\\\Warning quite a lengthy story///

Ahhh where should I start. Well I guess I'll first start with the story.

One day my self like other computer crazy people out there decided to try Linux. I had heard that Ubuntu was a great Linux OS and that it was great for beginners like myself. So hearing all this great information about it I said to my self "Hey! Why not install it. I'll just have it double boot with XP.”

And then I was off. Downloading the Linux iso at 300 kbps, burnt it to CD and whipped it into my CD Rom. Restarted my computer and started the install. Who ever knew a Linux install was so easy I said to my self as I wiped through the questions. Finally Ubuntu booted up and I was logged in. Wow it was amazing and it was lot better than Windows.

After 3 hours of using Linux I decided to reboot back into XP and transfer some music over to the Linux hard rive. Now remember I’m all happy that I installed my first Linux system without blowing it to shit. But then I became very Unhappy to find out that alls my Windows XP consists of now is a nice eye piercing blue screen with screeching bright white letters telling me that I’m basically screwed up the butt because ‘Where sorry but A fatal system error has occurred and your system has shut down to prevent any damage that could occur.”. So now you can fill in what I might have said at a time like this. Any who getting back to the story. My Windows was dead and I had no clue what to do. So I did the best possible thing. Booted up my other PC and headed straight for nothing less but … Google. At times like these there’s nothing like the feel of Google telling you the words you want to hear… OMG that sounded gay lmao. Yea so I Googled it up and found my info I needed.

To make a long story short the Linux boot loader (GRUB) changed my XP NTFS partition to type 44, which is an unknown type so the computer didn’t know what the hell it was. So I had to manually edit the partition table and set it back to 07 which is the NTFS file system. So by doing that I screwed my MBR, so I had to write a new MBR as well. So now my Windows finally booted up but then only to find my backup hard drive, (you know the hard drive where you keep all your important backup stuff on) can’t be recognized by windows any more. So by now its been 2 days in front of a DOS prompt with piles of boot floppies scattered throughout my desk and hard drives lying allover my floor. Now at this point I just about have had it so I formatted the hard drive with Linux and went back to Google for more answers.

After hours of Google searching I come across a great program called Winternals EDR Commander. I booted with this program and ran it. It found my lost hard drive and right away found all the files on it. I was quite pleased. It just so happened that my Norton System Works had made a backup copy of the partition table right before my computer died. So I was able to restore my hard drives partition table back with EDR Commander. Thank God for Norton. 

So now after 3 days of swearing, smashing and throwing of objects I’m happy to say my computer is running 100%. But just to think that a simple install of Linux almost cost me the lose of irreplaceable data which makes me think twice before installing Linux again. So there’s my story, I just had to tell it. But now I’m off to go back up my stuff.

** And if any one knows a way to install Ubuntu without affecting Windows XP please tell me

Did you have to resize the ntfs partition, or did you have a blank one already? The thing I don't get is why grub would have corrupted your partition table. By the way, you could have used lilo, which allows you to install it in the MBR or just the boot record of each partition, which probably would have worked better than some random nt one or whatever you had previously in there =p

That story is exactly why I do not dual boot.

you must have felt like just doing this

Btw, ddi you Check/confirm the md5sum matched before you installed it?

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Originally posted by Animal
Btw, ddi you Check/confirm the md5sum matched before you installed it?

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Never had a problem with dual booting windows xp and Mandrake/Red Hat/Mandriva. I'm gonna try Ubuntu in a week or so after the exams. But I don't suspect it to be different from the others. Have you used Partition magic or another partitionmaker to make an Ext3 first? Or just let the Ubuntu-install do it?

Just a tip for not having to dual boot from Linux to Windows just for some music: you can access the Windows partition without a problem in Linux and so accessing all your files.

I'm glad to read at the end it worked out fine . Did you remove Ubuntu or are you still using it?

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Originally posted by DJeX
Who ever knew a Linux install was so easy I said to my self as I wiped through the questions. Finally Ubuntu booted up and I was logged in. Wow it was amazing and it was lot better than Windows.

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Ubuntu Live Disk

Linux has only ever caused me problems tbh, I think it's more trouble than it's worth.

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Originally posted by Stigmata
Ubuntu Live Disk

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1. Put in disk
   
2. Start computer
   
3. Have dinner
   
4. Play PlayStation
   
5. Spam shoutbox
   
6. Check it Ubuntu is loaded yet
   
7. Be disappointed
   
8. Watch The Simpsons
   
9. Have Ubuntu load halfway through the episode
   
10. Turn off computer because you'd rather watch The Simpsons now

I might re-install it soon, but onto a spare hard drive incase ^ ^ that happens, lol, especially considering i got my shipment of 50 ubuntu cds last week

anyway, when i install it, i will probably uninstall my main HDD, and plug my spare one in, then install it, then put spare drive as slave and other as master, how could i edit GRUB or the mbr to for this?

