wrong boot partition

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Guest

ok nmi have a big problem ,
i have xp on a prtition, (hardrive has 3 partitions)
but the problem is that the comp is trying to boot to the wrong partition,
the one without a operating system on it,

is there a way i can make the correct partition active ?

i have no floppy drive so a old boot floppy is out of the question,
also i have no cd/dvd drive .
its on a notebook comp.
so it has to be through a usb port,
i have been into the bios but this is very basic and do not see the
partitions, just the drive.


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ok nmi have a big problem ,
i have xp on a prtition, (hardrive has 3 partitions)
but the problem is that the comp is trying to boot to the wrong
partition, the one without a operating system on it,

is there a way i can make the correct partition active ?

i have no floppy drive so a old boot floppy is out of the question,
also i have no cd/dvd drive .
its on a notebook comp.
so it has to be through a usb port,
i have been into the bios but this is very basic and do not see the
partitions, just the drive.
Click to expand...

If it was the active (boot) flag in the MBR, you'd need to boot something
to be able to edit that.

The notebook is going to need to be able to boot from something
connected to the USB port. That would include

1) USB based floppy drive (getting hard to find)
2) USB flash stick (I have one with Ubuntu on it)
3) USB hard drive
4) USB CD/DVD drive (to boot BartPE or a Linux LiveCD
or even a Windows installer CD for recovery console)

The notebook BIOS must support booting from USB, for any of those
to work. If the notebook has a "popup boot" menu option, then chances
are it supports USB. (If you can see the initial BIOS screen, the
text may tell you which key to press. On my current motherboard, I
press F8 to access the popup boot menu. That's how I boot from USB,
like my Linux usb flash stick. On my laptop, that screen goes by
so fast, I have to press "Pause" to be able to read the screen.)

It's also possible to disconnect the laptop hard drive, remove
it from the computer, and take it to another computer for editing.
Since the other computer has a working boot disk, you'll have ways
to do the repair (set the boot flag, if that is what you want).
To connect a laptop 44 pin IDE drive to a desktop, you need a 40 pin
to 44 pin adapter. To connect a laptop SATA drive, just the ordinary
desktop SATA cable is good enough (that's what I use for my laptop
drive, when I plug it into my desktop). So there are ways to
connect the laptop drive. Mine comes out real easy - remove two screws,
remove bottom door from laptop, undo one screw holding hard drive
tray, slide tray backwards (to release SATA connector), and pull up
and out of laptop. I've backed up the laptop drive a few times,
by just carrying it over to the desktop computer and plugging it in.

If I brought over my laptop drive to the desktop, I could look at it
with this program (free). This edits the MBR and the four primary
partitions stored in part of it.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

In this example, the boot flag (0x80) is set on the second partition.
You can over-type any of the fields in here, and save the result.
Of course, you can trash things if you make a mistake, which is why
you'd keep a screenshot of this program before making changes :-)
Note that, by editing manually this way, you can mess things up
(i.e. remove all boot flags, or install more than one boot flag.
I think this tool will let you do some really stupid things - it
doesn't care.)

http://www.vistax64.com/attachments...n-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif

I think changing the boot flag can also be done with diskpart.
Diskpart requires you to be running something Windows-like.
It appears the "active" command will do it. With Diskpart, you
have to "select" the partition you're working on first. The
partition "with the focus", becomes active when you enter the
"active" command in an interactive Diskpart session. Diskpart
is pretty easy to use, once you've played with it a bit. It
has enough help options, you can almost get the hang of it
without a lot of web pages.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770877(WS.10).aspx

Paul
 
it has ubuntu live cd on one drive and i can boot to that, is it possible to
make the other partition active from that ??

the bios do have the option to boot from usb, and i have a usb stick that i
can use but it is only 4gb, what could i put on that to boot from please ??
thanks every one for your help.

