Reparing Windows XP on a dual boot setup

Fried Egg · 12-24-2009, 09:39 AM

OK, I dropped the "s" and it ran without feedback. Then I executed the the next line with the following result:

Code:

root@1[root]# file -s /dev/loop0
/dev/loop0: Squashfs filesystem, little endian, version 2.1, 709341406 bytes, 94235 inodes, blocksize: 65536 bytes, created: Fri Apr 27 14:09:23 2007

However, when I executed the final line, I got the following:

Code:

root@1[root]# mount -t ntfs /dev/loop0 /mnt
mount: block device /dev/loop0 is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: /dev/loop0 already mounted or /mnt busy

I presume that means it was unsuccessful? Any further thoughts anyone?

jschiwal · 12-29-2009, 01:21 AM

You shouldn't simply guess which loop device was used.
Running "sudo /sbin/losetup -f" first will tell you which is the first unused loop device.
Running "sudo /sbin/losetup -a" afterwards will give you info on each loop device.
Look at "man losetup". Is there a --show option? If so try "losetup -f /dev/sda --show -o $((63*512))"

I think that /dev/loop0 was already used and you are looking at the wrong loop device.

Fried Egg · 12-29-2009, 05:00 AM

Ok, thanks for all your help but this is all getting way beyong me and my linux abilities, I don't really understand what you're asking of me.

I'm going to get a new hard drive, and then set my old one up externally and try to get some data recovery software working on it to see if I can retrieve anything.

Fried Egg · 01-05-2010, 07:45 AM

For those interested, I managed to recover all the files I needed to from my corrupted partition by using TestDisk to find the partitions and then copy the files onto another drive.

Getting back to normal now, thanks to all those who tried to help.

zenofronia · 01-19-2010, 09:46 PM

My wife is having similar situation. AVG anti-virus - she is offered anti-virus software to fix it. Isn't this a ransom? In short, I removed XP, installed suse 11.2 and it appears virus is still there because we cannot launch an app without the system freezing.
Did you solve your problem? How?
By the waym, I was able to rescue her data. Now we need to rescue the drive? Did I understand correctly that you simply bought a new drive?

Breathlessly waiting an answer,

geoffrey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fried Egg

Hi,

I have a KDE linux package dual booting with Windows XP.

Unfortuantely, my XP installation has a problem, I think I need to repair the installation by booting from the XP CD. However, when I boot from the CD, it cannot recognise the master partition and so it can't see the existing installation to repair.

Is it possible to add the Windows CD as a start option on the GRUB bootloader, so that when I select this option, it boots from the CD but can see my windows partitions?

Alternatively, I saw this article on how to uninstall the GRUB bootloader which would presuably allow the XP CD to see my windows partitions and repair XP? Afterwards I could restore the bootloader as before?

Or perhaps I am going about this entirely the wrong way?

Any help would be much appreciated, I am a Linux newbie!

Fried Egg · 01-20-2010, 08:20 AM

I scanned for viruses using a couple of different virus boot disks (Kaspersky and Avira, both downloadable for free) and killed the infected files. Then after I had recovered all the data I needed to, I re-partitioned, formatted and reinstalled.