Ubuntu
grub package

reinstall dual boot

Asked by frank

I have a dual boot system (Linux & Vista). The installation of both went smoothly.
I can boot into either OS. However, I wasn't carefull when I installed Vista.
It ran perfectly for many days, then It required an authenication code. My license
was an upgrade version of Vista. I need to remove Vista and then install XP and then
Vista. I can't seem get to the hard drive partition that holds Vista. I've used Fdisk
and Format many times with XP. Where do I start?
Thanks,
 Frank

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Carlos Andrés Zambrano (czam) (carlos.zambrano) said : 		#1

to manage your partitions you can download parted magic from the next link
http://wiki.partedmagic.com/index.php/Downloads
This allows you to modify your partitions.

Carlos Z

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Michael DePaulo (mikedep333) said : 		#2

It sounds like you have a few steps. The first part of it is windows help.
To remove vista, all you need to do is install XP to the same partition, and along the way tell it to format that partition. Basically you will see an image like this during the XP setup from a bootable windows xp cd:
http://www.sumedh.info/pictures/install-xp-usb/xp-setup-partition-format.png
only it will say NTFS rather than RAW. You will then select this option to format it:
http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/images/windows/instructions/reload/filetype.jpg
Once you have installed XP, then run the Vista upgrade.

The 2nd part deals with Linux help. Once you have run the Vista upgrade, then you will need to reinstall the Ubuntu grub bootloader so you can dual-boot. Here is a good article on this:
http://reillyblog.com/index.php?/archives/24-Re-install-Grub-to-hard-drive-on-Ubuntu.html

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Michael DePaulo (mikedep333) said : 		#3

One more thing. Remember that when you format a partition, you are going to delete all the data/files on there. So back them up first to another drive. When you format the NTFS partition, you will lose all your files under vista. Make sure you do not format the unknown/linux partition from the windows xp installation, as that has all your files under Ubuntu Linux.

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