Cannot access xp pro nor cd after installing ubuntu

forgot to add, I am newbie to ubuntu,I dont have a clue, so need step by step help please.

Ok, I'm not sure to understand what you have installed on each partition :)
To clarify:

-how many hard disks do you have? Just one?
-could you open a terminal (in application>accessories), then type
"sudo fdisk -l", press Enter, enter your password, press enter

It will display the list of partitions on your drives. Copy paste the output here so that we understand what you have on your disk. Thx !

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Here is the info. The 60g hd is the xp pro one. I created a partition on this one and install ububtu. I then cleared it and installed onto the 160G hd. I need to recover the 60G hd as xp pro boot. Thanks

Disk /dev/sdb: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 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: 0xfb24fb24

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 2434 19551073+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 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: 0x1f051f05

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5964 47903358+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 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: 0x000ed7ba

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 18693 150145024 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 18693 19458 6142977 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 18693 19458 6142976 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Another thing, the 20G hd is not used with an OS but contains data

On school run, back 45min or so.

Back again

Ok, I understand it better.
Your 60GB disk is used for XP Pro, but won't boot. Ubuntu is using the 160GB disk.

To use your XP CD, you need to select your CD drive at boot, either manually (you press a key during boot, like F12, and it displays a boot menu) or by changing the BIOS option to boot on the CD before the hard drives (be careful when changing options in the BIOS ;).

Did you try this to boot on the CD? If the CD drive is working fine in Ubuntu, there is no reason why it would not work at boot.

Hi, Its a microsoft cd and it wont boot at all now ( worked ok under windows ). I checked cmos boot config and when the HP boot menu pops up, I select boot from cd, but still no go.

I've rebooted again and now get the mesage "setup is checking your hardware configuration" and then a blank screen. No activity from HD light. Should I let this run over night or for a couple of hours and see what happens?

Usually it doesn't take that long for the XP CD to display the installation process... A few minutes maximum.

Ok. At least its reading the cd. Just a thought, the cd drive is an HP lightscribe, but not sure what its detected as. Let me check bios, perhaps thats the problem.

Mmm, should not be a problem. The CD drive doesn't matter much, and it's not related to the OS installed on the drive, as it's booting on the CD without accessing to the drives. So it doesn't matter what you did with your XP and Ubuntu, this installation CD should boot. If not, you can try it on another computer (it could be damaged).

Doubt it, as its well looked after.

When I try and boot from the xp hd it says incorrect partition and grub rescue >
I,ve also noticed other people on the net having this problem with xp cd not booting.

Checkedxp cd on vista machine upstairs and it boots ok.

it sounds like your cd drive is bad. it probably works under ubuntu because it's not reading the first sectors of the cd. however, if you try to bood the cd, the first few sectors are being accessed and it gets screwy. seeing that it loads properly on the machine upstairs, it's obviously a problem with the cd drive.

you don't need your cd to fix your windoze problem.

choose windoze in the start up menu. right after choosing to boot from windoze, tap the F8 keys quickly several times and a safe mode screen will pop up. it will either give you the option to enter safe mode or repair your system. if you get the choice to enter safe mode, choose that. choose safe mode with command prompt. you'll get something like c:>

type chkdsk /r

depending on how much info you have on your drive, it can take 20 mins to 3 hours to fix.

That does not work either. Get a bland screen

you might have to do it a few times while windoze tries to fix itself during start up.

if you get a blue screen, then you're in luck.

Hi, Nothing at all. The screen goes black and thats it. I booted into a Knoppix 6.0 cd ok, so cd drive is ok imo.
Its got me stumped.

I have tried everything I know to fix this, but seems like ubuntu has control for now.

I have tried everything I know to fix this, but seems like ubuntu has control for now.

Try to reinstall Grub from CD:
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD
Commands will be in your case:
   sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
   sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
But it will work only if CD drive works.

Hi, I inserted ubuntu cd and the icon appeared on the desktop. I then got the following error in the terminal ...

john@john-RY929AA-ABU-SR5019UK:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1/mnt
[sudo] password for john:
mount: can't find /dev/sdc1/mnt in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
john@john-RY929AA-ABU-SR5019UK:~$

Seems like this thread has stopped. Is there anyone who can help me recover my xp installation ?

Hi, ok I tried the above again and now get this. What now ?

john@john-RY929AA-ABU-SR5019UK:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
[sudo] password for john:
john@john-RY929AA-ABU-SR5019UK:~$ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
john@john-RY929AA-ABU-SR5019UK:~$

Reboot and check if your issue is solved or not.

Hi, Not solved and it says error: file not found and Grub Rescue>

I am moving towards reformatting all hd's and starting again. As windows cd wont boot, can I format all hd's from within ububtu? or via the live cd ?

Thanks

Ok, I think this is what I will do.Thanks for all the help from everyone.

Thanks François Tissandier, that solved my question.