How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

Majkl (User):

Hi, Harapa,

I am not sure here but your disc repartitioning looks rather wild. If you are running a dualboot, I suggest you have the primary Win partitions in one piece at the beginning (left side) of the disc and the free space reserved for Ubuntu (which you will further divide to get the swap and things...) again all in one piece on the right side. The confusion you have may generate some mess.

BTW, are you still able to see your Win files if you reboot with the liveCD?

x (New user):

agnish :
can you please tell a way to restore the xp boot menu after installing linux. i have tried

Majkl (User):

"can you please tell a way to restore the xp boot menu after installing linux. i have tried"

You`ll need to restart with the Win install CD, hit "R" to enter the Recovery console, enter your User ID and admin pass and follow with the "fixmbr" and/or "fixboot" commands.

By the way, it takes less than a minute to google this up...

lad (New user):

how do i get XP to start as the default

lad (New user):

how do i get XP to start as the default

Majkl (User):

"how do i get XP to start as the default"

Open Termional, type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst" and the linux bootloader file will open. Find the line saying "Default .....0" and change the number according to where your XP is in your boor menu. 1st position is 0, 2nd position is 1, etc.

By the way, have you checked any linux forum`s FAQ?

madzach2000 (New user):

is it safe to get XP SP3 after doing this

madzach2000 (New user):

is it safe to get XP SP3 after doing this

Kari (New user):

I have tried to install Ubuntu within Windows and when I chose to boot from Ubuntu I get a black screen for the menu which is in code, where do I go from here. Can someone please help me.
Tx Kari

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

rayb (New user):

I am trying to dual boot my current system which is-

1/ Hddo drive c 80gb xp pro sp3

2/ hdd1 drive d 40gb me

so I want instructions on how to make my drive d hdd1 40gb Me
system as replaced with dual boot Ubuntu 8.0.4 , thus keeping
my xp pro sp3 on Hdd0 drive c, so I can have a dual boot Hdd0 xp pro sp3
on drive c 80gb and Ubuntu drive d Hdd1 40gb, can you help,
as not sure where I load up the iso disc I made of the Ubuntu onto what
current systems on either xp pro or Me, and does it pickup that I have two
seperate drives????????????

ray

kel (New user):

Hmmmm, think maybe something weird was going on with my posting there !! Only meant to post once DOH!!

kel (New user):

Hi I've had a look at your linux/xp dual boot how-to and tried to access the menu.lst file from the terminal but I keep getting a 'command not found' msg. I've even tried cd'ing to the directory that this file is in and then typed sudo menu.lst but still get the same error msg. Any idea why this may be?? I'm the only user on my laptop and have admin privilages I think. (ps I'm usuing ubuntu v.8)

kel (New user):

Hi I've had a look at your linux/xp dual boot how-to and tried to access the menu.lst file from the terminal but I keep getting a 'command not found' msg. I've even tried cd'ing to the directory that this file is in and then typed sudo menu.lst but still get the same error msg. Any idea why this may be?? I'm the only user on my laptop and have admin privilages I think. (ps I'm usuing ubuntu v.8)

LeeC (New user):

Great tutorial but I am having some really strange problems. I am running a twin drive system, a SATA drive and an IDE drive. The IDE drive was installed first and XP was installed at that time. Then I added a SATA drive after it became spare from another machine. Windows still recognises the IDE as Drive 0 and the additional SATA drive as Drive 1.

When I installed Ubuntu, it showed the drives the other way round, i.e. the SATA drive was sda and the IDE was sdb. I had set up my drive with multiple partitions ready so I had to do the "Make space for Ubuntu" step under "Manual" settings to make sure things got installed where I wanted them to go.

The first time I left the default hd0 setting (in the "Advanced" settings during Linux install after entering your details) and the Grub loader didn't appear. The next time, I changed it to hd1 and the Grub loader appears but every option in the boot menu gives me an "Error 22: No such partition" message.