"Paul" wrote in message
ok nmi have a big problem ,
i have xp on a prtition, (hardrive has 3 partitions)
but the problem is that the comp is trying to boot to the wrong partition,
the one without a operating system on it,

is there a way i can make the correct partition active ?

i have no floppy drive so a old boot floppy is out of the question,
also i have no cd/dvd drive .
its on a notebook comp.
so it has to be through a usb port,
i have been into the bios but this is very basic and do not see the
partitions, just the drive.
Click to expand...

If it was the active (boot) flag in the MBR, you'd need to boot something
to be able to edit that.

The notebook is going to need to be able to boot from something
connected to the USB port. That would include

1) USB based floppy drive (getting hard to find)
2) USB flash stick (I have one with Ubuntu on it)
3) USB hard drive
4) USB CD/DVD drive (to boot BartPE or a Linux LiveCD
or even a Windows installer CD for recovery console)

The notebook BIOS must support booting from USB, for any of those
to work. If the notebook has a "popup boot" menu option, then chances
are it supports USB. (If you can see the initial BIOS screen, the
text may tell you which key to press. On my current motherboard, I
press F8 to access the popup boot menu. That's how I boot from USB,
like my Linux usb flash stick. On my laptop, that screen goes by
so fast, I have to press "Pause" to be able to read the screen.)

It's also possible to disconnect the laptop hard drive, remove
it from the computer, and take it to another computer for editing.
Since the other computer has a working boot disk, you'll have ways
to do the repair (set the boot flag, if that is what you want).
To connect a laptop 44 pin IDE drive to a desktop, you need a 40 pin
to 44 pin adapter. To connect a laptop SATA drive, just the ordinary
desktop SATA cable is good enough (that's what I use for my laptop
drive, when I plug it into my desktop). So there are ways to
connect the laptop drive. Mine comes out real easy - remove two screws,
remove bottom door from laptop, undo one screw holding hard drive
tray, slide tray backwards (to release SATA connector), and pull up
and out of laptop. I've backed up the laptop drive a few times,
by just carrying it over to the desktop computer and plugging it in.

If I brought over my laptop drive to the desktop, I could look at it
with this program (free). This edits the MBR and the four primary
partitions stored in part of it.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

In this example, the boot flag (0x80) is set on the second partition.
You can over-type any of the fields in here, and save the result.
Of course, you can trash things if you make a mistake, which is why
you'd keep a screenshot of this program before making changes :-)
Note that, by editing manually this way, you can mess things up
(i.e. remove all boot flags, or install more than one boot flag.
I think this tool will let you do some really stupid things - it
doesn't care.)

http://www.vistax64.com/attachments...n-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif

I think changing the boot flag can also be done with diskpart.
Diskpart requires you to be running something Windows-like.
It appears the "active" command will do it. With Diskpart, you
have to "select" the partition you're working on first. The
partition "with the focus", becomes active when you enter the
"active" command in an interactive Diskpart session. Diskpart
is pretty easy to use, once you've played with it a bit. It
has enough help options, you can almost get the hang of it
without a lot of web pages.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770877(WS.10).aspx

Paul
 
The most obvious and by far the easiest method, is to use your Windows XP
Installation disk to boot the cd from the cd-rom drive (see BIOS Boot-Order
settings) and use the XP's Recovery Console [RC] to repair the MBR and
boot-sectors (by choosing the "Press R to Repair using Recovery Console"
option) and then, once started the RC -by using it's FIXMBR and FIXBOOT
commands to repair the MBR and Bootsectors, respectively.

Assuming you do have a valid XP Installation cd-rom for your system - start
the RC as above (after selecting the Windows installation to log onto -
usually you have only one choice - press "1" and enter, then press [ENTER]
when prompted for the Admin password, as by default, this is not set), then
type at the RC prompt ;

FIXMBR C:

FIXBOOT C:

....and then ;

EXIT

....pressing the [ENTER] key after each command.

The FIXMBR utility will select the partition with Windows XP installed on
it as the currently active partition automatically.

