Cannot install Windows!!

bigseb · 18 May 2010

A while back I switched to Linux. Completely formatted my harddrive using Gparted and installed Karmic. That's all fine and well but I'm getting some software for work that only runs on windows so I wanted to create a small partition and install XP. Anyway, setup runs from disc ok (where it extracts the windows files) then it reboots and I get the message: missing NTLDR (or NTDLR) and all stops. Obviously Gparted removed something necessary to run Windows from my PC... what is it and more importantly how do I get it back?

Please help!

Tews · 18 May 2010

Read this, it explains how to setup your dual boot system... Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

bigseb · 18 May 2010

Thanks Tews. I'll try that asap!

bigseb · 18 May 2010

Tried those tips (bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot, bootrec /rebuildbcd) the first one worked, The second one killed grub I think. Now I have NO USABLE OS!!! The linux stuff is still there it just won't boot up. How do I fix that now?!

HELP ME PLEASE!!

Night Hawk · 18 May 2010

Wubi or a manual install of Grub. If that was Vista or 7 you would have been able to use the NeoGrub support seen in the EasyBCD program in order to add ubuntu in to the Windows BCD store as a new boot option. Reinstallling ubuntu on the other hand will see Grub automatically add XP into it's own boot options.

The option for downloading and using Wubi is it's Windows compatibility as a separate boot loader. GParted only resized the drive and saw the new primary for XP created. The XP installer simply failed to replace Grub effectively and why you had to use the recovery methods to see the mbr entries written properly for XP.

Here's another older article you may want to look over for dual booting XP with Linux installed first which is your situation there. How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots