Unable to load previous operating system (windows vista) following lucid lynx upgrade

did you try with: sudo update-grub ?
If you're not sure what are you doing, you could check on google about updating the grub in Ubuntu

Okay, just tried that and got the following ;
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-19-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-19-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-17-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda3
done

The windows boot option used to follow the windows recovery option.

Can you post content of file /boot/grub/menu.lst after line :

## ## End Default Options ##

and type "sudo fdisk -l".

There's no line with #### End Default Options ##

The file contains the following and nothing more

title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
root (hd0,3)
makeactive
chainloader +1

the fdisk command gives the following
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x80000000

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 9 1314 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1314 30394 233588736 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x767dd137

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 15441 124028808+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 15442 30394 120109972+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 15442 29781 115186018+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 29782 30394 4923891 82 Linux swap / Solaris

A strange computer configuration!

Add

map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)

before

root (hd0,3)

and replace root (hd0,3) by root (hd1,3)

And try again...

I'm afraid it didn't make any difference.

Can you type "grub --version" ?
Unfortunetly, there is two versions of Grub. And 1.97 is largely different from 0.97.
Can you post the last version of menu.lst you tried ?

It says that grub isn't installed. Should I install it?

menu.lst is as follows

title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0
root (hd1,3)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Chek on Synaptic if grub is installed...but without grub installed you should not be able to boot!
Do also a "ls /usr/sbin".

How do I check Synaptic?

output from command follows;
aa-audit netscsid
aa-autodep NetworkManager
aa-complain newusers
aa-decode nmbd
aa-enforce nologin
aa-genprof ntfsclone
aa-logprof ntfscp
aa-status ntfslabel
aa-unconfined ntfsresize
accept ntfsundelete
accessdb ntpd
acpid ntpdate
addgroup ntpdate-debian
add-shell ntp-keygen
adduser ntptime
anacron ntp-wait
apparmor_status ownership
aptd packagekitd
arp pam-auth-update
arpd pam_getenv
aspell-autobuildhash paperconfig
atd pm-hibernate
audit pm-powersave
autodep pm-suspend
avahi-autoipd pm-suspend-hybrid
avahi-daemon popcon-largest-unused
avivotool popularity-contest
bccmd postalias
biosdecode postcat
bluetoothd postconf
chat postdrop
chgpasswd postfix
chpasswd postfix-add-filter
chroot postfix-add-policy
cifs.upcall postkick
ck-log-system-restart postlock
ck-log-system-start postlog
ck-log-system-stop postmap
complain postmulti
computer-janitor postqueue
computer-janitor-gtk postsuper
console-kit-daemon pppconfig
cpgr pppd
cppw pppdump
cron pppoeconf
cupsaccept pppoe-discovery
cupsaddsmb pppstats
cupsctl pptp
cupsd pptpsetup
cupsdisable pwck
cupsenable pwconv
cupsfilter pwmconfig
cups-genppdupdate pwunconv
cupsreject qmqp-sink
cvs-pserver qmqp-source
cytune qshape
defoma-reconfigure radeontool
delgroup ramsize
deluser rdev
dkms readprofile
dmidecode rebuild-security-providers
dnsmasq reject
dpkg-divert remove-default-ispell
dpkg-preconfigure remove-default-wordlist
dpkg-reconfigure remove-shell
dpkg-statoverride rmail
e2freefrag rmt
enforce rmt-tar
ethtool rootflags
fancontrol rsyslogd
fdformat rtcwake
filefrag rtkitctl
foomatic-addpjloptions safe_finger
foomatic-cleanupdrivers saned
foomatic-extract-text select-default-ispell
foomatic-fix-xml select-default-wordlist
foomatic-getpjloptions sendmail
foomatic-kitload sensors-detect
foomatic-nonumericalids service
foomatic-preferred-driver setvesablank
foomatic-printermap-to-gutenprint-xml smbd
foomatic-replaceoldprinterids smtp-sink
gconf-schemas smtp-source
gdm startupmanager
gdm-binary su-to-root
gdm-restart synaptic
gdm-safe-restart system-tools-backends
gdm-stop tcpd
genprof tcpdchk
groupadd tcpdmatch
groupdel tcpdump
groupmod toshsat1800-irdasetup
grpck try-from
grpconv tunelp
grpunconv tzconfig
grub-install ufw
grub-mkconfig umount.hal
grub-mkdevicemap unconfined
grub-probe update-alternatives
grub-reboot update-apt-xapian-index
grub-set-default update-binfmts
grub-setup update-bootsystem-insserv
hald update-ca-certificates
hciattach update-catalog
hciconfig update-default-aspell
hciemu update-default-ispell
hplj1000 update-default-wordlist
hplj1005 update-dictcommon-aspell
hplj1018 update-dictcommon-hunspell
hplj1020 update-fonts-alias
hpljP1005 update-fonts-dir
hpljP1006 update-fonts-scale
hpljP1007 update-gdkpixbuf-loaders
hpljP1008 update-grub
hpljP1505 update-grub2
hpssd update-gtk-immodules
iconvconfig update-icon-caches
install-docs update-inetd
install-info update-info-dir
install-menu update-initramfs
install-sgmlcatalog update-java-alternatives
invoke-rc.d update-locale
ip6tables-apply update-mime
iptables-apply update-openoffice-dicts
irqbalance update-packagekit-app-data
isadump update-pangox-aliases
isaset update-passwd
ispell-autobuildhash update-python-modules
kerneloops update-rc.d
laptop-detect update-rc.d-insserv
ldattach update-software-center
libgraphviz4-config-update update-usbids
locale-gen update-xmlcatalog
logprof upgrade-from-grub-legacy
logrotate usbmuxd
lpadmin useradd
lpc userdel
lpdomatic usermod
lpinfo uuidd
lpmove validlocale
lsusb vbetool
make-ssl-cert vcstime
mkinitramfs vidmode
mkinitramfs-kpkg vigr
mklost+found vipw
mkntfs visudo
mksmbpasswd vpddecode
modem-manager winbindd
mysqld zic
mysqld-akonadi