If you DON'T have a valid XP Installation disk, all is not lost - you can
use a friend's computer to download the following [zipped] cd-rom IMAGE
file [*.iso] from which you can burn a generic copy of a cd-rom that has
the XP Recovery Console on it and also will be bootable ;

Download File: [XP_REC_CON.ZIP] [4.46MB] :
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip

The ISO file is "Zipped" to make it easier to download, simply double-click
on the downloaded [*.zip] file and copy the contents to another folder from
where you can use it.

If you haven't got software that will burn cd-roms from [*,iso] files, you
will also need to download the following, easy to install software, which
will give you a "right-click" option to "Record Image to CD" for any
[*.iso] (CD-ROM IMAGE) file ;

Download File: [ISORecorderV2RC1.msi] [360Kb] :
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/download/ISORecorderV2RC1.msi

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
thanks madick. i will try the XP_REC_CON.ZIP
i have a comp with win7 on,
the xp on the notebook is legit but the installation files are on the other
(1st) partition. and i do not know how to activate it, i have tried f8 and
several other keys but no luck trying to start it as i was going to
reinstall back to factory default,



"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
The most obvious and by far the easiest method, is to use your Windows XP
Installation disk to boot the cd from the cd-rom drive (see BIOS Boot-Order
settings) and use the XP's Recovery Console [RC] to repair the MBR and
boot-sectors (by choosing the "Press R to Repair using Recovery Console"
option) and then, once started the RC -by using it's FIXMBR and FIXBOOT
commands to repair the MBR and Bootsectors, respectively.

Assuming you do have a valid XP Installation cd-rom for your system - start
the RC as above (after selecting the Windows installation to log onto -
usually you have only one choice - press "1" and enter, then press [ENTER]
when prompted for the Admin password, as by default, this is not set), then
type at the RC prompt ;

FIXMBR C:

FIXBOOT C:

....and then ;

EXIT

....pressing the [ENTER] key after each command.

The FIXMBR utility will select the partition with Windows XP installed on
it as the currently active partition automatically.

If you DON'T have a valid XP Installation disk, all is not lost - you can
use a friend's computer to download the following [zipped] cd-rom IMAGE
file [*.iso] from which you can burn a generic copy of a cd-rom that has
the XP Recovery Console on it and also will be bootable ;

Download File: [XP_REC_CON.ZIP] [4.46MB] :
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip

The ISO file is "Zipped" to make it easier to download, simply double-click
on the downloaded [*.zip] file and copy the contents to another folder from
where you can use it.

If you haven't got software that will burn cd-roms from [*,iso] files, you
will also need to download the following, easy to install software, which
will give you a "right-click" option to "Record Image to CD" for any
[*.iso] (CD-ROM IMAGE) file ;

Download File: [ISORecorderV2RC1.msi] [360Kb] :
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/download/ISORecorderV2RC1.msi

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
it has ubuntu live cd on one drive and i can boot to that, is it
possible to make the other partition active from that ??

the bios do have the option to boot from usb, and i have a usb stick
that i can use but it is only 4gb, what could i put on that to boot from
please ??
thanks every one for your help.
Click to expand...

Sure, Ubuntu will do.

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Or, do an "ls /dev" first, and look for hda or sda entries that
look like a collection of partitions. For example, if you see
sda, sda1, sda2, sda3, the first one is the whole disk, while the
other three are three primary partitions. That's how I try to tell them apart.
If you saw sda and no other entry, then sda probably isn't the disk.
If you saw hda, hda1, hda2, hda3, then sudo fdisk /dev/hda is what
you want. (I'm assuming there are three primary partitions here.)

In fdisk, first you use "p" to print the existing partition table.
Entering "m" gets the help menu. Using "a" allows toggling the boot
flag on a given partition. Say I wanted to move it from partition 1 to
partition 3. I'd do "a" "1" to toggle off the flag on partition sda1,
then "a" "3" to set the flag on partition sda3. Using the "p" key
again, to verify everything is the way you want it. Remember to
do "w" to write the changes to the disk and exit from fdisk. The
OS will immediately update things, if you aren't using the disk, but
if there are some busy partitions on there, then the OS cannot
immediately act on the changes (i.e. mount some partition that
wasn't there before perhaps).

