Help! Can't get back into WinXP-- Error 13: Invalid...

[NoOp]

On 09/13/2008 07:09 AM, John Hamilton wrote:
> After following the exact instructions from 
> http://www.easy-ubuntu-linux.com/grub-menu-default.html, 
> 
> I edited the menu with:
> 
> title Windows XP 
> rootnoverify (hd0,0) 
> makeactive 
> chainloader +1
> 
> and when I restart, Ubuntu defaults to that title, but when I press enter,
> I get Error 13: INVALID or UNSUPPORTED EXECUTABLE FORMAT.
> 
> Please!, can someone help me get back into WinXP?  Thank you!!!

Sure. Providing that you've done _nothing else_ since following those
instructions do this:

1. Startup Ubuntu as usual
2. Open a terminal (Applications|Accessories|Terminal)
3. Enter:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.bad
sudo mv /boot/grub/menu.lst~ /boot/grub/menu.lst

Then exit the terminal and reboot. You should have your previous grub
menu and be able to dual boot to WinXP as you did previously.

Alternately, you can use gedit to open the gedit backup file:

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst~

[Note that is /boot/grub/menu.lst~ not /boot/grub/menu.lst]

That will open up the backup file that gedit created when you edited
/boot/grub/menu.lst from the instructions in that url. Have a look at
the file & settings to make sure that is what you had previously, then
save that file as menu.lst (not menu.lst~) and reboot.

In the future, it is always wise to *first* make a backup of any system
file you edit (in this case you were lucky because gedit always makes a
backup file, denoted by the '~' following the filename. Hence: menu.lst~).