can i go back to windows xp

Asked by hristina

i installed the ubuntu inside the windows, but i can't run windows xp. when i turn on the computer there is an error and the only thing i can do is to insert the live cd of ubuntu
please help as soon as possible

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Tom
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Niels Egberts (nielsegberts) said :
#1

Can you specify what the error is?

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hristina (hristinaleova) said :
#2

it sais: CLIENT MAC ADDR: OO O1 6C F7 D8 71 GUID: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF
           DHCP......._
than i type Esc. and it sais:
PXD-EAO: NETWORK BOOT CANCELLED BY KEYSTROKE
PXE-MOF: EXITING NVIDIA BOOT AGENT
DISK BOOT FAILURE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

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hristina (hristinaleova) said :
#3

i installed the ubuntu inside windows but inside the ubuntu i installed it on the whole drive. i'm asking if i recover my windows

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Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said :
#4

Hello

Note: The following instructions were developed for Windows XP Home Edition.
Other Windows OSs may vary somewhat.

To remove Ubuntu and restore your Windows OS to its original state
System Restore will not work. You must complete three separate
procedures in the following order:

   1. Restore your Master Boot Record (MBR)
   2. Delete the partition
   3. Resize your Windows partition back to its original size

To complete the following instructions you will require two CDs:

* Windows Setup CD
* GParted Live CD. This is the partition management tool I used to
      create these instructions. There are other partition management
      tools available that should also work, but of course the
      instructions will be somewhat different. Instructions for burning
      a copy of the GParted Live CD may be found on the Internet at
      http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
(or)
If you are using ubuntu 7.04 or ubuntu 7.10 live CD no need of gparted live CD..

To restore your MBR:

   1. Insert the Windows Setup CD into the CD or DVD tray on your computer.
   2. Restart your computer.
   3. Hit Enter to reboot from the Windows CD when prompted to do so.
   4. Type “R” and hit Enter in Windows Setup to enter the Recovery
      Console. The Recovery Console will appear and list the Windows OSs
      on your machine.
   5. Select the number corresponding to the Windows installation you
      wish to boot into. For most people this will be a “1”. (In some
      versions of the Recovery Console the installations will be
      numbered. In others, you will have to deduce the installation
      number from the order of priority in the list.)
   6. Windows will prompt you for an Administrator password. Try your
      Administrator password or, if your Administrator password does not
      work, hit Enter.
   7. At the Windows prompt, type “fixmbr”.
   8. Type “exit” to restart the computer.

Your computer should restart using the Windows installation you selected.

To delete the Ubuntu partition:

There are several ways you can delete a partition, including Computer
Management (Local) and Command Prompt from within Windows itself (for
more information type “delete partition” in Help and Support in the
Start menu). However, since you will be using the GParted LiveCD anyway,
the following instructions will instruct you in the correct procedure
using the GParted LiveCD. You can go straight from deleting the Ubuntu
partition to resizing the Windows partition. If you have not already
burned a copy of the GParted LiveCD, do so now before continuing below.

   9. Insert the GParted LiveCD in the CD or DVD tray on your PC.
  10. To accept the default boot options hit Enter.
  11. To accept US English language hit Enter.
  12. To accept the default keymap hit Enter.
  13. To accept the default screen depth hit Enter.
  14. Click on the Ubuntu partition in the graphical display.
  15. Press the Delete button.
(or if you are using ubuntu 7.04 or ubuntu 7.10 live cd ..)
Pop in the live cd and go system -> administration -> install and repeat steps 14 and 15

To resize the Windows partition:

  16. Click on the Windows partition.
  17. Press the Resize button.
  18. Resize your partition by dragging the left and right borders of
      the graphic representation of the partition to the desired size
      (typically, to the maximum extent possible).
  19. Press the Resize button.
  20. Press the Shutdown button (red arrows in extreme lower right
      corner of the display).
  21. To eject the CD and restart, hit Enter.
  22. The GParted/ubuntu Live CD will eject. Remove the CD from the tray. It is
      not necessary to close the tray manually.
  23. Hit Enter.

Your computer should restart using the Windows installation you selected.

To verify that your Windows partition has been resized, navigate to
Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Defragmenter.
The Capacity is indicated in the fourth column.

Hope that helps,

Bhavani Shankar.

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Tom (tom6) said :
#5

It sounds more like a bios or hardware issue to me, which would be a very odd coincidence because ubuntu wouldn't do this. Perhaps subvert this guide a little bit by using the bios part of the instructions to help get the hard-drive into the boot-order
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD

I've had this sort of problem before, quite a few times, and installing a linux properly sorts it out and gets the Windows working again too. But the reason i encounter it is because the drives i'm using are quite ancient, 20Gb at most (not laptop drives, i mean proper old ide drives) and i keep physically messing around taking drives out and replacing them.

To properly install Ubuntu you need about 15Gb spare, well 8Gb will do but 15Gb really. Then follow these guides as much as you can
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
Using that first guide properly this time heheheh.

We can help you back your data up to Usb stick/dvd drive or whatever without even going into Xp.

If you don't have 15Gb spare (i never do, obviously) then a better linux might be Wolvix Hunter
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
or another new tiny distro. Please let us kow how much space and i'll tell you my favourite distro for that space ;)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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Tom (tom6) said :
#6

Errr, the hard-drive isn't making horrible grinding noises is it? If it is then avoid turning your machine on until we are ready to pull all the data off.

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Tom (tom6) said :
#7

You say that using the Cd you can get to a working Ubuntu desktop? If that can see the hard-drive in the "Places" menu then we can use it to get the data on your hard-drive saved to vdd or Usb,. Which do you have most easily to hand?

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Best Tom (tom6) said :
#8

I spotted somewhere that you said you "installed to the whole drive" but it also seems that you were using Windows when you did the install. Only one of these statements can be true. If you were in a Windows desktop with a "Start" button down in the bottom left hand corner of the screen then the "entire disk" would have been the "virtual disk" the wubi sets up for you and not real drive space at all. So were you in Windows and installing Ubuntu through the Wubi? If so then don't worry. Otherwise we have to follow heavy-duty data recovery procedures
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Please let us know if anything we're saying makes sense and if it isn't then please ask us to explain.

Good luck with this
Regards from
Tom :)

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hristina (hristinaleova) said :
#9

Thanks Tom, that solved my question.

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Tom (tom6) said :
#10

You're welcome. Hopefully we will be able to give you shorter answers to specific questions about any of this.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)