But when you reboot, the changes you've made should be visible then.

You can also load Ubuntu onto a USB flash stick, from the CD. You
can do that on another computer, to prepare a USB flash. There is
a "USB-Creator.exe" at the top level of the CD, but that is for
(attempting) to do it from Windows. But the CD also contains
a program like usb-creator-gtk (or something similarly named).
The Windows one is an exe and is for Windows users. It didn't work at
all. When I booted the Linux CD, and ran the Linux version, that
one is written in Python. My problem was, I couldn't create a "persistent"
file on the USB key, to save settings from one session to another. But
you don't need that, as to do your fdisk changes, no persistence is
required. The trick with the Python code, was to change a constant in
the code of one module, lowering the minimum allowed persistent file
size, so it would fit on my 1GB USB flash stick.

What USB-Creator does, is copy the CD contents, to the flash stick.
But as well, it has the option to create a casper-rw storage container
to hold changed files between sessions. In my case, you rapidly run
out of room. My 1GB flash stick is really too small to be that
practical as a result. But Ubuntu still boots just fine, and whether
persistent store is enabled or disabled, you'll be able to use fdisk
if you want.

Paul
 
You do realize of course, it is highly highly unlikely that
the problem is just the boot flag. But time will tell.

Just the fact you've mentioned some familiarity with Ubuntu,
suggests you've had a little accident, perhaps with grub, wiping
out the MBR windows code, installed grub or the like. I'd be
betting on something like that, rather than just the boot flag
getting flipped. I mean, you'd have to make a concerted effort
to break *just* the boot flag. Whereas you could damage other stuff if you
were fooling around with the LiveCD.

Even a Windows installer CD can be dangerous :-) I was fooling
around with a Win2K CD one day, I went into the optional partitioning
dialog, tried some options and thought I was exiting out OK. When I
attempted to reboot, the system was broken, and the partition table
was damaged. Even though I thought I wasn't accepting changes, the
Windows installer CD did them anyway. Using "testdisk" from here,
allowed me to restore the MBR partition table. (The boot code in
the MBR can be restored by using "fixmbr" in the Windows recovery
console. This tool only restores the four primary partition entries.)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Testdisk is pretty dangerous, in that it doesn't really know
what the "right answer" is when scanning partitions and working
out the MBR entries. It's up to the human operator, to look at
the computed table and decide whether it is correct or not. The
last time I used it, Testdisk said I had four primary partitions,
when I knew the fourth one was deleted some time ago. So I knew
the "right answer" was to have only three partitions. Testdisk
still provided useful information, but if some other person
had been "repairing" my computer, they would probably have
accepted the answer Testdisk was giving them (which would create
overlapping partitions). While the fourth partition probably would
have failed to mount, it still would not have been a good situation.

Paul
 
If you do continue to have problems, please write down the
exact error message on the screen and post it. Because those
messages can help a lot to identify what is wrong. For
example, your boot.ini could have an invalid ARC (disk number)
that is causing the problem. And the error message if present,
would help someone here identify that.

Paul
 
thanks paul.
the problem started when Ubuntu live cd was put on a partition,
then in windows disk manager the Ubuntu partition was made active, of cause
when rebooted it starts the live cd, now its just getting it back to windows
and finding a boot manager so one or the other can be booted to as and when
its wanted




"Paul" wrote in message
If you do continue to have problems, please write down the
exact error message on the screen and post it. Because those
messages can help a lot to identify what is wrong. For
example, your boot.ini could have an invalid ARC (disk number)
that is causing the problem. And the error message if present,
would help someone here identify that.

Paul
 
The most obvious and by far the easiest method, is to use your Windows XP
Installation disk to boot the cd from the cd-rom drive
Click to expand...

Perhaps you missed the part where the OP said

As others have noted, the OP will need to boot to a USB device or use
the Ubuntu partition that is apparently present on the drive.
 
