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Possible Duplicate:
How can I repair grub? (How to get Ubuntu back after installing Windows?)

Here's the situation. I installed Ubuntu using the along side option. Everything went ok. When I restarted I went strait to Ubuntu and it worked beautifully. When I restarted and tried to enter windows, the loading screen appeared, and after 3 -4 seconds it restarted again. No error, no cursor waiting, no nothing.

I looked on the internet for help and found several resources.

I tried first lilo since it seemes that many people had they're issues solved with it.

After lilo neither ubuntu nor Windows would start.

I installed and used bootinfoscript. The RESULTS.txt can be seen below

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r3luoa672qe73uq/Mob13HhNiB

After that I looked at

Boot-Repair

I did as instructed here

Can't boot XP after Ubuntu Installation, how to fix?

,meaning I redid the mbr of my Ubuntu install using a generic mbr.

with no success. The results of boot-repair are in the first link.

Now when I restart my computer I don't even get the windows loading screen, just

Missing operating system
Missing operation system
Operating system not found

that's it.

I did not use the fixboot or fixmbr option because I don't have a windows cd cabable of seeing my hdd drivers. The usual XP windows setup tells me that I have no hdd.

Please help, I don't know what to to next. This is my first time with Ubuntu or any Linux OS.

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Omul Neted
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2 Answers2

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You'll need to boot off the Ubuntu LiveCD and re-install grub and configure it. Instructinos are here:

How can I repair grub? (How to get Ubuntu back after installing Windows?)

One possible reason for Windows not booting is that the base operating system was damaged during the partition re-size operation. A possible cause for this is an inconsistency in the data.

This is why we normally recommend a few steps before installing alongside Windows:

  1. Backup your data and make sure you have a Windows boot disk or some other recovery option
  2. Run chkdsk on the drive to make sure there are no errors.
  3. Defrag the drive so that the re-size operation has as little work to do as possible and that it goes quickly
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fabricator4
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  • Thank you for the quick reply. Now all I want is for windows to work, since there is where I have most of my programs and my files. How can I do that? I am running from the LiveCD right now. from what I understand repairing GRUB will make my Ubuntu work with little effect on my Windows OS. – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 13:11
  • You can use the LiveCD to copy your important data onto an external hard drive, which I highly recommend. You might have to re-install Windows to be able to get it to boot again, but you could try re-installing and re-configuring grub first as per those instructions. The problem appears to be with the Windows boot files, not with bootloader itself – fabricator4 Oct 21 '12 at 13:16
  • I am hoping to find a way without erasing and building everything from scratch, even more since I don't own an external HDD and moving 80 GB of data could prove very difficult, not to mention reinstalling everything as it once was. Again the ubuntu installer did not give me any errors and did not tell me to make a backup, so I presume that the installation went ok. – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 13:22
  • The Ubuntu install went fine, but if you did not run chkdsk on the HDD first, and if the file system was damaged in some way, it can cause problems. Your best bet is still to re-install grub so that you can boot into Ubuntu. You will then be able to access your data, take backups, and attempt to repair. At the moment, your don't have any valid bootloader on the HDD because you tried to replace grub with Lilo. You can try re-installing Windows without formatting and see if you can get your Windows system back. Doing this will overwrite the bootloader again, requiring repair as per the above – fabricator4 Oct 21 '12 at 13:27
  • ok, you've convinced me. I'll reinstall GRUB – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 13:28
  • ok, tried to install but , take a look ....ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt mount: you must specify the filesystem type ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ for i in /sys /proc /run /dev; do sudo mount --bind "$i" "/mnt$i"; done mount: mount point /mnt/sys does not exist mount: mount point /mnt/proc does not exist mount: mount point /mnt/run does not exist mount: mount point /mnt/dev does not exist ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt chroot: failed to run command `/bin/bash': No such file or directory ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 13:36
  • Ubuntu is installed on sda3 I checked with gparted. Sda2 is windows and sda1 is a private partition from which a kit of windows vista was installed on my system. – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 13:39
  • It's not recognising the file system on /dev/sda3. Did you overwrite it at some point? Can you access the Ubuntu partition or the Windows partition from the LiveCD? – fabricator4 Oct 21 '12 at 13:56
  • I can. Both Ubuntu and Windows Xp. – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 14:10
  • BTW , when by computer first failed to load windows I let it run a few tests( sony vaio hardware tests) on CPU, memory and hardrive(errors, and surface scan). Everything came out ok, no errors whatsoever. – Omul Neted Oct 21 '12 at 14:12
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  1. First check if your XP is broken or not, by running Boot-Repair --> Advanced options --> tick Restore MBR --> click the Apply button , then reboot the PC. If XP is ok, your PC will boot directly to XP.
  2. If the PC fails to boot directly on XP, you first need to fix XP via a XP disk, this way: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestoreUbuntu/XP/Vista/7Bootloader , until you get direct access to XP.
  3. Then reinstall GRUB via Boot-Repair --> Recommended Repair.
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