Kubuntu and XP!

Hello everyone!

So yesterday I downloaded Kubuntu from work. I wanted to try an alternative to M$ so I took it home and gave it a bash on my PC.

My PC is running XP SP2 fully updated. There are 2 hard drives in there. I set my BIOS to boot off CD and off I went!

Please take note I have no prior knowledge to Linux

It booted into Kubuntu which I thought was relatively quick install! It hadnt even installed yet, lol :). I only figured this out an hour later. So I went on to install it. The hard drive partition screen came up , at this point I started to get abit nervous, however I have never been someone to stop and take advice, I was going ahead!

I say my two HDD listed there. Now the one with all my data on it was the bigger of the two, the smaller one was for my windows partition and normal installed programs. I saw, swap , ext , hda/5 partition5 < No idea what all this means!I just clicked next, avoiding the data drive and formatting of anything. So far so good I thought.

It finished. I ordered a restart, look out the live CD. The boot screen came up, Ubuntu (3 options here) and Xp listed under other OS's. I booted into Kubuntu (first option). No problem. After messing around for 20 mins I wanted to play abit of CNC3 so I restarted, waited for the boot screen, selected XP and clicked enter, went to get a cup of coffee at this point.

Came back and it was frozen! Hmm okay, restarted.

Now it doesnt even go into the boot screen where I get to choose which OS. IT gets frozen just after the point when it checks for a boot CD. At this point I restarted and immediatly tried to save my XP install. Booted from XP Cd, ran FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, Chkdsk /p /r. All of it! And nothing.

After that I put in the Kubuntu live CD. Booted into Kubuntu through the LIveCD, copied what I needed from my windows installation to the data drive, I had some music on there. Started the install of Kubuntu from there until I got to the partition screen. I left it there, hoping someone here could help me out.

Have I damaged my XP install?

I know it was noob of me not to get the facts or even a tutorial before I started this.

Any help/suggestions appreciated :)

Thanks.

I think you may want to try making a partition that's blank for Linux as it seems you overwrote the Windows one by clicking next and leaving the other drive alone.

The data should be fine if you had moved it to another partition, so you may want to install Windows over the Linux one, as you seem to have a partition just for data that you need so it should be OK, but the screen saving hda and so on was it setting up the file systems, and if you just click next it'll pretty much pick one and write to it, so I'm going to recommend installing Windows Fresh, then making a separate partition of a few gigs or so thats blank, and remembering the size so you can install Linux to that one and it won't overwrite anything.

And don't worry, I've screwed up enough partition tables to learn what to do heh.

Ok Gore, I will do so.

Please can you tell me exactly what to look for. Ill partition the linux one to around 20 gigs or so. Could you give me a detailed step on how to install it?
What is swap etc?

thanks :)

swap in *nix is like your pagefile in *doz
except in windows it dedicates part of an existing partition, *nix likes its own partition.

Technically you can do without it in either, just not recommended!

It would be nice to know what got installed where ...

You said you can no longer boot at all except using a LliveCD ?

I know you probably hosed it already, but booting to your LiveCD, does it mount all the partitions?

Try ( in a terminal, )
df -ahT
to see what is where.

ext is the type of file system it will use for the data ( probably ext3: similar to ext2 except ext3 is a journaling file system )

hda/5 ( probably hda5 ) is the fifth partition on the primary master hard drive.

My guess here: since I see that you have an hda5, I’m guessing that your linux install placed itself on the primary master hard drive alongside of XP. Since XP likes to write certain things at the end of the partition ( even if it is not full ) the install used parted or qparted to move some of the XP data to make room for the linux partitions. When you tried booting to XP, it looked for something that had been moved, and froze.

As Gore said, If you have saved all your data from the first drive then a reinstall is your best option. Reinstall XP first. But I would do a little planning first.

First, do some reading on hard drive partitioning!
Then, boot to your LiveCD, and run
fdisk /dev/hda in terminal
DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES!
Just read what you have and write it down.
and verify that the linux install is on that drive, along with XP.
( you can also do the same for hdb if you need to )

Before you proceed, make a plan of how you want the primary drive partitioned. If it is say an 80 gig drive, and you want 20 for Linux, just repartition it with the first 60 gig as NTFS ( before you try to reinstall XP ). When you reinstall XP, don’t let it use the entire drive, just the first 60 gig.

After you get XP back up and running you should have that 20 gig of free space to install linux. Just watch what you do, read what the install is telling you, and if you don’t understand it, don’t do it! I would not let it install GRUB to the MBR, but that is a matter of choice.

A little hint: don’t try to install a second or third OS when you are drunk!

just to add
Cider........... you said LIVE CD

a live CD will istall into your PC, WITHOUT disturbing existing software, allowing you to test drive the OS with your 'get out of jail free' card safe in hand.

you have installed a complete OS across your default position, which is where MS likes to lay its hat too

next time :eek:
set 6GB partition up somewhere in your PC, then 'aim' the install there
OR actually get a live CD :)

and to recount, your data partition will have saved the data, but it may not be linked to XP when you reload it, as the registry and SID will be different

moral ?

RTFM :D

luck to you

Thanks for the tips :)

Last night I just reinstalled XP. Partitioned it 55 gigs for windows and 25 for ubuntu or mandriva which ever I decede to install.

Thanks for the tips ...

I will RTFM more often now :(

Go for Mandriva!!! You will love it
(better hardware detection, better all around in my opinion) :cool:

nah, Ubuntu to go, cos it's Cider's 'local' open source OS

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foxyloxley

nah, Ubuntu to go, cos it's Cider's 'local' open source OS

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you're right, didn't notice the location...got to represent :smile:

:)