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Help! I've installed a GNU on the same volume as XP

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nottseagull
nottseagull Posts: 300 Forumite
edited 20 November 2010 at 3:00PM in Techie Stuff
Not the animal, but a Linux distro. Well, I didn't mean to; my new (secondhand) PC came with XP Pro installed on the unpartioned hard drive, but I couldn't access the web via Windows because of another problem. Anyway, I thought I would try http://www.slitaz.org/en/ because it runs independently of the HDD. However there was a problem in getting it to run from the CD that I had burnt, and in getting it going I inadvertently installed it on that volume. Now when I boot it, only SliTaz runs, but XP has not been wiped as it shows 3.8GB of the 40GB space is in use, while Linux takes up a mere fraction of that. Also, the 1.6GB Windows folder is still there. There do not seem to be any options to run Windows instead on the POST sequence. I can't get my 3 mobile broadband dongle to run on this OS, so the exercise was futile anyway. If it's any help, the boot loader is GRUB.
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Comments

  • stilltheone
    stilltheone Posts: 2,131 Forumite
    I can't believe that you are still messing around with this. I offered to send you the discs to stop this messing around. Perhaps you have a crush on someone at the library.
  • You haven't installed "GNU" but a version (aka "Distro") of "GNU / Linux".

    I suspect that you have somehow corrupted your "Master Boot Record".

    To a trained technician this is not the end of the world - just use a tool like "MBR tool" on a bootable CD like the Ultimate Boot CD to repair it. I do wonder if it might be best for you to ask a suitably trained tech (A+ Certified perhaps) to step in and resolve matters for you at this point.

    Trevor
  • nottseagull
    nottseagull Posts: 300 Forumite
    edited 19 November 2010 at 5:28PM
    I've downloaded the 5th one down on this page
    http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/download.htm
    onto a USB stick at the library. I think I can get SliTaz to burn it onto a CD at home (if I have to do that). Then what do I do?
  • stilltheone
    stilltheone Posts: 2,131 Forumite
    I've downloaded the 5th one down on this page
    http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/download.htm
    onto a USB stick at the library. I think I can get SliTaz to burn it onto a CD at home (if I have to do that). Then what do I do?

    You are on a hiding to nothing. It appears that you don't just want to solve the problem. More that you want to solve it your way.

    In doing so, you are making the job more difficult for yourself and anyone who tries to help you.

    You don't seem to get this, even though gentle and not so gentle hints have been made.
    It's been suggested that your threads make for painful reading and there have been offers to send you the necessary discs so as to bypass the download limitation at your local library.

    No one is going to go back to read your multiple threads to try to make sense of what you are doing.

    They have no idea as to whether you resized your partition before you installed Linux. As to your MBR, I'm quite sure that no one will help you with that tool.

    Best to just use an XP disc to recover the MBR.

    Take the hint and the help and stop trying to do it your way, as you obviously don't know what you are doing.

    Sorry to be so blunt, but you need to listen.
  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I've downloaded the 5th one down on this page
    http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/download.htm
    onto a USB stick at the library. I think I can get SliTaz to burn it onto a CD at home (if I have to do that). Then what do I do?

    As stilltheone says, you'll be using a trial version (limited to the first 4 drives on the PC, so not a problem in that respect) of a commercial product, so getting support without paying money - if it doesn't work as it should - could be a problem.

    You're probably better off using something like Super Grub Boot Disk, which I've used before when a multi-boot install went wrong. It got me back to a situation where both Windows and the Linux distro were separately bootable from a GRUB menu. Provided SliTaz (which I confess I've never heard of before) uses GRUB and not GRUB2, the utility is tiny, so should not be hard for you to download.
  • 23n1th
    23n1th Posts: 1,523 Forumite
    I honestly don't see why you couldn't get a full distro from a magazine as has been suggested, these dvd come with multiple distros generally and have the latest and better supported distros on offer.

    Probably falling on deaf ears I'm sure you'll be trying GNX next. At least you're doing it your way though.
  • nottseagull
    nottseagull Posts: 300 Forumite
    edited 24 November 2010 at 4:16PM
    there have been offers to send you the necessary discs so as to bypass the download limitation at your local library.
    There have, but they have all come from you. I did thank you in a PM which has now disappeared from my sent box (I think I know why), so you may not have received it. Alarm bells sounded when you sent a PM giving your email address, then you said
    "Don't bother to reply here, just send me an email."
    Linked with the fact that you have urged me to provide my postal address on three occasions in PMs, I have become wary of you. Maybe I am being paranoid, but I prefer to be safe than sorry.
    Sorry to be so blunt,
    No need to apologise, that is not a problem.
  • fwor wrote: »
    Provided SliTaz (which I confess I've never heard of before) uses GRUB and not GRUB2, the utility is tiny, so should not be hard for you to download.

    Hopefully it is as the GRUB2 one is huge!
    I have downloaded super_grub_disk_english_usb_0.9799.tar onto a USB stick. Fortunately I tried to open it at the library, as I discovered that I also had to download and install WinZip to open it. But when I did so, it just came up with a list of its component files. I have no idea which one of these I should open next (or even whether this software will install withSliTaz).51465753.gif
  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    This problem is spread over at least 2 threads now. Can you remind me why you are trying to use the USB version instead of creating a CD and booting from that? On anything other than a recent PC, you are likely to have more problems booting from a USB device than a CD, if the BIOS allows it at all.

    If you can boot Ok from a CD, download the CD version (if necessary temporarily to a pendrive if the library does not have CD writers), use Imgburn under Windows or one of the many Linux-based utilities to burn it as a bootable CD, then set the BIOS to boot from CD first.
  • 23n1th
    23n1th Posts: 1,523 Forumite
    Hopefully it is as the GRUB2 one is huge!
    I have downloaded super_grub_disk_english_usb_0.9799.tar onto a USB stick. Fortunately I tried to open it at the library, as I discovered that I also had to download and install WinZip to open it. But when I did so, it just came up with a list of its component files. I have no idea which one of these I should open next (or even whether this software will install withSliTaz).

    What you have are the files (read programs that make up the grub boot disk) you need to put on the USB drive after you make the drive bootable, that way you can boot from the usb.

    Follow this wiki obviously the windows section: http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SGD_Howto_make

    Now if you'd spend a fiver at the local supermarket you could do what I suggested earlier and save yourself the hassle.
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