JerseyDubbin

First off, if you have a clean hard drive i recomend installing windows first then ubuntu. 99% of the time that will save you from having to do this.

Now if it is reversed and you installed grub first and now just windows loads there is a solution.

First we need to get grub back up and running as the bootloader
to do this you need to open the terminal

type 'sudo grub' (without the ')
enter
it should search bios or something of the sort so give it some time.

eventually you should get a prompt
grub>
now type 'root (hd0,0)'
hd0 being the disk your linux is on and 0 being the partition it is installed on

next is setting up grub on hd0

'setup (hd0)'

'quit'

now that grub is restored we need to add windows to the boot menu (if it is not already there)

back in terminal
'sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'
scroll down to the bottom of the text file where you see the menu listing for ubuntu or your linux distro

here we add the lines

title Windows
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

again hd0 is the hard drive windows is on and 0 is the partition

DON'T FORGET TO SAVE THE FILE!!


Hope This Helps!

error10

Generally I run the Linux installation as far as setting up all the partitions. I'll set up the partitions for Windows and Linux and write out the partition table. Then, reboot and install Windows into the already-created partition. After that, go back and finish installing Linux. Make sure you set GRUB to /dev/sda1 instead of /dev/sda in the installation. Your new dual-boot setup will then Just Work.

Aardobard

I just had to re-install Windows and this is exactly where I get stuck. If only Windows loads, then there is no terminal. The only solutions I can think of are to either enter the bios and disable my windows boot drive, a separate physical drive, so the Ubuntu partition will boot, or reinstall Ubuntu to 'reset' the Grub. Is there a third way that I'm missing?

[Edit] the third way is to boot a live CD and perform the actions from there... :facepalms:

If there is a way, it might help someone who only has one physical drive.

Thanks in advance.

Signed,
Can't see linux thru the window

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JerseyDubbin

lol you answered your own question the third way is to boot from the live cd and run the terminal from there. Goodluck!

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My arms stuck

I'm having trouble figuring out which partition windows is on...I have two partitions, one is 37.5 GB which is my linux partition, and the other is 21GB which is my windows XP partition, but I'm not sure how to differentiate the two as in hd(0,0) terms.

Maybe if I upload a screen shot someone out there could drop a hint? While working under a livecd (Ubuntu 8.10), everywhere you look that it's shown, the 37.5 GB partition is listed first. Trying to use hd(0,1) now, but I figured I would at least ask. Thanks.

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SilentPixel

also while on a live cd, go to the terminal and type df -h that will show you your drives(and partitions), the size and where they're mounted.

that then tells you what partition to look at, if Linux is using grub to boot then your linux partition (lets use partition 6, so df -h will show sda7) will be hd(0,6) (if your drive is the first drive)

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My arms stuck

Okay I will be trying this when I get back from work today, thank you.

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JerseyDubbin

did you get it working? sorry i haven't been around

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