Ubuntu

Can i use gparted to create a new partition and installed XP on it and will this mess up my grub?

Asked by chiao woei

Greeting
My system infor is as follow
Release 9.10 (karmic)
Kernel Linux 2.6.31-20-generic
Gnome 2.28.1
Memory 2.4Gib
Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology MK-36

My harddisk is 320GB and i had so far used up to 90GB for karmic and i want to install XP to play game, having nightmare trying to git ROM to work

Can i boot up Live CD and use gparted to create a new partition and then reboot to install XP on that newly created partition, will this preserved my Grub like can i still boot up from karmic

Please advise, Thank you ppls in advance

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Rajinder Sandhu
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arochester (arochester) said : 		#1

Look at "How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots" - http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_linux_and_windows_xp_linux_installed_first.htm

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chiao woei (yongchiaowoei) said : 		#2

TQ aro
I want to ask, should i be using the normal 32bit distro or the 64bit one? and i noticed that the link you gave me is for older version of ubuntu and i somehow can seem to locate the menu.lst file at all or could it be that this file is stored elsewhere in karmic version.

Pls advise. TQ

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Xpatnat (xpatnat) said : 		#3

Hi Chiao Woei,

I posted about the same question (check the question # 103925) with no answer so far.
I had checked Arochester link before and it seems that with Grub 2 it's not anymore possible to list Grub's configuration, so no back up is possible. So I didn't use this method (unfortunately it was the only really clear tutorial that I had found).
I've just created a partition for XP yesterday. I used Gparted from a live CD(FYI it takes several hours). Since I'm not too technical I found the following link very useful :

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

When you install Windows it kills Grub and only the Windows bootloader (MBR) will remain then you won't be able to boot into Ubuntu anymore (even if it's still there). You need to reinstall Grub to access Ubuntu.
That's just about the full extend of my dual booting knowledge so far. So I'm still looking for an easy to follow tutorial to restore Grub 2 before I dare installing XP.
I'll let you know if I find one. Please do the same.

Good luck :-)

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Best Rajinder Sandhu (sandy744) said : 		#4

the problem is not as big as it seems...first in the karmic uninstall grub-pc and install grub and do grub-install take the help of help file and search grub.
herre is the basic idea... install grub by sudo apt-get install grub
it will install grub and uninstall grub-pc...thereafter you need to do grub-install so that you are able to regain grub. (if there is problem then reinstall grub-pc).
After installing grub, as a root type grub in terminal you should be taken to grub then typing find /boot/grub/stage1 should indicate the disk parameters where grub file is located this could be hd0,0 or hd0,1 could be anything hd0 stands for your master disk and 0 or 1 or 2 or any digit after comma indicate the partition no (for reference i am giving y which should be replaced with the partition no which you get)
well after that you can install xp after creating a partition for it now you won't be able to go into linux as MBR has taken the control of grub. To get back to dual boot, boot the system through ubuntu 9.10 Cd and click for the first option after OS is loaded through CD ..open the terminal,
then type sudo su
grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,y)
grub> root=(hd0,y)
grub>setup )hd0)
grub>quit
sudo reboot (this will reboot the system you should get to dual boot now)

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Rajinder Sandhu (sandy744) said : 		#5

and installing grub is easy open terminal and type
$sudo apt-get install grub (give pw when prompted)
$sudo grub-install /dev/sda
$sudo update-grub
$sudo grub
grub>
from here on please follow the instructions given in my previous reply and again y should be replaced by whatever partition no, you get in stage1 ie lfind /boot/grub/stage1

why I have asked for grub2 to be uninstalled because it does not find the linux.mod file even we can see it is there so further it is unable to load the grub so better uninstall the grub-pc and grub2 is component of grub-pc

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chiao woei (yongchiaowoei) said : 		#6

Thank you for your details help. Much appreciated