Have never installed Linux before this so the whole thing is as new as new can be. Can anyone offer any suggestions to resolve the problem at all?

jra (New user):

When I get to the prepare disk screen I do not have the Guided: resize partion option. I only have Guided: Use entire disk, Guided: use largest continuous free space and Manual. I have 96MB free on a 1.6 GB disk. I did the defrag and the graph looked good. I tried the largest continuous space option and it only recognized 8MB.
I just read an earlier post by majkl who had this problem and the reply said to "you sure the liveCD is not corrupted? When downloading the ISO, you should allways check the MD5 checksum to make sure it is flawless". I'm not sure how to check that.
Okay I found the checksum utility on the help page and the file checked out fine. Now What?

Charles (New user):

Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 for dual boot on WIN XP SP3 box. When I get to Step 3- Prepare Disk Space, I do not show the first partitioning option-- Guided Resize. I only show the Use Entire Disk, Use Largest Contig. Free Space or Manual options. What do I do?

TIA

Majkl (User):

Quoting Charles:
Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 for dual boot on WIN XP SP3 box. When I get to Step 3- Prepare Disk Space, I do not show the first partitioning option-- Guided Resize. I only show the Use Entire Disk, Use Largest Contig. Free Space or Manual options. What do I do?

Hi, Charles,

there may be some mishmash on the live CD, you may want to check the MD5 checksum characteristics against the Ubuntu website (works with Linux Mint, should be the same with Ubuntu).

Apart from that I suggest you go with Manual as I did my very first time. It will give you an option to resize tour existing Win partitions, then you create a Linux partition (ext3 system, mount point "/") and the swap. (you may wanna write details about your Win partitions down on some paper to make sure they are left aside) and off you go! There is not much to worry.

Majkl (User):

Hi, Charles,

there may be some mishmash on the live CD, you may want to check the MD5 checksum characteristics against the Ubuntu website (works with Linux Mint, should be the same with Ubuntu).

Apart from that I suggest you go with Manual as I did my very first time. It will give you an option to resize tour existing Win partitions, then you create a Linux partition (ext3 system, mount point "/") and the swap. (you may wanna write details about your Win partitions down on some paper to make sure they are left aside) and off you go! There is not much to worry.

Majkl (User):

Quoting Charles:
Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 for dual boot on WIN XP SP3 box. When I get to Step 3- Prepare Disk Space, I do not show the first partitioning option-- Guided Resize. I only show the Use Entire Disk, Use Largest Contig. Free Space or Manual options. What do I do?

Hi, Charles,

there may be some mishmash on the live CD, you may want to check the MD5 checksum characteristics against the Ubuntu website (works with Linux Mint, should be the same with Ubuntu).

Apart from that I suggest you go with Manual as I did my very first time. It will give you an option to resize tour existing Win partitions, then you create a Linux partition (ext3 system, mount point "/") and the swap. (you may wanna write details about your Win partitions down on some paper to make sure they are left aside) and off you go! There is not much to worry.

Majkl (User):

Hi, Charles,

do not be a softie and go ahead with the manual. ;o)

Write down name of the Win partition (to make sure you do not accidentally delete it), then resize it to get free space, then Create a new linux partition, determine mountpoint, create swap and off you go.

fathhi (New user):

I just see the comments but i i can't get the tut, I think something wrong with my internet.

fathhi (New user):

okay guy I' beginer in linux world, and I dont know anything about it.
what should I press when i insert the cd of ubuntu. f1 or .... i dunno what.

