Yesterday, I installed Ubuntu on my notebook computer which has Win XP on it. I installed Ubuntu in addition to XP so I could choose which system to use on boot up. I had done this same thing last winter to my laptop and had no problem.Ubuntu brings up the screen on bootup that askes which system you wish to use. If I choose Ubuntu, there is no problem and it runs fine.If I choose WinXP, it starts, shows the "starting windows" screen and then goes right back to the same screen that gives the option on which system to boot. It will not boot into XP. Any ideas on what is going on? I tried to boot into safe mode but the same thing happens. It will only boot into Ubuntu. I need to get into Windows to run certain programs like Microsoft Streets and Trips, and some others that do not run in Ubuntu. Barney

First run GParted to be sure you haven't accidently overwritten your Windows partition. GParted is usually removed as part of cleanup during a fresh Ubuntu install so you'll probably have to download and reinstall it. The Windows partition will most likely be /dev/sda2. It will be formatted ntfs and size should be pretty close to what you specified when you installed Ubunt.If the Windows partition looks okay your best bet is probably to use Boot Repair. You can find the documentation and instructions on how to use it hereHTH. Good Luck!

If you can't boot into Last Known Good configuration, you may need to look at the boot.ini file to see what got changed.

I had trouble getting the last Vista computer to dual boot. I just did Linux only and it worked really really well. Just use google maps and you don't need Streets and Trips. I bought a 2013 S&T. I cannot believe Micro Soft is still selling this. It has not been upgraded in years. On the other hand Apple has been slammed so much on their maps that introduced a really great map upgrade last month on their Mac Book Pros. Far superior to S&T. So if you feel like blowing big bucks (which you likely are not as you are installing a free Linux OS) but it you do get a new Mac Book Pro.

Personally, I haven't bothered with setting up a computer to dual boot for many years. Instead of dual boot, I use one of the free virtual environments (VirtualPC, VirtualBox, VMwarePlayer) to create a VM (Virtual Machine) that allows me to run virtually any OS I want without the need to reboot the machine.

Barney, I would agree that you will likely have repair the MBR. You may want to try Boot-Repair. It's a good practice when installing a secondary OS to do a full system image backup just in case.

Problem with Ubuntu | Good Sam Community

1492
Moderator
Nov 09, 2013
Barney, I would agree that you will likely have repair the MBR. You may want to try Boot-Repair. It's a good practice when installing a secondary OS to do a full system image backup just in case.
strollin
Explorer
Nov 09, 2013
Personally, I haven't bothered with setting up a computer to dual boot for many years. Instead of dual boot, I use one of the free virtual environments (VirtualPC, VirtualBox, VMwarePlayer) to create a VM (Virtual Machine) that allows me to run virtually any OS I want without the need to reboot the machine.
RFCN2
Explorer
Nov 09, 2013
I had trouble getting the last Vista computer to dual boot. I just did Linux only and it worked really really well. Just use google maps and you don't need Streets and Trips. I bought a 2013 S&T. I cannot believe Micro Soft is still selling this. It has not been upgraded in years. On the other hand Apple has been slammed so much on their maps that introduced a really great map upgrade last month on their Mac Book Pros. Far superior to S&T. So if you feel like blowing big bucks (which you likely are not as you are installing a free Linux OS) but it you do get a new Mac Book Pro.
HappyKayakers
Explorer III
Nov 09, 2013
If you can't boot into Last Known Good configuration, you may need to look at the boot.ini file to see what got changed.
Caseyontheroad
Explorer
Nov 08, 2013
First run GParted to be sure you haven't accidently overwritten your Windows partition. GParted is usually removed as part of cleanup during a fresh Ubuntu install so you'll probably have to download and reinstall it. The Windows partition will most likely be /dev/sda2. It will be formatted ntfs and size should be pretty close to what you specified when you installed Ubunt.

If the Windows partition looks okay your best bet is probably to use Boot Repair. You can find the documentation and instructions on how to use it here

HTH. Good Luck!

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