Computer problems, windows boot, linux help

[Tuomas]

First of all, I'm already browsing for answers.

Ok, now the story. I've been wanting to install Linux on my laptop for a while now. Last night, I decided to do it for good after an attempt or two. I used Partition Magic to take some 10gb of space from c: to make another drive for linux to use.

Well, during the partition progress, the always so reliable PQ pulled of an error. Unfortunately, I can't remember what it read and didn't realize to write it down. It occured during the progress of taking space from the c: partition. There was an error message and I had to press a button to boot the system.

I don't know what happened to my c:, but Windows XP wouldn't start. Not with any of the modes: Normal, safe mode, or the 'last setting that worked' thing. It always takes me to the loading bar screen, then flashes a blue screen so fast that I can't see what's in it and reboots the pc.

Now the only option for me was to install Linux (Kubuntu). It was succesful so the end result is that my laptop now has a windows that doesn't work and linux, currently without internet.

The situation isn't that bad actually, I've wanted to format and partition my hd properly for some time now, but the problem now is, that I have some files I'd like to recover from c: that I now can't access. Luckily I had burned most of my files to dvds already. The bad thing is that I don't have a Windows recovery cd or an install cd (the latter one I'll be able to get my hands on later, but that means reinstalling, right?).

What I'd like to now is

Is there a way I can still start Windows without reinstalling it and recover my files?

How can I access the c: drive and it's files from Linux? Konqueror (the current explorer) can't access it, so is there a better program for that?

If someone has had similar incidents happen, and could give some advice, that would be great. If someone knows a site, or a link to a similar discussion, that would be good also. If there's anything you could tell me that's helpful... that would be great too.

[BigKaboom2]

Are you using GRUB or LILO as a bootloader?

If using GRUB, you could edit grub.conf assuming you have nano installed (I'm not too good with other text editors):

Code: Select all

nano -w /etc/boot/grub.conf

It might also be under /etc/boot/menu.1st depending on your distribution; I've seen both.

So once you're in there, you'll need an entry for Windows, which would look something like this:

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title Microsoft Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

The (hd0,0) means that the Windows partition is on your first hard drive as detected by the BIOS and is located on the first partition of that drive. Second hard drive and third partition would be (hd1,2), for example. If you save that and reboot, it should give you an option for Windows on the list.

If you don't normally get a list at all and it goes straight to Linux when you boot up, make sure you comment out the "timeout" line in grub.conf (by putting a # at the beginning of it).

This is all assuming that the XP partition isn't corrupt...if it is I could continue on with some ways of mounting NTFS partitions under Linux.

[Tuomas]

I don't know. With Linux?

[BigKaboom2]

Edited ^

What distribution then?

[Tuomas]

Well the problem lies with Windows. I have the selection screen at boot, I can select Linux or Windows. Windows won't start. It gives the loading screen, then flashes a blue screen and reboots the system, so there's something critical going on I suppose

[BigKaboom2]

There's actually a setting in Windows that causes the computer to restart immediately when you get a blue screen, rather than being able to read it and figure out what's going on - that information would probably be helpful . Have you tried Safe Mode or anything like that?

[Tuomas]

All of them available at startup, nothing works.

[BigKaboom2]

A recovery CD would be nice...but I guess that's not an option. I'll find out about the NTFS mounting in a few hours when I'm not so busy.

[BigKaboom2]

This might be helpful, if you are in fact using Ubuntu, which I have learned to assume when I hear about someone casually trying out Linux

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=283131

So just edit /etc/fstab with a line similar to:

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/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs auto,ro,users 0 0

[Tuomas]

Thanks, I'll try that. I've got Kubunt by the way.

However I've pretty much come to believe that the whole c: drive is corrupt, I tried some mounting techniques and none of them work. Could be me, though.