WindowsXP lost after upgrade to PCLinuxOS - Solved

[Keith Logan]

Hi folks,

I'm new to the world of linux but after a downloading several live ISO's
I settled on PCLinuxOS as my preferred flavour.  In fact it was the gnome
version I liked at first with the ability to freely resize icons on the
desktop.  My choice changed to KDE which offered a better CD writer plus
more control of system fonts.

With the recent changes to KDE itself, an unsuccessful attempt was made
at upgrading the system.  I then reinstalled and performed a successful
upgrade but now the computer no longer loads up the alternative OS,
winowsXP.  Instead I get the following error message when I attempt to
load it..

root (hd 0,0)
 Filesystem typeunknown, partition type 0x7
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Any help to get this working again would be appreciated, remembering that
I am not at all comfortable with text mode.

Keith Logan

[uncleV]

Hi folks,
...I then reinstalled and performed a successful
upgrade but now the computer no longer loads up the alternative OS,
winowsXP.
Keith Logan

Hi Keith and welcome to PCLOS community!

Just after installing, yes, PCLOS shows you only booting to PCLOS and it is normal and it is the safest way.
Why the safest? Because after installing PCLOS you have the option to run by LiveCD "Redo MBR" (KDE) or "Restore MBR" (Gnome).
Those will/should include in the booting options all other OSes you have on your machine.

Try this, please, running it by LiveCD session. After that come back, please.

BTW, are you on PCLOS KDE or some other PCLOS flavour?

[Keith Logan]

uncleV,

Thanks for trying.
1) I did as you suggested, to no avail.
2) I then ran windows repair, again failure.
3) I edited grub to point to sda1 (the windows partition) - nothing.
If 2) had worked as I expected, then windows would have booted,
ignoring grub. Then I would have reinstalled PCLOS (for all the
time it takes).
I am not prepared to reinstall windows so I will have to get to
grips with wine, as there is one windows only program I need and a
few others I am loath to lose as there is no exact counterparts, so
far as I have seen.

Keith,
the happy chappy

PS. I'm sorry I didn't make it clear in my first note.
I am using the KDE version.

[Old-Polack]

Keith Logan:

Way too little information to offer accurate help at this point. We need to know how many drives are in your computer and where the two OS are physically installed. From the Linux installation, open a terminal, enter       su           then press the Enter key. You will be asked for the root password. Enter it then press the Enter key again. At the root prompt;

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l           <Enter>  <-- That's a lower case L not a number 1

Use copy/paste to post your results, so we can see them as you see them.

[Keith Logan]

old-polack,

I was ready to give up as I had no faith in my ability to follow these sort of
instructions - surprised myself.  Anyway, here is the result.  Hope it helps.
There are 2 hard disks, 160GB primary and 640GB secondary.  Both windows
and PCLOS are on the primary drive.  The secondary holds shared data.

Keith, the happy chappy


[keith@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost keith]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000530ec

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        8337    66966921    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            8338       19458    89322497    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            8338        8352      116736   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            8352        8838     3905536   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            8839       19458    85298176   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa7d853ec

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       77825   625129281    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 8086 MB, 8086618112 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 983 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01a57100

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         983     7895916    b  W95 FAT32
[root@localhost keith]#

[Old-Polack]

old-polack,

I was ready to give up as I had no faith in my ability to follow these sort of
instructions - surprised myself.  Anyway, here is the result.  Hope it helps.

Keith, the happy chappy


[keith@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost keith]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000530ec

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        8337    66966921    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            8338       19458    89322497    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            8338        8352      116736   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            8352        8838     3905536   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            8839       19458    85298176   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa7d853ec

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       77825   625129281    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 8086 MB, 8086618112 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 983 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01a57100

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1         983     7895916    b  W95 FAT32
[root@localhost keith]#

You did just fine. 

