loaded ubuntu and now I can't find windowsxp

Hello,
When Ubuntu boots, you should be able to hit "esc" to see the Grub menu. From this menu, you should be able to boot your Windows partition.

Thanks for your question.

Unfortunatly, you might have overwritten your windows partition. To check that, please open a terminal windows (Applications->Accessories) and execute the following command:

1) sudo fdisk -l

Please report it's output back to this question.

it said:
fdisk: invalid option - - 1

usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partion table
           fdisk -1 [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table
           fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size in blocks
           fdisk -v Give fdisk version

Here disk is something like /dev/hbd or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is somethinglike /dev/hda7
-u: give START and END in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors

when the grb menu comes up , windows partion is not listed

You typed fdisk minus one, you should have typed fdisk minus l (lower case letter L)

sudo fdisk -l

now when I type that in it asks for a password, but I am unable to type anything in

Just type your normal password. You won't be able to see it, but press enter at the end and it will be accepted (if correct).

ok, the message I got was:

Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30020272128 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3649 cylinders
Units = cylinders of16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

     Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 3493 28057491 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 3649 1253070 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 3649 1253038+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Ok, if you can confirm that you have exactly one hard disk in that PC then I have some potentially bad news for you.

It looks like you have installed Ubuntu over the top of Windows. This will have wiped/erased Windows, all your applications and all your data.

This would have been one of the options you selected during the installation.