Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

[ntuple]

Help !

I installed 10.04 as a dual boot on an on an old Vaio VGN-5580P and though the Kubuntu works great, I can't get back into the XP partition. Whenever I choose it in the boot menu I end up in the VAIO reinstall screen asking me if I want to erase all my data and go back to factory default.

How can I get my data from the XP pa rtition which still seems to be there in it's own partition ?

thanks,
R

[The Liquidator]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

I assume that when you have loaded kubuntu you can see the windows files?

From within kubuntu load a terminal and type

sudo update-grub

Then your password and hit return. Once it has finished the routine reboot and see if you can boot into windows.

[ntuple]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP


Thanks for your reply. That doesn't seem to work as I'm still booting into the Vaio Recovery utility.

I don't know how to look at the XP partition from Kubuntu but I did make separate partition for Kubuntu and from the instructions I had, successfully completed installation. So I don't believe those files were destroyed but I don't know how get them. If it was possible to retrieve the files I wouldn't mind XP not being available.

thanks,
R

[The Liquidator]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

From within dolphin you should see a red folder called root on the left of the pane. Click it and within the dolphin pane you should see the windows folder which will be everything on the drive.

Alternatively it might be in the folder marked /mount or /media.

[vinnywright]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

and we can go from there unless you allreadey found the files you nead.

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

Sounds to me like a Sony/Windows "feature" that doesn't want you to repartition your hard drive or change your boot sector.

I'd do a web search on how to turn that off, but no matter, you can access the files easy enough.
The only issue will be if you want to ever boot windows again.

[ntuple]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

I looked in the red Root folder but don't see a windows folder. media and mnt are empty.


I did an fdisk and this what I get:


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 784 6297448+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2 * 785 4432 29298828+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 4432 4797 2928641 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 4432 4797 2928640 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I don't see windows listed here though it was in a different part of the drive when partitioning.

Sony has been incredibly unhelpful in the 5 years I've owned this computer even when it came to the bluetooth driver which didn't work out of the box. Thanks to Linux its actually working for the first time. I'll see if anything has been posted on forums about the vaio repartition problem.

All I want is the data but it seems to not be locatable >
I feel I can finally leave Windows behind once I make the migration of information.

thanks for all the help.

R.

[ntuple]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

update, I am seeing an icon on the left hand side of dolphin for 6GB hard drive but this is only the Sony recovery disk which seems to have been hiding all these years in its own place. I don't see anything pointing to the remaining 50GB or so of windows.

[vinnywright]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

as I suspected when you partitiond your drive you kept the recovery partition but not the windows partition ....it is gone)

some boxes keep a recovery partition to easaley restor the box to factory new.

vinny@desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for vinny:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4b36bdea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 570 4496 31543627+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1 569 4570461 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 4497 7073 20699752+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 7074 24321 138544560 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7074 24183 137436043+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 24184 24321 1108453+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
vinny@desktop:~$

in my case it's /dev/sda2 witch grub shows as

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows NT/2000/XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
savedefault
chainloader +1

so I beleve XP is gone .........sorey.

VINNY

[ntuple]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

boy I wish I had backed up my data but ...

I was more focused on whether Kubuntu would work and when it did from the CD seamlessly I was thrilled. According to what I read it was a simple step to add a dual boot so I walked off the cliff.

Much like in the BP case safety procedures seem like a waste of time except when you really need them.

Ok so is there a graphical partition tool in this version as I remember used to exist, so I can convert the rest of the now useless space to storage for my kubuntu?

thanks all

[The Liquidator]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

In case there are some files that you want to recover before you do anything else there is an application called photorec available in your package manager that may be able to recover them for you. I'm afraid I'm not an expert on that application as a general principle the less you use your machine before running it the greater success you will have.

Worth a go if there's something you need there.

[vinnywright]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

first as @The Liquidator has sead you may want to try some recovery software befor doing mutch with whats left.........

that sead then (after doing all the recovery atemts I could stand) I would go a head and run the recovery program and restore windows THEN take a stab at installing Kubuntu agin trying to keep XP and the recovery partition this time.

I use a Gparted live cd to do the partitioning then when you get to that part in the instalation of Kubuntu chose the manual option and just point the instaler to the partitions you made in Gparted.

do yourself a faver if you have the space and limit the /partition to 10-20Gig and have /home on the rest of the space + abought 2Gig's for swap.

++ even though this will be a clean new install of windows I would run chkdsk and defrag on it befor resizing/shrinking it with Gparted. then boot it once or twice befor instaling Kubuntu.



VINNY

[ntuple]

Solved: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

Success ! I followed your recommendation Vinny and got a new version of GParted which made things much simpler.

I lost all my data but the Vaio recovery disk gave me a clean build and after a defrag and chkdsk, setup the logical partitions to install Kubuntu. Had 15GB for / and about 25 for home along with 3 for swap.

Now to get Eclipse on and do some real work.

Thanks for your help. Love 10.04.

[vinnywright]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

sweet you got a love it when it works. ☯

☯VINNY☯

[ntuple]

Re: Question: Install of Dual Boot won't open XP

oh almost forgot - loved this tutorial on GParted which explained Linux partitioning very well.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

Thanks Vinny & Liquidator

R.