I am so sorry - I have just been informed by another participant in this
thread, that you originally stated you had no cd/dvd drive -

Not to worry - take most of the advice I gave in my previous post, but
instead of downloading the ISO Image and burning a cd-rom from it - instead
download the following ZIP file that allows you to create a similar
bootable XP Installation disk out of a USB flash-drive (memory-stick) that
also just contains the Recovery Console :

For "Recovery Console on bootable USB device" ;
Download link (ZIPfile - 6.62 MB) :

http://www.4shared.com/file/t3MX2P8z/XP_Recovery_Console_on_USB.html

Instructions : Contained within ZIPfile - readme.txt

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




thanks madick. i will try the XP_REC_CON.ZIP
i have a comp with win7 on,
the xp on the notebook is legit but the installation files are on the
other (1st) partition. and i do not know how to activate it, i have tried
f8 and several other keys but no luck trying to start it as i was going
to reinstall back to factory default,



"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
The most obvious and by far the easiest method, is to use your Windows XP
Installation disk to boot the cd from the cd-rom drive (see BIOS
Boot-Order
settings) and use the XP's Recovery Console [RC] to repair the MBR and
boot-sectors (by choosing the "Press R to Repair using Recovery Console"
option) and then, once started the RC -by using it's FIXMBR and FIXBOOT
commands to repair the MBR and Bootsectors, respectively.

Assuming you do have a valid XP Installation cd-rom for your system -
start
the RC as above (after selecting the Windows installation to log onto -
usually you have only one choice - press "1" and enter, then press
[ENTER]
when prompted for the Admin password, as by default, this is not set),
then
type at the RC prompt ;

FIXMBR C:

FIXBOOT C:

...and then ;

EXIT

...pressing the [ENTER] key after each command.

The FIXMBR utility will select the partition with Windows XP installed on
it as the currently active partition automatically.

If you DON'T have a valid XP Installation disk, all is not lost - you can
use a friend's computer to download the following [zipped] cd-rom IMAGE
file [*.iso] from which you can burn a generic copy of a cd-rom that has
the XP Recovery Console on it and also will be bootable ;

Download File: [XP_REC_CON.ZIP] [4.46MB] :
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip

The ISO file is "Zipped" to make it easier to download, simply
double-click
on the downloaded [*.zip] file and copy the contents to another folder
from
where you can use it.

If you haven't got software that will burn cd-roms from [*,iso] files,
you
will also need to download the following, easy to install software, which
will give you a "right-click" option to "Record Image to CD" for any
[*.iso] (CD-ROM IMAGE) file ;

Download File: [ISORecorderV2RC1.msi] [360Kb] :
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/download/ISORecorderV2RC1.msi

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




ok nmi have a big problem ,
i have xp on a prtition, (hardrive has 3 partitions)
but the problem is that the comp is trying to boot to the wrong
partition, the one without a operating system on it,

is there a way i can make the correct partition active ?

i have no floppy drive so a old boot floppy is out of the question,
also i have no cd/dvd drive .
its on a notebook comp.
so it has to be through a usb port,
i have been into the bios but this is very basic and do not see the
partitions, just the drive.


;
;
;
;
;
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
thanks paul.
the problem started when Ubuntu live cd was put on a partition,
then in windows disk manager the Ubuntu partition was made active, of
cause when rebooted it starts the live cd, now its just getting it back
to windows and finding a boot manager so one or the other can be booted
to as and when its wanted
Click to expand...

OK, the Windows boot uses MBR code, then partition boot code
located just before C: NTFS (the partition boot sector), and then
the rest of Windows takes over. And Windows relies on the boot
flag as part of that process. The boot flag identifies which
partition has the rest of the stuff.

Grub on the other hand, doesn't absolutely need the boot flag.
Linux will load the MBR with grub boot code. Grub consists of several
stages. And somewhere along the way, Grub seems to have hard
coded where it's going to boot from (GUID of partition?). So
it doesn't need the boot flag. When you do an update-grub, it
must be writing something somewhere in the stages, to guide it
where to go.