Found the Synaptic thing.
grub-common version 1.98-lubuntu5
grub-pc version 1.98-lubuntu5

The status for both Grub is 'Installed(upgradable)'

Bad news, you have Grub 2 (1.98), and I understand only Grub 1 (i.e. 0.97).

http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p20.html

The following command is supposed to solve all issues! Try it...

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

It didn't solve my issue. Thanks for your assistance so far.

You have to fix Windows MBR with Windows DVD (repair or installation one).
And after do a:
    sudo update-grub

Sorry, but could you explain what you mean? Not sure I understand what you mean.

It's a summary for myself:

Disk /dev/sda

/dev/sda1 Dell recovery partition
/dev/sda2 NTFS
/dev/sda3 * NTFS <- windows boot partition

Disk /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb1 NTFS
/dev/sdb2 Extended
/dev/sdb5 Linux
/dev/sdb6 Swap

Since upgrading to 10.04 from 9.10, Windows doesn't boot up. Ubuntu successful.

title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
root (hd0,3) <-- /dev/sda3
makeactive
chainloader +1

Another way of fixing MBR:

     sudo apt-get install ms-sys
     sudo ms-sys -m /dev/sda

But after you could have to reinstall Grub.
If it occurs, the best is to switch both disks, so each disk has its boot sector, and they don't the one of the other.

The command;
sudo apt-get install ms-sys
says;
E: Couldn't find package ms-sys

http://blogs.deepal.org/2009/06/how-to-fix-mbr-using-ubuntu-live-cd.html

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

      sudo mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt
      sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdb

Reboot

      sudo update-grub

I've done all this and it's still not worked. I'm just about on the point of re-installing windows then re-installing 10.04. Would that solve by problem?

In this case, best strategy is
1) XP on first drive. Install XP.
2) Switch disk (physical switch is more sure than BIOS switch)
3) Now XP is second drive. Install Ubuntu on first drive.
Grub2 will detect XP on second drive and will chain it.
Be careful, Grub2 will detect both XP and RECOVERY system.
Avoid to activate RECOVERY at boot.

In case of problem, you still have XP working, and you simply have to switch again.
In this configuration, the first boot of Ubuntu disk is used by Grub2, and first block of XP disk is used by MBR (XP), so there's no conflict on first boot to manage.

Good luck.