<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 1:09 PM, Norman Silverstone <<a href="mailto:norman@littletank.org" target="_blank">norman@littletank.org</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> (big snip) <div class="im"> > 1. If your problem is that Grub is not showing and the system boots > staight to XP, then try changing the HDD's boot order and see what > happens. > > 2. Otherwise, If you're sure you want to remove Xubuntu from the 2nd > HDD and put it on the 1st HDD: > *make sure to back up everything from current Xubuntu AND XP > system. > *turn off the PC and with caution unplug the cable connecting the > 2nd HDD to the motherboard or it's power cable (either of them) > *turn on the PC and see if it boots to XP fine. > *restart and install Xubuntu > *after the installation finishes and grub works fine, turn off > the PC and plug the 2nd HDD back on. > *boot to Xubuntu, install gparted and carefully delete all the > Xubuntu partitions in the 2nd HDD (make sure it's the correct sized > one!) > *finally extend the data partition to cover the unallocated > space. > good luck and be careful! </div>Because I am dealing with a new machine, I am reluctant to open it up in case I invalidate the guarantee. More research showed me that I could use the 'Disc Management' facility available in Windows XP so, after following the instructions, I now have a 500MB HDD with Windows XP Pro and a formatted 250 MB HDD. This time I decided to take note of what was happening when I came to install Xubuntu 12.04. All went well up to the point where one selects to install alongside Windows XP Pro. Instead of giving me the choice of partitions on the 500MB HDD I was offered the 250MB HDD instead and there was no way to select the 500MB HDD as far as I can see. Could someone, please, explain to me why this is happening and how can I install Xubuntu on the same HDD as Windows XP PRO? <div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"> Norman -- xubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:xubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">xubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users</a> </div></div></blockquote><div> This is happening simply because the installer thinks it's best to install there. If you don't want to open the case, you can choose the last choice instead of "alongside windows" and setup the partitions manually. Be careful though, because it's possible to delete the windows partition or your data by accident. So whatever you do make sure to backup first! Also go to BIOS and check if the 500GB HDD is first in the boot order. Otherwise dont' follow the steps below. It's not very staight forward, but what you have to do manually is: *alongside the windows partition, create two new partitions: a big one: with filesystem: ext4 and set it as: / and a small one(approx same size as your RAM) and set it as: linux swap *finally set grub bootloader to install in sda. (not sda1) Personally I prefer to just open the case and unplug the disks. It's dump but more fail safe. :) </div></div>