The last OS to be installed, tries to install its boot manager
and boot process. So if you installed Linux LiveCD, then grub
got installed (MBR and other places), and grub should be
presenting a menu with both Linux and WinXP listed in it.
At that point, if you delete Linux, then grub "points at nothing"
and you need to make repairs. The chain of grub stages is then
broken, as you've deleted the last stage. In that case, booting
the Windows recovery console from the Windows installer CD (or
even that bootleg recovery console CD), gets you to a point where
you can use "fixmbr" to repair the MBR and install WinXP code again
over top of the first stage of grub. Since the boot stuff inside
C: hasn't been touched, that should be enough to get it going.
Fixmbr won't fix the boot flag as far as I know, but Linux shouldn't
really have changed it anyway. But that's something you can check.
Using fdisk in Linux, you can verify the boot flag if you want
(using your LiveCD for example and a USB CD/DVD drive).

The Linux CD should really have a warning such as "do you know
how dual-booting works" before allowing an install like that.
While on the one hand, Linux is only too happy to take over
via installing Grub, it's really a lot better if you have
some idea what a mess it's going to make in the long run :-)

If you'd asked about multi-booting or dual-booting on a laptop,
my advice to you would have been not to bother :-) If you want
Linux, a very workable option is a USB flash stick with a
persistent casper-rw container. Which is what I use for occasional
Linux fun. That way, each of your OSes is stored on a separate device.
In my case, I re-mastered the image and removed LibreOffice, so I
could have a bit more space for other things. Ubuntu has a
"customization kit" for that. I managed to get a working
new LiveCD on the first try (which I thought was a miracle,
as those things go).

Paul
 
Sorry - the link on my previous post was broken.

Please try the one below instead....

Download File: [XPRCUSB.ZIP] [6.62 MB] :
http://www.4shared.com/zip/kfY5PZiQ/XPRCUSB.html
Instructions : Contained within ZIPfile - readme.txt

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




Tim Meddick said:
I am so sorry - I have just been informed by another participant in this
thread, that you originally stated you had no cd/dvd drive -

Not to worry - take most of the advice I gave in my previous post, but
instead of downloading the ISO Image and burning a cd-rom from it -
instead download the following ZIP file that allows you to create a
similar bootable XP Installation disk out of a USB flash-drive
(memory-stick) that also just contains the Recovery Console :

For "Recovery Console on bootable USB device" ;
Download link (ZIPfile - 6.62 MB) :

http://www.4shared.com/file/t3MX2P8z/XP_Recovery_Console_on_USB.html

Instructions : Contained within ZIPfile - readme.txt

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




thanks madick. i will try the XP_REC_CON.ZIP
i have a comp with win7 on,
the xp on the notebook is legit but the installation files are on the
other (1st) partition. and i do not know how to activate it, i have
tried f8 and several other keys but no luck trying to start it as i was
going to reinstall back to factory default,



"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
The most obvious and by far the easiest method, is to use your Windows
XP
Installation disk to boot the cd from the cd-rom drive (see BIOS
Boot-Order
settings) and use the XP's Recovery Console [RC] to repair the MBR and
boot-sectors (by choosing the "Press R to Repair using Recovery Console"
option) and then, once started the RC -by using it's FIXMBR and FIXBOOT
commands to repair the MBR and Bootsectors, respectively.

Assuming you do have a valid XP Installation cd-rom for your system -
start
the RC as above (after selecting the Windows installation to log onto -
usually you have only one choice - press "1" and enter, then press
[ENTER]
when prompted for the Admin password, as by default, this is not set),
then
type at the RC prompt ;

FIXMBR C:

FIXBOOT C:

...and then ;

EXIT

...pressing the [ENTER] key after each command.

The FIXMBR utility will select the partition with Windows XP installed
on
it as the currently active partition automatically.

