Fixing broken dual boot

[Alexandra Zaharia]

On 1/23/08, Ben Edwards <funkytwig at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have a Ubuntu/XP dual boot system on a laptop hard disk.  I have
> moved it into a new laptop and not supirsingle the windows install
> douse not work;).  If I try to fix the windows install I know from
> experience it will overwrite the MBR and I will not be able to boot
> from Linux.  Is there a way I can fix the windows install and not
> brake Linux.
>
>
Hi Ben,

If the master boot record is overwritten on a multiboot system by a Windows
reinstall / 'fixmbr' command you won't be able to boot the other operating
system(s) because its (their) bootloader (the thing that 'triggers' one of
the operating systems on the machine) would have lost its entry point from
the MBR. You can restore it easily by following instructions such as the
ones here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

...Still, for your actual problem... I remember that back when I used XP
multibooting with a couple of Linux distros I upgraded my PC - bought new
hardware for a new box and wanted to keep the old HDD. While Linux was OK,
XP did not want to boot complaining about "NTLDR is missing, press any key
to restart" or something. I can't remember what I did back then, but
apparently there are ways to fix this, so don't despair. Maybe these
articles could be of useful:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315233/en-us
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/12/ntldr-is-missing-press-any-key-to-restart/
http://pcsupport.about.com/b/2007/05/25/ntldr-is-missing-what-now.htm

HTH
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