Vista / Ubuntu ---> XP

blairw

blairw

blairw

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Hi there, I have a install of xp on a 300 gig hard drive, and an install of ubuntu on a 80 gig hard drive both in my computer :) I am currently dual booting these two os'
However i want to change to just windows xp by itself but all my data is on the vista hard drive, so i am looking to install xp on that disc instead of the 300 gig disk.
However on the xp install it cannot find the hard drive, even when only that 80 gig is plugged in due to the partition format and file system I am guessing.
What is the best way to get this 80 gig hard drive fresh and ready to take an xp install :)

Thanks
 
blairw said:
Hi there, I have a install of xp on a 300 gig hard drive, and an install of ubuntu on a 80 gig hard drive both in my computer :) I am currently dual booting these two os'
However i want to change to just windows xp by itself but all my data is on the vista hard drive, so i am looking to install xp on that disc instead of the 300 gig disk.
However on the xp install it cannot find the hard drive, even when only that 80 gig is plugged in due to the partition format and file system I am guessing.
What is the best way to get this 80 gig hard drive fresh and ready to take an xp install :)

Thanks
Click to expand...


Anyone able to make sense of this?
 
Decrypting..............

You currently have ubuntu on the 80gb and vista on the 300gb.

Windows XP wont install because the installer doesnt detect the 80gb hdd which is the one you want to install it on because you have all your data on your 300gb drive and dont want to format it.
 
K, maybe it's to do with the MBR. Dual booting ... is it GRUB or LILO or NTLDR you are using? I'm going to assume the Ubuntu deault of GRUB.


Get a Win 98 bootup disk from bootdisk.com add FDISK.EXE to it.

Boot with this disk and run FDISK /MBR

2nd thoughts, actually you may be able to do this from within Windows without the need for a bootdisk.
 
Not sure why you posted this in the Linux section as it's not anything to do with Linux at all... you've got a HDD (that has Linux on for the moment, but won't for long) and you want to format the drive so that you can install XP on it, however the Windows installer doesn't recognise the drive?

Is that a correct summary? If so, take a step back and access your BIOS and see if the drive is at least recognised in there.

Although quite why you're not just booting into XP, which you say you've got installed on the 300GB drive is beyond me.... oh, and why does the title say Vista?

Too many questions for my poor little brain.
 
Ah, right... that makes more sense now :)

I'd still check the BIOS before doing anything else - if it's not visible in there, no OS is likely to see it.

Does it show up if you access the BIOS before you boot up Windows or Linux?
 
Yeah its on the bios, even setting it was the first hard drive, and leaving the 300gig out, does not make the windows xp install see it :(
 
I'd have thought that Windows would see the drive even if it's formatted in a non-Microsoft-friendly format, but maybe I'm wrong and the drive isn't seen because it's ext3 or reiser or whatever you're using.

If you're not worried about torching the Linux install, have you tried formatting the drive completely and seeing if it's recognised by Windows afterwards? I'd download the disc utility software gubbins from the manufacturer (e.g. PowerMax if it's a Maxtor drive) if I were you and would give that a go. Shouldn't take long to format it.
 
I shall try that :) im actually leaning more towards keeping the dual boot going now, im getting over some of the annoyances of vista, and i like how quick ubuntu is on this. Ill leave it as it is until i get my laptop and put ubuntu on that :)
Thanks for all your help :)
 
well if you do go back to one OS boot off the Ubuntu live cd/dvd and format the disk you want to put xp onto to NTFS using GParted, should be recognised then
 
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