If you DON'T have a valid XP Installation disk, all is not lost - you
can
use a friend's computer to download the following [zipped] cd-rom IMAGE
file [*.iso] from which you can burn a generic copy of a cd-rom that has
the XP Recovery Console on it and also will be bootable ;

Download File: [XP_REC_CON.ZIP] [4.46MB] :
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip

The ISO file is "Zipped" to make it easier to download, simply
double-click
on the downloaded [*.zip] file and copy the contents to another folder
from
where you can use it.

If you haven't got software that will burn cd-roms from [*,iso] files,
you
will also need to download the following, easy to install software,
which
will give you a "right-click" option to "Record Image to CD" for any
[*.iso] (CD-ROM IMAGE) file ;

Download File: [ISORecorderV2RC1.msi] [360Kb] :
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/download/ISORecorderV2RC1.msi

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




ok nmi have a big problem ,
i have xp on a prtition, (hardrive has 3 partitions)
but the problem is that the comp is trying to boot to the wrong
partition, the one without a operating system on it,

is there a way i can make the correct partition active ?

i have no floppy drive so a old boot floppy is out of the question,
also i have no cd/dvd drive .
its on a notebook comp.
so it has to be through a usb port,
i have been into the bios but this is very basic and do not see the
partitions, just the drive.


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thanks folks. its sorted for now, got windows back.

we didn't actually install Ubuntu but put the live cd onto the partition, so
it boots just to the Ubuntu live cd,
this is why we never got the boot menu,
i have tried to install Ubuntu before, but it makes a mess of the drives, so
getting rid of windows, this way we hope to keep both of them --- win xp
and Ubuntu,

i will now see if i can get a boot menu to install through win xp, hopefully
one that will see Ubuntu and windows,




"Paul" wrote in message
thanks paul.
the problem started when Ubuntu live cd was put on a partition,
then in windows disk manager the Ubuntu partition was made active, of
cause when rebooted it starts the live cd, now its just getting it back to
windows and finding a boot manager so one or the other can be booted to as
and when its wanted
Click to expand...

OK, the Windows boot uses MBR code, then partition boot code
located just before C: NTFS (the partition boot sector), and then
the rest of Windows takes over. And Windows relies on the boot
flag as part of that process. The boot flag identifies which
partition has the rest of the stuff.

Grub on the other hand, doesn't absolutely need the boot flag.
Linux will load the MBR with grub boot code. Grub consists of several
stages. And somewhere along the way, Grub seems to have hard
coded where it's going to boot from (GUID of partition?). So
it doesn't need the boot flag. When you do an update-grub, it
must be writing something somewhere in the stages, to guide it
where to go.

The last OS to be installed, tries to install its boot manager
and boot process. So if you installed Linux LiveCD, then grub
got installed (MBR and other places), and grub should be
presenting a menu with both Linux and WinXP listed in it.
At that point, if you delete Linux, then grub "points at nothing"
and you need to make repairs. The chain of grub stages is then
broken, as you've deleted the last stage. In that case, booting
the Windows recovery console from the Windows installer CD (or
even that bootleg recovery console CD), gets you to a point where
you can use "fixmbr" to repair the MBR and install WinXP code again
over top of the first stage of grub. Since the boot stuff inside
C: hasn't been touched, that should be enough to get it going.
Fixmbr won't fix the boot flag as far as I know, but Linux shouldn't
really have changed it anyway. But that's something you can check.
Using fdisk in Linux, you can verify the boot flag if you want
(using your LiveCD for example and a USB CD/DVD drive).

The Linux CD should really have a warning such as "do you know
how dual-booting works" before allowing an install like that.
While on the one hand, Linux is only too happy to take over
via installing Grub, it's really a lot better if you have
some idea what a mess it's going to make in the long run :-)

If you'd asked about multi-booting or dual-booting on a laptop,
my advice to you would have been not to bother :-) If you want
Linux, a very workable option is a USB flash stick with a
persistent casper-rw container. Which is what I use for occasional
Linux fun. That way, each of your OSes is stored on a separate device.
In my case, I re-mastered the image and removed LibreOffice, so I
could have a bit more space for other things. Ubuntu has a
"customization kit" for that. I managed to get a working
new LiveCD on the first try (which I thought was a miracle,
as those things go).

