C:\ in past years.


So much for my Windows XP current philosophy. Sometimes I just NEED xp, so I have my dual boot setup 'my way'.

Not to beat a dead horse,

Hi all,
Well I personally haven't tried this on a laptop. But for my 2.4Ghz mid tower it works just fine. I'm currently dual booting Suse 10.3 (as my Master IDE drive) then have another drive (as my Slave IDE drive). When I installed Suse 10.3 . I had installed it on the master drive. Then I switched my slave to master and disconnected the other drive and installed windows on it. After I reset the windows drive to slave and reconnected the suse 10.3 drive, I simply used the bios to switch drives on boot up. and haven't had a problem since. now I could probably use grub to boot the windows drive, But haven't had the time to research the command line for grub. When you do it that way. Windows has a MBR for it's os, and suse has it's own. Windows Doesn't bother with linux and I can still access the windows drive from Suse. I've been running this setup for over 4 years now, and haven't experienced any problems. When I needed to reinstall windows, I just repeated the procedure. Like I just cleaned off my windows drive and installed XP black. No problems and moved the programs that I wanted back to the new windows black drive.

Robert T

not sure what you need windows for ,but what about VMware?
I need windows for one work app ,and wine won't cut it for that app.
VMware is a real life saver for that ,and I don't need to leave linux.
it's worth a shot

possibly it's a blessing in disguise, but i never sorted out the windows.
i tried vmware and was getting impressed with the possibilities till the installation of windows got the better of me (diff issue this time). so i've given up and i'm now 100% linux.

on the plus side i sorted out nfs with my music collection, so i'm quite chuffed. it's much easier to get to grips with than samba.
cheers for all the replies and suggestions.

I would do a check of the harddrive

badblocks -svn /dev/sda (or whatever the disc is)

The '-n' means it preserves the existing data.

Full read/write test on the entire disc including MBR and unallocated.

It will take a while, but it is the most comprehensive test you can give a harddrive.

It seems like WinXP could be barfing at multiple primaries, but that was something which was fixed after win9X so I wouldn't think that was the problem.

None if the NT based OSes really care about multiple primaries as far as I'm aware.

I have done what you are attempting multiple times and it didn't really give me a problem.

Problems might occur due to some weird HDD controller or summat so check your BIOS settings.

I have to say you may benefit from looking at www.virtualbox.org.

Run Windows inside Linux at near native speed.

Works OK unless you are using WinXP for gaming or 3D graphic apps.

I think you should check out if your CD is still ok and bootable. Try with some other from which an installation was made previously to make sure.

If the CD is Okay.. Then it's a problem.. I assume a solution (it's an experiment that might work)

* First you have to move your important data from Ubuntu Partition because we are going to delete it. Then using rescue mode or using console. You shall delete the Ubuntu partitions.

* Now try to boot from the CD.

I have personally got some of my friends having such problems. I cannot give strong reasons on it. First I need to know if it works.

Hope it helps. Thank you.

I've had this issue on a brand new SATA drive and recently in my laptop with a PATA drive. I've gotten around this my disconnecting the hard drive until the "Setup is inspecting your hardware..." passes and install begins. I re-connect the drive and install still detects the drives and partitions ok. SATA is supposed to be PnP but some machines may not like this with PATA drives.

I heard some people having this problem who have just installed fedora core and could not make Windows XP setup after that.

Why does this problem occur? Can anyone describe?