Well I had installed Ubuntu it on a seperate hard drive.

I used GRUB because I'm new to Linux and it came with the Ubuntu install so I said why not.

What the GRUB did is when you load Linux it hides the NTFS partition and its supost to unhide it when you go into XP. But it never unhid the NTFS which then I had to edit the partiton back to 07 (NTFS File System) then make a new MBR because I no longer wanted GRUB.

quote:

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Originally posted by rav0
Instructions:

   1. Put in disk
   2. Start computer
   3. Have dinner
   4. Play PlayStation
   5. Spam shoutbox
   6. Check it Ubuntu is loaded yet
   7. Be disappointed
   8. Watch The Simpsons
   9. Have Ubuntu load halfway through the episode
  10. Turn off computer because you'd rather watch The Simpsons now

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Originally posted by Moo
That story is exactly why I do not dual boot.

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Originally posted by rav0
Ubuntu has the worst installer that I have ever seen (NB: subjective comment), and what makes it "a lot better than Windows"?

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quote:

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Originally posted by traxor
Linux has only ever caused me problems tbh, I think it's more trouble than it's worth.

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quote:

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Originally posted by DJeX
What the GRUB did is when you load Linux it hides the NTFS partition and its supost to unhide it when you go into XP. But it never unhid the NTFS which then I had to edit the partiton back to 07 (NTFS File System) then make a new MBR because I no longer wanted GRUB.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Chris Boulton
That is not what GRUB does. GRUB is simply a boot loader which runs from the MBR of a disk and shows a list of predefined operating systems available to boot. It doesn't do any "partition hiding". If it did "hide" the partition, how were you even able to boot Windows to the stage it did?

All GRUB does is takes a list of OS' on the machine and displays them in a list allowing you to select which one to boot

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quote:

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Originally posted by DJeX
then XP stopped loading right at the screen where the XP logo came up

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

quote:

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Originally posted by DJeX
then XP stopped loading right at the screen where the XP logo came up

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so what your saying is xp was loading?? which means it was past the partition table??? :----o

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Originally posted by DJeX
How the hell should I know ?

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quote:

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any ways is it possible to Boot Linux with the Windows Boot loader instead of useing GRUB.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Chris Boulton

quote:

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Originally posted by rav0
Ubuntu has the worst installer that I have ever seen (NB: subjective comment), and what makes it "a lot better than Windows"?

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Because its text based? I'm trying to work out how that makes it worse because from what I can tell, it is one of the fastest installers for an OS.

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quote:

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Originally posted by rav0
NB: subjective comment

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have to agree with CB. just cause its text based, doesnt mean its worse, if people want a Graphical install, they ned to either Use Mandriva/fedora/Suse,

lol i am using ubuntu 64x with its own hard drive and everything is fine for me i just have to plug the power cable in when i want to boot into linux and pul it out if i want to use windows...

so yea im happy

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Originally posted by YA_MUM
lol i am using ubuntu 64x with its own hard drive and everything is fine for me i just have to plug the power cable in when i want to boot into linux and pul it out if i want to use windows...

so yea im happy

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Why didnt you just install it into a Virtual Machine?
It would be safer

Some help about Virtual Machines: Virtual Machines.

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Originally posted by Mike
Why didnt you just install it into a Virtual Machine?
It would be safer

Some help about Virtual Machines: Virtual Machines.

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quote:

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Originally posted by DJeX

Too slow.

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Originally posted by Kryptonate

quote:

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Originally posted by DJeX

Too slow.

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virtual machines aren't that slow. They are a bit slower yes but they are indeed safer.

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* L. Coyote runs Ubuntu full install process.

* L. Coyote gets to decide!

A) This is the easiest road, you idiot!!!! Pick THIS!!!
B) This is a very tough road, you suck and will mess up by picking this. Only choose this if you want to spend countless hours swearing at your stupidity.

* L. Coyote picks B.

* L. Coyote pets backups.

Anyway, if I had picked A, it would have ended in half an hour.

Now I've got Ubuntu and XP... But damn I'm such an idiot!

Now I've got to reinstall SP2 and set up the ASDL on Ub.

Reason to install Ub: Because I fucking wanted to!

quote:

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Originally posted by Leo
* Leo runs Ubuntu full install process.


* Leo gets to decide!


A) This is the easiest road, you idiot!!!! Pick THIS!!!
B) This is a very tough road, you suck and will mess up by picking this. Only choose this if you want to spend countless hours swearing at your stupidity.

* Leo picks B.


* Leo pets backups.


Anyway, if I had picked A, it would have ended in half an hour.

Now I've got Ubuntu and XP... But damn I'm such an idiot!

Now I've got to reinstall SP2 and set up the ASDL on Ub.

Reason to install Ub: Because I fucking wanted to!

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