Paul
 
thanks meddick,
i found a disk with spotmau on it and used that to make the ntfs partition
active,

all i need to do now is find a boot menu/loader that i can install through
win xp that will see ubuntu and xp,





"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
Sorry - the link on my previous post was broken.

Please try the one below instead....

Download File: [XPRCUSB.ZIP] [6.62 MB] :
http://www.4shared.com/zip/kfY5PZiQ/XPRCUSB.html
Instructions : Contained within ZIPfile - readme.txt

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




Tim Meddick said:
I am so sorry - I have just been informed by another participant in this
thread, that you originally stated you had no cd/dvd drive -

Not to worry - take most of the advice I gave in my previous post, but
instead of downloading the ISO Image and burning a cd-rom from it -
instead download the following ZIP file that allows you to create a
similar bootable XP Installation disk out of a USB flash-drive
(memory-stick) that also just contains the Recovery Console :

For "Recovery Console on bootable USB device" ;
Download link (ZIPfile - 6.62 MB) :

http://www.4shared.com/file/t3MX2P8z/XP_Recovery_Console_on_USB.html

Instructions : Contained within ZIPfile - readme.txt

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




thanks madick. i will try the XP_REC_CON.ZIP
i have a comp with win7 on,
the xp on the notebook is legit but the installation files are on the
other (1st) partition. and i do not know how to activate it, i have tried
f8 and several other keys but no luck trying to start it as i was going
to reinstall back to factory default,



"Tim Meddick" wrote in message
The most obvious and by far the easiest method, is to use your Windows XP
Installation disk to boot the cd from the cd-rom drive (see BIOS
Boot-Order
settings) and use the XP's Recovery Console [RC] to repair the MBR and
boot-sectors (by choosing the "Press R to Repair using Recovery Console"
option) and then, once started the RC -by using it's FIXMBR and FIXBOOT
commands to repair the MBR and Bootsectors, respectively.

Assuming you do have a valid XP Installation cd-rom for your system -
start
the RC as above (after selecting the Windows installation to log onto -
usually you have only one choice - press "1" and enter, then press
[ENTER]
when prompted for the Admin password, as by default, this is not set),
then
type at the RC prompt ;

FIXMBR C:

FIXBOOT C:

...and then ;

EXIT

...pressing the [ENTER] key after each command.

The FIXMBR utility will select the partition with Windows XP installed on
it as the currently active partition automatically.

If you DON'T have a valid XP Installation disk, all is not lost - you can
use a friend's computer to download the following [zipped] cd-rom IMAGE
file [*.iso] from which you can burn a generic copy of a cd-rom that has
the XP Recovery Console on it and also will be bootable ;

Download File: [XP_REC_CON.ZIP] [4.46MB] :
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip

The ISO file is "Zipped" to make it easier to download, simply
double-click
on the downloaded [*.zip] file and copy the contents to another folder
from
where you can use it.

If you haven't got software that will burn cd-roms from [*,iso] files,
you
will also need to download the following, easy to install software, which
will give you a "right-click" option to "Record Image to CD" for any
[*.iso] (CD-ROM IMAGE) file ;

Download File: [ISORecorderV2RC1.msi] [360Kb] :
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/download/ISORecorderV2RC1.msi

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




ok nmi have a big problem ,
i have xp on a prtition, (hardrive has 3 partitions)
but the problem is that the comp is trying to boot to the wrong
partition, the one without a operating system on it,

is there a way i can make the correct partition active ?

i have no floppy drive so a old boot floppy is out of the question,
also i have no cd/dvd drive .
its on a notebook comp.
so it has to be through a usb port,
i have been into the bios but this is very basic and do not see the
partitions, just the drive.


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