Boot Issue

coolwalker

New Member
Ok...I initially had winxp 64 bit on one partition, I then loaded Ubuntu to see if I liked it. I didn't, so I formatted that drive but the Load always showed Ubuntu at boot time. I then installed win7 and all was fairly good. I could access either 64 bit XP or win7. Yesterday my TimeBomb said I had 24 days remaining on the 64 bit trial (I've had it ever since it was introduced and I kept reinstalling it every 6 months). So I then reinstalled another 64 bit XP on the remaining partition. Now when I boot, I see 2 xp's and the Ubuntu but no win7. The partition still has everything on it and it is recorded as the "primary" drive but it does not show at boot time so I can access it.

How do I get rid of that ##@*^%% Ubuntu so I can access win 7 again? Is there some software that will do that for me, or a command or what? I am really frustrated as I like the 64 bit XP and win7. I have not yet removed the dying xp 64 bit, but will after I move my games to the newest xp. That alone might free up my win7, but I want to have it free without seeing the Ubuntu Grub thing.
:mad::eek:
 
I think I can tell you why it happened, not sure exactly how to fix it though. When you install an OS it installs it's boot loader on the partition that is marked active regardless of what partition the OS is installed to. When you installed Ubuntu it installed its boot loader Grub. Grub was smart enough to see XP and added it as a boot option. Formating the partition Ubuntu was on didn't remove the boot loader because it (Grub) was on a different partition. Now as far as Microsoft operating systems go the general rule of thumb is oldest first. Ignoring Grub for the moment, when you install Windows 7 it replaces the XP boot loader with it's own and adds XP as a boot option. Assuming you installed windows 7 to a partition other than the one XP was on. If you install XP again it wipes out the windows 7 boot loader and you loose the option to boot to windows 7. Since you installed XP twice (you didn't remove the original version) you end up with two installs and two boot options, one for each install. I don't know how to remove Grub. To fix the two XP entries you would normally do this, but in your case I don't think you want to do it. After you format the partition with the XP you don't want boot into the one you want to use. Them run msconfig. Go to the boot.ini tab and click the "Check All Boot Paths" button. This would remove the bogus entry. I don't think this will add Windows 7 though. To fix the missing windows 7 boot loader I think you would have to boot from the windows 7 DVD and do a repair install. Now the big problem as I see it is if that original XP install you don't want is on the active partition you will wipe out the boot loader when you format it and not be able to boot into any OS. If it was me I would wipe everything and just start over. I think what ever you do it's just going to go from bad to worse.
 
Back
Top