So I dowloaded Ubuntu 8.04 onto my Sony Vaio after having played around with Ubuntu and liking it. The problem is, I can't access Vista anymore. When I click on the Vista partition, I am lead to the "VAIO Recovery Center," where I am presented with a few options (something to the effect of: Back-up to certain point, full-system clean, restore system, restore c:/...).

I used the "Checkpoint back-up" function, yet when I restarted, I was sent to the VAIO recovery center again.

How can I get Vista back without losing all of the programs on the Vista partition? I don't mind deleting Ubuntu and reinstalling it later.

Need a look at how the PC is setup. Please follow the Boot Info Script: How to and put the results.txt file in your next post.

Probably simply pointing to the wrong partition. That script will tell us.
Why 8.04 - that is 3 releases old. 9.10 is current but is still a bit flakey IMHO - maybe try 9.04 instead ?.

syg00- A server admin/linux class I was in, was running 8.04. Is the 9.10 release a great improvement on 8.04? I was pretty happy with it so far.

louieb - The log is attached.

all - Thank you for your time and help!

Attached Files

RESULTS.txt (15.3 KB, 14 views)

You should have 2 "Windows Vista (loader)" entries on the boot menu. Unfortunate that - but they are not the same - try the second one.

You should always try to stay current with Ubuntu - support drops off pretty quick. I stay a few months behind new announcements - 9.04 would be a good idea.

looks like you have 2 Vista entries. the 2nd looks like it should load Vista. It chainloads /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda2 has the VIsta boot loader. Just a little weird that sda2 has a copy of menu.lst in it - guess you must have coppied it there trying to fix - no harm thought.

Have you tried the 2nd Vista entry?

( 1st Vista entry chainloads sda1 - sda1 look like a Vista recovery partition).

If the 2nd entry does not work, you can try using Vistas recovery console and use bootrec.exe to get the PC to boot straight to Vista. Bootrec.exe tool Vista (MS support)

@syg00 Ubuntu 8.04 is a LTS (Long term support) release - still has another 1.5 years of desktop support left. (3.5 year left on server installs) Its stable - I use it on my desktop. -

1 members found this post helpful.

I can't believe I didn't try the second boot entry after getting the system restored. Everything is working now.

Thank you Louieb!

I'm very happy with kubuntu 8.04. which is still supported as it's "LTS".
Tried 9.04 and 9.10, hate KDE4, not too keen on gnome.
So sticking with 8.04 for now