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Old 01-31-2009, 02:40 PM   #1
vbdanl
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Registered: Dec 2006
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XP will not boot after second linux install


this keeps asking me to enter my first post.. so here goes..
daughters computer broke, maybe virus, so i did clean reinstall of xp. decided to give her a couple of linux distros, thinking maybe they are safer for when she is surfing..
used gparted to repartition hd:
[root@amanda dan]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xedaaedaa

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 692 11553 87249015 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 1 691 5550426 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 11554 12955 11261565 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 12956 19457 52227315 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 12956 14357 11261533+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 14358 14618 2096451 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 14619 19457 38869236 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Installed Ubuntu 8.04. was then able to boot into either ubuntu or xp.
next installed fedora 10. new menu.lst did not show ubuntu, only fedora and xp. had some lockups in fedora, and had to pull plug to reboot 2 or 3 times. replaced power supply. added ubuntu into menu.lst.
boots into fedora and ubuntu fine. tried to boot xp, and get "Preparing System Recovery Option", then PC Angel appears, and it wants me to use the system restore option for xp.

is there something i can do to recover xp without having to wipe the hd and reinstall xp, then reinstall ubuntu and fedora (and if i do all that, how can i be sure i don't end up with the same problem?
thanks in advance for any help.
 
Old 01-31-2009, 03:04 PM   #2
vinnywrite
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Location: lexington NC.
Distribution: Ultimalinux 8.4 & Slackware 12.0.0
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you may not half to redo every thing!
if you can get to a widows comand prompt or the XPcd's recovery console you can run CHKDSK/f and you should be good.

or if you can get the cd to install XP withought formating or repartitioning the drive you should be good.

but try to get to a recovery console first!
 
Old 01-31-2009, 03:58 PM   #3
vbdanl
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Registered: Dec 2006
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this is a emachine, and the operating system disc doesn't let me do anything other than do a format and reload or a backup then reload. i can't figure out how to get to a prompt where i could run chkdsk. when i select windows to boot, it immediately says "preparing system recovery options" at the bottom of the screen, then brings up pc angel, which is just wanting to reload from factory.
is there a way to run chkdsk on the windows file system from linux?
 
Old 01-31-2009, 05:03 PM   #4
syg00
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Probably simply booting the wrong partition for XP - boot into both the Linux systems, and post the reults of:
Code:
grep -vE "(^#|^\s*$)" /boot/grub/menu.lst
Quote:
is there a way to run chkdsk on the windows file system from linux?
Nope - not yet anyway; good reason to avoid NTFS in general usage.
 
Old 01-31-2009, 05:13 PM   #5
Junior Hacker
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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: North America
Distribution: Debian testing Mandriva Ubuntu
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You can repair any Windows boot issues following instructions quoted below:
Quote:
To restore Windows XP MBR

1: Boot with Windows XP CD in the drive
2: Hit any key to boot from the CD
3: Wait for installer to load drivers in memory
4: When asked to press enter to install, type: r
5: When asked which Windows installation would you like to log onto,
if there is only one, type: 1 (and hit enter)
6: When asked to type the Administrator password, I hit enter without
typing anything which will be the administrator password for most OEM
Windows installations, (No password). If you installed Windows XP
yourself and added an administrator password, type this password.
7: At the prompt type: fixmbr (and hit enter)
-**CAUTION** and a warning appear
8: When asked "Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?:" type: y
-The new master boot record has been successfully written.
9: When the prompt returns, type: exit
-The computer re-boots and Windows kernel is loaded.
After getting Windows to boot properly, you can reinstall grub with the four commands below from terminal in Ubuntu live CD session. Try and specify Fedora's /boot partition as the root (the grub configuration files of Fedora) because Fedora's kernel changes often, so does Ubuntu, but probably not as often. In the example below I'll assume Fedora's /boot partition is /dev/sda5:
Quote:
sudo grub
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)
quit
Reboot, now you should be able to boot all three. You may have to repeat the grub repair when Ubuntu has a kernel update.
 
