Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

so please help – i spend a whole week for this to end bad at the very end
p.s. Linux is on ext3 at the begining /dev/sda1
and Win XP is on NTFS after ext3 on /dev/sda2
so i used:
# This entry was added by username for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Great guide, here’s my little problem if anyone has any ideas:

I create the partitions, and the XP cd doesn’t see them at all! Just shows one giant disc and asks if I want to install it there.

Any suggestions?

I think this guide although detailed and straight-to-the-point is not for novice users or for non-standard hardware configuration.

There’s nothing wrong with the concept – people should just Google beforehand and read a little bit on on Grub and about partitioning for Windows and get familiarized with key issues.

Though it’s really not the place, but it’s on the tip of my tongue..

Wish there was a boot-loader & partition manager bundled together, no-more-and-no-less, with:

1. A ’scan’+'auto’ options, both for updating the boot loader menu and for resizing to new OS.

2. Without a GUI – make it fast & simple. Yet friendly menus & selection (unlike cl parted/grub).

There are some really great Linux/Grub-oriented rescue discs, supporting a variety of hardware configurations, yet none of them has this simple-ultimate-automatic-resize-scan-update. Backup-Format-InstallXP-InstallUbuntu-Restore is not that simple for the.. simple user.. or the lazy one in my case

I am installed winXP after ubuntu 9.04 successfully. No problems. Got the dual boot thing also perfect.

But one strange problem is happening, I am not able to use wireless after installing XP. I mean it is getting connected to wifi but no connection to internet exists. But if I give a fixed IP, I am able to access internet. The same happens even with my wired connection. I am only able to go online with fixed ip address.

Is it something to do with winXP installation or is it altogetherly a different problem.

Thanks,
gourinath

If you have an NTFS partition on the hard drive already, the Windows XP install CD *SHOULD* (though I can’t promise that it will) work.

So here is what I did:
1. I used Jaunty Jackalope (JJ) i.e. ubuntu 9.04 liveUSB and booted from USB.
2. Ubuntu 9.04 via liveUSB booted up.
3. I have chosen to install Ubuntu 9.04 which is the icon on liveUSB desktop.
4. …
5. Then came the dialog saying ‘No operation system found’ (since my hard disk was fresh).
6. Since I wanted to install winXP later, I made three partitions: first primary with ext3, second an extended also with ext3, third with NTFS.
7. In the extended one, I made two logical partitions: first to be used as ‘home’ directory for my to be installed JJ and the second to be used as ’swap’ directory for JJ.
8. Applied all the changes via Gparted. Everything was very smmoth.
9. Continued with JJ installation which went successfully.

10. Restarted (after plugging away the liveUSB stick). My laptop is running JJ perfect no complaints.

Question: This weekend I am about to get a winXP OEM-CD. So here is my question-
‘Once I begin installing winXP (I never did XP installation previously), during the installation sequel, will the winXP installation identify the NTFS partition that I already made during the JJ installation?’

Thanks,
Gourinath

Hate to put it like that but this is one of the few (if not only) guides I’ve regretted writing because a good number of people have had trouble with it and wasted a lot of their time attempting to pull it off. There are a lot of steps involved and not everyone’s hard drives are laid out the same.

My suggestion to anyone who is still attempting to pull this off would be to visit http://www.ubuntuforums.org if you’re dead set on doing this. But my REAL suggestion would be what I stated in the very first paragraph (the disclaimer) and that would be to backup any important data you want to keep, format the hard drive, install Windows FIRST and then Ubuntu. It’s much much easier by comparison.

When I save it it says:

“Could not find the file /boot/grub/menu.lst.”

I proceeded and installed Windows 7 successfully. After that I restored Grub again and now, in the Grub menu, when I choose to start Windows, it appears a new menu asking me to choose again between two options. Windows 7 and my old Windows XP Unattended Edition. Easier than I might have imagined. Unfortunately the application I wanted to run under Windows 7 doesn’t work. It runs with the same problems it ran under Vista. What a pity! Even though it was a nice experience.

First of all, thanks for your time and dedication. Some months ago I was able to install XP in my computer after Ubuntu installation. Originally the computer came with Vista included, but due to being very disappointed I decided to try Ubuntu. Now I want to try the new Windows 7 in a third partition that I created yesterday with Gparted. From this point on, I will try to do the same steps I took with XP.