Majkl (User):

Hi, fathhi,

the MD5 is basically code (for linux Mint it is "b19dd5164828c9725b30fb6394ce29f2") describing the file contents to make sure that your linux ISO is (flawlessly downloaded and burned) exactly what was published on the distro website. There needs to be match between your ISO and the website source. There is a neat description in the Linux Mint Elyssa user guide so lemme paste something in:

If you happen to run Windows, chances are you don’t have md5sum installed. You can get it from here: http://www.etree.org/md5com.html
Place the ISO file and the md5sum.exe in the same place (let’s say in C:\) and run these commands in the Win command line:

C:
cd \
md5sum LinuxMint-5.iso

...this will give you the MD5 code for the ISO you actually have. Compare the signature to the one present on the website. If they are identical, the ISO is good and the error is elsewhere.

Note: I cannot tell if the distro you are up to is providing any MD5, you may need to check the specific forum.

jra (New user):

Quoting Majkl:
...this will give you the MD5 code for the ISO you actually have. Compare the signature to the one present on the website. If they are identical, the ISO is good and the error is elsewhere.

My md5 checked out good but I still do have the guided: resize partition option available. What else should I check?

Azy84 (New user):

this is for ubuntu.. how bout the others? fedora and centos?

rayb (New user):

I have already dualbooted with xp pro sp3 and Kubuntu
but running into problems with modem not regonized and cant
find a driver??????

ray

Majkl (User):

Tried Google? Ever heard of ubuntuforum.com?
-
Please let me gently note that driver- or specific issues are rather beyond this site.

jra (New user):

GRUB Issue:
I am using a MS USB wireless keyboard. It is not live when GRUB loads so I can't select my OS. Is there any solution other than a hard wired keyboard?

John Shewsbury (New user):

I need help, when I try to install the Ubuntu (on my Vista laptop), it stuck on the screen where they show Ubuntu logo and progress bar - stuck at 25% for half an hour and after several attempts, I decided to abort the installation. The same happens when I just want to "Try Ubuntu"

By the way, when I try the CD in my other laptop running Windows XP, it works fine, I can "Try Ubuntu" and "Install" it accordingly, so I guess it's not the CD but maybe something else.

Is it something to do with my Vista Home Premium?

Can any of you help me please????

fine4u2say (New user):

Ubuntu 8.04 does not import my windows XP wireless driver. It will not connect. Kubuntu sees my network but doesn't use the drivers and doesn't connect. Downloading goes to my D drive but still no driver. Running from the CD causes the wireless network to never start. HELP!

The geek (New user):

I assume your talking about dual booting from the same hard drive.. What about if your like me and are dual booting from different hard drives? Isnt the BIOS supposed to detect different drives-0/Ss and give you the option which to choose?

Thriell (New user):

My 80 gig hard drive is already split into several partitions:
Primary: 8 gigs (C: drive)

Unallocated: 10.5 gigs

Extended containing the following logical drives:
D: 12 gigs
E: 8 gigs
F: 5 gigs
G: 12 gigs
H: 23 gigs

How do I convince the install to just use the free space after my primary partition? By default, it wants to eat my whole hard disk.

David_VW (New user):

Thanks for the nicely-done guide; however, installing 2 OS on one disk is not nearly as desirable as doing so on 2 separate disks. May I request a HOWTO for Linux/Windows on multiple disks? I there one coming?

I have read some HOWTOs on this, but they all lack certain details and are not very descriptive, concise or professional. Need a bit more guidance I guess.

thanks

bbah (New user):

Hello,
Anyone there to help. I successfully installed both ubuntu and win xp. I just editted the menu.lst file in grub in my ubuntu and placed the win xp above the other OS so that it boots first. I changed (hd0,1) to (hd0,0) for the win xp and the other ubuntu hernels I changed from (hd0,0) to (hd0,1). Now my system could not start. It gives me the OS's but if I choose win xp it will say error 13 and if i choose ubuntu it say error 17. I desparately need help. email: bbah74@gmail.com

Joe G (New user):

I've tried on three different computers (after changing boot order) and am unable to get any of the three computers to bring up Ubuntu installation. I continue to get either XP or a black screen suggesting I choose one of three options to start windows. I would really like to explore Linux but am apparently unable to get my computers to boot it from a disc. Will anyone help a dolt out on this? Thanks....