Old 01-31-2009, 05:34 PM   #6
Junior Hacker
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You can use your neighbor's XP CD to do the repair if yours don't give you the option to do so. There are many third party boot CD's that can do it also.
 
Old 01-31-2009, 06:11 PM   #7
vbdanl
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Quote:
Originally Posted by syg00 View Post
Probably simply booting the wrong partition for XP - boot into both the Linux systems, and post the reults of:
Code:
grep -vE "(^#|^\s*$)" /boot/grub/menu.lst
Nope - not yet anyway; good reason to avoid NTFS in general usage.
i don't think that is the problem, but here are the results:
Quote:
dan@amanda-desktop:~$ grep -vE "(^#|^\s*$)" /boot/grub/menu.lst
default 0
timeout 10
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=a0d98a09-fb61-4119-ab85-dde36c7b3aac ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=a0d98a09-fb61-4119-ab85-dde36c7b3aac ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet
title Other operating systems:
root
title Windows XP Media Center Edition
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
dan@amanda-desktop:~$
above is for ubuntu, and here is from fedora:
Quote:
default=0
timeout=9
splashimage=(hd0,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora (2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 ro root=UUID=35e6de3f-b9b5-4816-baef-94fd5c1d5ac4 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686.img
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=a0d98a09-fb61-4119-ab85-dde36c7b3aac ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=a0d98a09-fb61-4119-ab85-dde36c7b3aac ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
title Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet
title Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
:/fedora/boot/grub$
 
Old 01-31-2009, 06:17 PM   #8
vbdanl
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Registered: Dec 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Junior Hacker View Post
You can use your neighbor's XP CD to do the repair if yours don't give you the option to do so. There are many third party boot CD's that can do it also.
my restore cd doesn't give me the option, and i don't really know what my neighbors have.. i was wondering if the gparted boot cd would work? if not, do you recommend the ultimate boot cd from your link?
 
Old 01-31-2009, 07:19 PM   #9
yancek
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Registered: Apr 2008
Distribution: Slackware, Ubuntu, PCLinux,
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sda2 is a FAT32 partition which makes it the restore partition. The message you say you get when trying to boot xp
Quote:
"Preparing System Recovery Option"
would indicate you are using a restore partition. Your fdisk output shows sda1 as the only ntfs partition. Your entries for xp in both Ubuntu and Fedora menu.lst show xp on (hd0,1) which is wrong. The correct entry should be "rootnoverify (hd0,0)" -no quotes in Fedora menu.lst if that's the one you last installed and are using.

I'm also not sure if sda1 needs to be active for xp to boot, sda2 the restore partition is now marked active.
 
Old 01-31-2009, 09:20 PM   #10
vbdanl
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Registered: Dec 2006
Posts: 17

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Quote:
Originally Posted by yancek View Post
sda2 is a FAT32 partition which makes it the restore partition. The message you say you get when trying to boot xp would indicate you are using a restore partition. Your fdisk output shows sda1 as the only ntfs partition. Your entries for xp in both Ubuntu and Fedora menu.lst show xp on (hd0,1) which is wrong. The correct entry should be "rootnoverify (hd0,0)" -no quotes in Fedora menu.lst if that's the one you last installed and are using.

I'm also not sure if sda1 needs to be active for xp to boot, sda2 the restore partition is now marked active.
yancek, thank you so much!! you are the Man!!
i actually wondered about that, but thought it had to be right because another pc i have that has vista and both linux distros has this:
# title Other
# rootnoverify (hd0,0)
# chainloader +1

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn Restore Disk (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

so i assumed the pc with the problem should be similar.
obviously i was wrong..
btw, i dnld the ultimate boot cd and tried to run chkdsk with it, to no avail.. it came back with UMB's unavailable a few times followed by some German which i couldn't understand.. last was "beliebige Taste drucken" and it just sit there.. i have no clue what it was doing..
thanks again!
 
Old 01-31-2009, 09:24 PM   #11
vbdanl
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Registered: Dec 2006
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i am not sure how to mark this as "Solved", or if i am supposed to, but it is. thx.
 
  


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