It’s actually pretty easy to install Windows after Ubuntu since you’ve left unpartitioned space available. I think all you will have to do is install Windows as usual and install Windows into the unpartitioned space. This will overwrite the Master Boot Record, which simply acts as a pointer of sorts. In other words, when you do this, GRUB will be overwritten, but Ubuntu itself and the other partitions associated with it will remain. All you have to do after you install Windows is restore GRUB which is quite easy if you follow this guide:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

I tried nano instead of gedit, but its still a plain text…what do I do????

As mentioned before I would highly suggest you ignore this post and opt for reinstalling Windows, and then Ubuntu after that. Backup your Home folder in Ubuntu to an external drive before doing so, then copy it all back after you reinstall Ubuntu. You’ll have to reinstall software of course, but that is not difficult to do. It is the safer way to get Windows in a dual-boot situation with Ubuntu.

Thanks,
Oli

By chance… is your installation of Ubuntu on an encrypted LVM partition? I once had a problem installing Windows on a system that had an encrypted Ubuntu install that I had intended to replace with Windows entirely. But for some reason it would crash the Windows Setup utility very quickly (you made it further than I did though so this might not be the case). I had to use gparted to remove all partitions before Windows setup would load properly. I don’t know why.

Part of me regrets writing this particular blog post because it is a very haphazard task that doesn’t work for everybody and so many different problems can arise. I am sorry for the trouble it has caused you, but on the bright side, your Ubuntu install didn’t crash.

Something you might consider trying is to use gParted (not the one that’s included on the Ubuntu live CD, but the actual gparted stand alone live CD) to size your ext3 root partition down to make space for a new NTFS (or whatever you want really) partition. Then move all the data you need to backup over to that partition…. depending on the hard drive space you have free, you might have to move some data, resize both partitions again (which would take a while), move more data… until you’re done…. but you know what…. this would be a huge waste of time.

To be frank, I wouldn’t waste my time doing this if I were you. You’d be more productive as a McDonalds employee saving money up for a second hard drive to install Windows on to (if HD free space is the issue). I recently upgraded my PC to a new 1 terabyte hard drive for about 80 bucks. Well worth the money.

I would backup my home folder, delete all partitions with gparted, install windows, install Ubuntu after that, then copy the backup of your home folder into your new home folder and work out minor kinks from there. Trust me, you’d spend far less time doing it this way. Less time than that if you were to purchase another hard drive.

Just my opinion.

Can be able to use that on the Raid 5 Disks as well?
I am getting some strange errors.

raj

Love this tutorial.
Everything works fine, until you use for example mrbooter
to choose a OS.

Is there existing a boot program to handle this?

I’ve started a thread about your particular problem on Ubuntu Forums. You are not the first to encounter this problem. View this link for some helpful advice:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=807286

If I’m not mistaken, you are attempting to type “sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst” while in a plain text terminal interface. Gedit is a graphical text editor, so if you are not operating within a GUI, it will not run.

You have two options:

1. Boot from an Ubuntu install CD into a Live CD environment, then run the command from there with the GUI up and running.

2. Use a text mode editor like nano, instead of gedit, to edit the file. If you opt for this option, I would recommend you read a little about using nano from this link:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Nano

Simply exchange the word “nano” for “gedit” in the above command and your config file should open (sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst). To save a file after editing, you can hit CTRL-O (which stands for “write out”). Then CTRL-X to quit nano.

Please let me know if you have further problems.

Also, when I tried rebooting I can only get to a command prompt. I tried “startx” and it still will not open to the GUI.

Please help!!

I have a separate drive for XP. It’s a second SATA chained to the master, which is Ubuntu. It boots into Ubuntu fine, and I amended the file once to point to the actual disk with XP on sda1 = (hd0,0)

This didn’t work.

So I looked at the file in more detail and found that Ubuntu is listed as (hd0,0) – so i tried changing the ref to the XP disk to (hd1,0).

This didn’t work either.

Then I thought, well I will change the Ubuntu disk references to (hd1,0) as it’s actually on sdb1,2 and 5.

This gave me a menu of options to choose from (which is what I’m after), unfortunately none of the selections worked.

So I booted from the Live CD and changed the boot back to saying hd0,0 for ubuntu and hd1,0 for xp. I still cant boot into xp (even changing the bios to select that disk doesnt work), but at least ubuntu is working again.

Oh what fun. I have to say after 3 weeks trying to get this … system working properly and reinstate my xp data (stuck in an image file on an external disk – well its on my ubuntu desktop as well), i am beginning to get very bored with the whole thing.

A solution to the problem you’ve encountered can be found here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4587202&postcount=9

Error 15: File not found

… what now?!?