DannyP87 (New user):

I've burned the CD and everything seemed great. But when I got to the partition phase I don't think it reconsigned that I had XP already on so it said it would use the whole 320GB of my HDD to install Linux on with no slide bar to choose how much I wanted just for Linux.

I still need XP!

Anyone help pleeeeeease!

Majkl (User):

Hi, Danny,

two questions:
Have you defragmented you disc before you started playing with the ISO?
What about checking the MD5 checksum (google it up - it is a code that will show you whether your ISO has been downloaded and burned correctly).

Gary Hedberg (New user):

I needed to repair a customer's PC that had Linux and Windows XP dual booted. Linux was on a separate partition already. The XP installation was hosed. Tried for hours to do a recovery. No dice. Had to do a complete fresh install of XP. In the process the boot menu to choose Linux or XP was hosed so now no boot menu is presented and the system only boots to XP. How can I repair this without doing a complete reinstallation of Linux?

Thanks for any help or advice.

Gary Hedberg
gary@hedberg.org

GERARD (New user):

Hi, i have follwed this and both xp and ubunti work fine, but to erestore peace back into my home! How do you move XP up to the top of the boot menu

Majkl (User):

Hello, Gerard,

you need to edit menu.lst.

Open terminal and type "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst". Insert your root password. The file that opens contains a list of OSes present in the PC ... and items such s "default" and "timeout".

"timeout" is how long (sec) the loader will wait before it picks the defaults OS.
"default" is number of the OS the loader will load. So if you have "0 - Ubuntu / 1 - Ubuntu memtest" / 2 - WinXP", change the Default value to "3". Yes, 3 - the order is 0 - 1 - 2, so XP is 3rd system in a row.

Computergrl27 (New user):

Want to dual-boot XP and Ubuntu. I have a 20GB HD as my primary master with XP already on it.(Yeah I know, I've had this computer for 7 years!!) I just installed a new 320 GB HD as the primary slave(there is nothing on it as of yet). This is the drive that I intend on installing Ubuntu on but I am unsure if it going to work the way I have it set up. I don't want to sound stupid, but will a dual boot work if the second OS is not on the master drive? I am very new to all this and I need help!!

Majkl (User):

Hi, girl,

I have not had much experience with different physical disc - but by advice would be go on and try. ;o) The installer will ask you about the partition where you want your linux placed so just make sure you do not format your Win and follow the instructions. If yo are installing linux after the Win, it should recognize present systems automatically - it will most probably map the Win partition on C: as "hda1" (1st sector on master) and linux as hdb1 (1st sector on slave). Good luck!

stash124 (New user):

I got the cd and downloaded and I'm impressed with the features. Now I've been using to ubuntu and with my wireless setup it detected the wireless card and picked up the wifi that I get at my wireless cafe but I'm having problems with linux xp it detects the card but when I start firefox it gives me an error no network found. Can you offer any suggestions?

TechMata (New user):

I just want to say Thanks for this post!
I have just finished dual booting my laptop with xp installed first without any problems. ^_^

http://techmata.blogspot.com/

MacGyverDB (New user):

Was not able to complete the installation of Linux on my Dell Inspirion 6000. Ubuntu partitian adjuster had an error and I was forced to abort. Took quite a long time to get XP Home SP3 to come back up. It said the drive was dirty & went through a battery of tests & whatever it does to put it back. Any ideas?

MacGyverDB (New user):

I was unable to get this to work. Ran into an error in ubuntu for adjusting the partition. I aborted the install. Would the problem be because I have XP Home SP3? UPDATE: I had a thought after I'd posted. I went and defraged the system. Hope to try again soon.

MacGyverDB (New user):

Me again. Big point that needs added to this process. DEFRAG BEFORE YOU BEGIN ANY OF THIS! I defraged with MS's verson & then with a free downloadable version. The install process as described here worked perfectly.