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Dual-boot Newb

jefboyardee said:
Mydefragged. Copied the D recovery files to a C zip. Erased all of D.
Reboot and stick the Lubuntu 12.10 disk in.
Pops right up and asks me if I speak English, etc.
From the subsequent choices, I click Install... blank screen.
Reboot and try Launch OS from CD w/o install... blank screen.
Reboot and run its Check Disk... one error, doesn
Click to expand...
 
Found out, the blank screen of one DVD drive acting like it was handling the boot/install but then freezing. I, duh, finally tried the other DVD drive and it started loading, but I stopped it when I couldn’t answer a question:

I chose to install on the the D drive, with no repartition. I chose EXT2 file system. It never asked me where I wanted the swapfile, but when I clicked Install, it said I didn’t choose a location for the swapfile, then asked am I sure I want to do that... worst possible question.

So now I’m back in XP land, trying to figure that one out. Getting closer, I think...
 
Figured that out, ended up using a plugged-in spare 2GB SD card as the swapfile. Installed Lubuntu and its accompanying stuff like grub on the D drive – at least I thought I did – but when it finished and rebooted and spat out the DVD disk, it booted back to XP. So, checking for the D drive in XP Explorer (also in Total Commander) I see the installation results as...

There’s no D drive anymore! Could it be that XP doesn’t see EXT2 files?

Getting there, I swear...
 
I'm not sure that using an SD card for swap is a good idea. There's a fair amount of feeling that they are not up to the amount of writing they may get in this role. I'd use a small partition on what was your D drive for swap.

I'm not sure that XP is going to see any native Linux file system (of which btw, I'd choose ext4).
 
It looks as if Rollback RX is a problem. I guess it installs itself in the MBR.

Perhaps you will be able to find a proper dual boot solution but here are the alternatives I can think of.

1 Repair Windows/Rollback RX and

a) Disconnect your windows drive and install Lubuntu on the other drive. Reconnect Windows drive. Each drive should then be able to boot it's own operating system. BIOS disk priority (or perhaps BIOS boot menu) would decide which drive to boot from.

b) You could look into running Lubuntu as a virtual machine.

2 Omit or find an alternative to Rollback RC.
 
Supposedly, Digital River has some links to official Windows 7/Vista installation disc image downloads from Microsoft themselves (Mods: Unsure of your stance on discussion of this, as they do NOT provide license keys nor activation work-arounds to use to install it, and many people claim they are a "legit" repository.)

Even though you're using XP, the recovery mode on those discs should be enough to restore the Microsoft bootloader.
 
Somehow, by futzing with things, Recovery Console now appears after I choose boot to Windows from the Grub menu. Then I wait for the magic moment when I can log in and get to FIXMBR. But it asks for a password. It doesn’t like the password I use to log onto Windows, so I’m stuck again. I guess they want a different entry and I think my late stepfather must have made that up before his wife gave me the PC, eight years ago.

So I guess I’m either gonna go to the local repair shop and see if they can sneak around that, or find a W7 CD, or, since XP still works even though Lubuntu doesn’t anymore, just learn to ignore the boot hassles... talking to myself, more or less.
 
Supposedly, Digital River has some links official Windows 7/Vista installation disc image downloads from Microsoft themselves
Click to expand...

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I
 
Somehow, I not only got the Recovery Console to come up and sit still, I was gonna try three old passwords in my head -- the first one worked. So I entered FIXMBR, and after it tried to scare my pants off, I went for it...

It worked. Other than DOS blinking longer than it used to, it shows no Grub and goes right to XP. I have since reformatted D to be Fat32, like it was, so it’s visible to Windows. And now it’s back to reinstalling Rollback, the whole point of this abandonment.

Thanks to all who helped...
 
jefboyardee said:
Somehow, I not only got the Recovery Console to come up and sit still, I was gonna try three old passwords in my head -- the first one worked. So I entered FIXMBR, and after it tried to scare my pants off, I went for it...

It worked. Other than DOS blinking longer than it used to, it shows no Grub and goes right to XP. I have since reformatted D to be Fat32, like it was, so it
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps you should return to the recovery console and use FIXBOOT as well.
Click to expand...

That brings up another embarrassing problem... I don’t know how I ever got up the window with the option to boot into Windows or Recovery Console.

But I do know I got rid of the option my normalizing the General tab in MSCONFIG, which, I think, changed a line in its BOOT.INI tab.

I’ve googled around and almost all the suggestion require booting from a Windows CD, which I don’t have, so I know that’s not how I did it.

I can’t help but think there’s a trick in MSCONFIG and that’s how I accidentally did it... great place to just try things, huh.
 
But when I tried to launch the console this time, I got the dreaded BSOD – twice. It said, “Jef, you have been extremely fortunate to get your computer back to just about where it was before you started futzing with it, but I can only take so much of this. If you even try doing bootfix, thousands will wander helplessly, right on your own street. And you’ll have to feed them.”

That was rather shocking to read, so I’m taking a break.
 
jefboyardee said:
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I’m guessing I found the wrong Digital River...
Click to expand...

You're close, you just need to add more of what exactly you're looking for in your search box.

If I could get a yay or nay from a mod about linking to that repository, it would certainly cut down on the beating-around-the-bush.

Also, ANY windows boot/install CD, XP or later, will work in your situation and what you're trying to do with it.
 
Thanks, but for now, having straightened out just about everything I twisted, I’ve abandoned the Lubuntu Project... learned a lot, so I guess it was worthwhile.
 
Joelgp83 said:
You're close, you just need to add more of what exactly you're looking for in your search box.

If I could get a yay or nay from a mod about linking to that repository, it would certainly cut down on the beating-around-the-bush.

Also, ANY windows boot/install CD, XP or later, will work in your situation and what you're trying to do with it.
Click to expand...

I'll look into it for you
 
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