I see a 160 GB hard drive with a Windows partition and three Linux partitions, which I'm guessing are your / (/dev/sda5) and /home (/dev/sda7) partitions. The 640 GB drive seems to be for shared data storage, and you have an 8 GB USB stick.

From that I would say your Windows stanza should be;

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

That doesn't mean that Windows will necessarily boot right up. You may have a problem within Windows itself that prevents proper booting. All grub does with this stanza is locate the windows partition, and then hand over control to the Windows loader.

[Keith Logan]

old-polock,

From the purple lettering of your reply, I assume I'm supposed
to edit grub directly.  Not at all sure how to do that yet.

Keith
the happy chappy

[Old-Polack]

old-polock,

From the purple lettering of your reply, I assume I'm supposed
to edit grub directly.  Not at all sure how to do that yet.

Keith
the happy chappy

You can navigate to /boot/grub with Dolphin, right click the menu.lst file, then choose Root menu --> Edit as root. Enter the root password when asked, then edit the file. Be sure to Save the file before closing the editor.

You can also open a terminal, and type at the prompt              su-           then press the Enter key. Give the root password, Enter key, then at the root prompt;

[root@loclhoat ~]# kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst               <Enter>

Edit and save the file.

Or, just for variety, press Alt+F2 then enter          kdesu kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst         then press the Enter key. Root passward, Enter key, edit and save the file.

[Bald Brick]

Sorry to be a spoilsport but Keith has a problem with his partitions too:

/dev/sda5            8338        8352      116736   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           8352       8838     3905536   82  Linux swap / Solaris

In other words: sda5 and sda6 are overlapping. Not by much: the system could work for years with no ill effects, but this could also be a symptom of a more serious problem.

[Old-Polack]

Sorry to be a spoilsport but Keith has a problem with his partitions too:

/dev/sda5            8338        8352      116736   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           8352       8838     3905536   82  Linux swap / Solaris

In other words: sda5 and sda6 are overlapping. Not by much: the system could work for years with no ill effects, but this could also be a symptom of a more serious problem.

Good catch. 

Easy fix too, because it's the swap partition doing the overlapping. Fdisk to the rescue here, but first a bit of extra information needed.

Keith Logan:

While in the root terminal;

[root@loclhoat ~]# blkid |grep sda6                  <Enter>

Post your results.

[uncleV]

...and you have an 8 GB USB stick.

If I remember correctly in some cases reported here USB stick attached while booting caused problems.
(I'm sorry if I dumped a dumb )

[uncleV]

...as there is one windows only program I need and a
few others I am loath to lose as there is no exact counterparts, so
far as I have seen.

You could post here which Win progs do you think miss in Linux and may be it'll turn out you were wrong?
Or, better, firstly search the forum and Synaptic with their names.

[Keith Logan]

old-polock,

Thank you very much.
As a long term windows user this is a new experience for me.
Getting answers (and promptly too) to technical questions.
I am used to trawling the web searching for data: downloading manufacturers updates
with varying degrees of success.  Often giving up in frustration or fixing things
by trial and error.

As well you offered 3 solutions though, the first was not possible as under root
on the menu the only choice was delete. The second looked complicated but the third
worked a treat.

I would have come back an hour or so earlier but I was caught up in windows lengthy
install process (remember I said I tried to do a repair). Of course once windows
was done I still had drivers to re-install.

Keith
the happy chappy

[Keith Logan]

old-polock,

Maybe the second option wasn't so scary after all; I used it to do what
you asked for later. Wow, I'm getting my hands dirty and it seems easier
than I cold have imagined.

Keith
the happy chappy

[root@localhost keith]# blkid |grep sda6
/dev/sda6: UUID="1cd87a45-c94b-44ec-9da7-f9cdb4ddffef" TYPE="swap"
[root@localhost keith]#

[ezas]

When an issue is solved it's a good practice to edit your original post and add [Solved] at the beginning of the subject line. That lets others know the problem has been resolved.

Glad OP (and others) got you going again on Winders.