can't find xp

[vaidya]

Hi, yesterday I installed Kubuntu 7.10 for the first time. I made a partition for Xp, but now when I startup my pc, It starts with Kubuntu and I can't see Xp anywhere. Can anyone give me a tip how I can can make a choice between starting with Kubuntu or Xp?

Cheers

[Snowhog]

Re: can't find xp

Let's see if you did everything correctly.

Open a console shell and type:

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Copy and paste the output for review.

[vaidya]

Re: can't find xp

Hi snowhog,
Thanks for your time. I hope I did the right thing (little experience with Linux) I copied and pasted the cat/boot etc. and I got the massage no such file or directory. What is the next step?

[nilsA]

Re: can't find xp

Hi, yesterday I installed Kubuntu 7.10 for the first time. I made a partition for Xp, but now when I startup my pc, It starts with Kubuntu and I can't see Xp anywhere. Can anyone give me a tip how I can can make a choice between starting with Kubuntu or Xp?

Cheers

First - to be sure you did not install on the wrong partition - open Dolphin (The popup says System Menu, located near the left bottom of the desktop), and choose "Storage Media"

There I think you should see both the Kubuntu and Windows partitions as two disk icons with a green triangle in the corner. Open them to see that Windows is really there.

[vaidya]

Re: can't find xp

Hi Nilsa,
I found 3 icons that look like a harddisk with a green triagle. The third one is called window, but nothing can be found there about my Xp. Must have done a lot of things wrong. In a way I realy like my Kubuntu, but before i've learned enough to do my day to day work on the pc, I think I still need xp.
what do you suggest?

Cheers.

[Qqmike]

Re: can't find xp

If you click on the Windows icon (under Storage Media), what folders do you see? That is, what are the names of the folders?

[vaidya]

Re: can't find xp

the icon is a harddisk (click) lost & found icon appears. On the right side there's a file icon with under it written: WINDOWS!
under that:
Compress here
Open as Root
Archive & Encrypt Folder
Browse with Gwenview
Open Terminal Here

[Qqmike]

Re: can't find xp

Until nilsA, et al, return, Snowhog asked for the menu.lst (see above).

Also, I'm just wondering if you can download and burn Super Grub Disk to a CD, then run SGD to see if it finds and boots Windows.

I must say, based on what you said in your last post, it sounds like Windows is gone.

I suppose you tried clicking on all those Storage Media icons, just to be sure?

At Konsole, you can also try running the command
sudo fdisk -lu
to see what comes back (and copy/post it here).
("-lu" is "l" as in "list," and "u" as in "units")

[vaidya]

Re: can't find xp

vaidya@av:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe8e9e8e9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1216 9767488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 16631 38912 178980165 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 1217 2432 9767520 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 38913 38913 8032+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 17848 38912 169204581 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 16632 17847 9767488+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
vaidya@av:~$

[vaidya]

Re: can't find xp

As you might see, I didn't really know what I was doing.

[nilsA]

Re: can't find xp

the icon is a harddisk (click) lost & found icon appears. On the right side there's a file icon with under it written: WINDOWS!
under that:
Compress here
Open as Root
Archive & Encrypt Folder
Browse with Gwenview
Open Terminal Here

You should open all these "disks" and look what's there.

If you have not overwritten Windows, you should find at least these folders:

program files (or something like that if you have a non-English version.)
windows (I assume it is XP - 2000 use WINNT)
Inside the windows catalogue, there should be at least one system and one system32

If these folders are not on any of them - you have blown it.

What you can do, is reinstall Windows. If you are careful not to install on "unknown type" partitions, you should not loose the Kubuntu install, but will not be able to access Kubuntu.

That, however, is easy to fix with the Live CD, command line and a few mounts and stuff. We'll leave that for the time being, to see whether I am right.

If you find Windows, then it is pretty simple to fix - if sda1 etc. means that you have a SCSI based system. If it means serial IDE or some type RAID, they are rumoured to be possibly a little difficult, but there may be ways. Most Linux seems to be fixable ...

[Fintan]

Re: can't find xp

@vaidya:

I made a partition for Xp

This has me a bit suspicious. What do you mean by that?
If you had windows on your HD you wouldn't have to make one, just resize it. By the looks of it you have 3. Sda1 is your first partition and probably is where your xp reisides.

Could you go into kmenu->system settings->advanced->files & harddisks and have a look at the usage of your windows (ntfs) partitions (sda1, sda2, sda5)?
You could also try and enabling sda1 if it is not already. For this you must click on administrator mode and give your login password then click on enable after chosing the sda1 partition. A green light will turn on. Now you can go and check in your file manager under /media/sda1 or windows, whatever again

[nilsA]

Re: can't find xp

vaidya@av:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe8e9e8e9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1216 9767488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 16631 38912 178980165 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 1217 2432 9767520 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 38913 38913 8032+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 17848 38912 169204581 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 16632 17847 9767488+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
vaidya@av:~$

To me this partition table doesn't make sense:

For instance

/dev/sda4 38913 38913 8032+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

This is a purely symbolical swap size - perhaps a thing to do when disk space is extremely sparse?

sda3 and sda6 - why are there two identical size Id 83 Linux partitions?

Why two NTFS partitions?

Unless you know why, vaidya - the chances are you really messed up.

If so you in my opinion have two options:

1. boot XP from CD and do a full reinstall.

It look to me you maybe don't quite understand partitioning? If so, use the familiar Windows environment to do some reading so you understand what it is about, how to do it, etc.

If I am mistaken here, and you know what you do, you can try:


2 - install gparted, and repartition.

There are all sorts of ideas regarding how many/big partitions are needed, and you do have a large disk.

But you should not need more than two or three Linux - one type 82, swap, at least 256 mb (twice to four times is nice), and one type 83, for / , that is root.

It can be nice to have two. I have one small / disk (sda1), and a larger for /home. This way, I can mess up my system, and still keep my files and (some) settings.

As for windows - one is OK - two is nice for not loosing files.

[Qqmike]

Re: can't find xp

I don't have anything to add to this advice.

I did notice the comments about having "duplicates." Interesting. Perhaps not related but we had a case awhile ago where Automatix was being used, it goofed up lots of things (as it is well-known to do--experts I know advise away from it), resulted in duplicate entries in menu.lst, and the tip-off was a mention in the /etc/fstab file about Automatix.

[vaidya]

Re: can't find xp

you are right, i don't know much about making partions. Like I don't know much about many things about PC. Still, i'm learning little by little. I need to read more. I really like Linux, it'sjust a bit difficult. I've reinstalled Kubuntu and now I found Windows: Docu & Setting, Programs etc. but I can't open them. Like I can't open Nero software and my Iaudio mp3 player, but i managed to install Limewire yesterday. so some things work a others "still" not.
I keep trying and reading. Thanks for your time
Cheers.