HELP WINDOWS XP

[Leonard Chatagnier]

--- Ed Greshko <Ed.Greshko at greshko.com> wrote:

> Leonard Smith wrote:
> > On Mon, 2008-08-04 at 22:41 -0400, Jake wrote:
> >> Ok, I've been through this so many times, "you
> have to press ESC", "Is
> >> there", well no, its not, can anyone just PLEASE
> tell me how to
> >> UNINSTALL Ubuntu, so I can get on Windows XP and
> re-install Ubuntu to
> >> dual boot, Please do not tell me that I don't
> have to uninstall,
> >> because the fact of the matter is, I really need
> do, so Please help
> >> me.. 
> >>
> >> Help Greatly Appreciated, Jake
> >>
> > 
> > I'm assuming Ubuntu is booting fine. If so, you
> will need to do some
> > checking in order to verify that you still have
> WinXP on your system.
> > 
> > 1. Go ahead and post your menu.lst file. You may
> have a line commented
> > out that is preventing the Windows XP option from
> showing.
> > 
> > 2. Open a terminal and type 'fdisk -l'. Copy the
> output and post it.
> > This will list your existing partition
> information. You can also use
> > 'gparted' to view it in a gui, but it may not be
> installed on your
> > system. (to install type 'sudo apt-get install
> gparted' in a terminal).
> 
> I don't get it....
> 
> The guy asks a simple question..."How do I unscrew a
> light bulb and screw in 
> a new one?" and folks are giving out instructions to
> build a light bulb factory.
> 
> It is a simple question with a simple answer.  Not
> everything is rocket science.
Dear Ed,
The guy is not unscrewing light bulbs; he's trying to
find out what is wrong with his windows partition and
how to load it.  The list folks are trying to help him
do that in a thoughtful, technical way.  You don't
seem to understand or appreciate what they are doing. 
I'm a relatively new linux user but I still know that
the list is trying to determine if in fact his windows
OS is still installed and functional and whether his
/boot/grub/menu.lst is correct(it's not if he still
has windows installed).  The list folks know dual boot
systems well and are using that knowledge to try an
figure out the problem.  It's a pity you don't seem to
recognize this.
Jake's replys indicate that he doesn't know that you
can't install Ubuntu from windows; you can download an
Ubuntu iso file and burn to disk and install from
that.
He first needs to:
Determine if his HDD still has windows installed or if
corrupted by:

fdisk -l /dev/sdX(X is a, if first HDD) which will
show if he has a good NTFS partition on which windows
would be installed which should be Dev/sda1.

He may have to reinstall the MBR in his windows
partition. He may need to find out how to install the
MBR and do it. It wont hurt to reinstall it but
windows wont load without it.

All that being done and verifying he has a windows
partition, the necessary info can be put in his
menu.lst file allowing him again to boot windows or if
not he needs to reinstall windows on the first
partition.

The above may not be absolutely correct but is in
general; I'm no expert.  The list folks are just
trying to prevent Jake from doing unnecessary work
that may make things worse forcing him to reinstall
everything which should be the last thing to try. Not
trying to bad talk you or Jake but just to give you a
perspective from someone who mostly asks for help; not
give it.

HTH,

Leonard Chatagnier
lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net