Adding Windows XP option to Zorin boot menu

Hi,

I am a new Zorin 8 user. Installed the OS successfully yesterday, really happy to have ditched Microsoft. Well, i say ditched, but just to be on the safe side i thought i'd like to keep my old XP installation for emergencies, so my intention was to run a dual boot Zorin / XP system.

My laptop was already configured with a parititon, with one empty drive and one with the XP installation, so yesterday i installed Zorin on the empty one - so far so good. BUT the Zorin boot menu doesn't have an option for loading XP, and despite many hours spent searching the net, i can't find advice on how to create such an option. I've had a look in the Grub file, installed Grub Customizer, but still can't figure it out. My Windows installation is definitely still there, i can browse the files from Zorin - i just can't see how to boot up the Windows system!

Any hints??

Thanks very much!

HI and Welcome!

Have you updated the system according to Wolfman's excellent post installation guide here?:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2054

See if things improve after that.

Alternatively:

Code:

sudo update-grub

in a terminal (Menu | Accessories | Terminal) - you will be required to enter your login password (you won't see any asterisks so be careful!)

Keep us posted!

Hi,

try this one quick terminal command after running the command that Swarf posted:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

Restart afterwards and see if it helps.

Have tried the relevant steps in Wolfman's post-installation guide, and the

Code:

sudo update-grub

step, and

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

step, but nothing makes any difference - my options on startup are still Zorin, Advanced Options or Memtest, nothing mentioning my Windows XP paritition.

Any other suggestions? Do i need to make a manual entry in the Grub file or similar?

Thanks again for your help!

Just had a thought, (dangerous I know ). Where did you install GRUB to? You should have over written your MBR by selecting 'sda' as the location at point of install

Hi scrumpy,

you can try "Boot Repair":

http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/

Swarfendor - When i installed Zorin my system was already paritioned into 3. The three partitions showed up as sda1, sda5 (which has XP on it) and sda6 (where i keep my docs). I installed Zorin on sda1. Not sure if this answers your question or not!

I like the sound of a quick and easy solution for a newb, so Boor Repair is downloading as i type...

Thanks again!

The saga continues.... Boot Repair seemed to have done a nice job, and when i rebooted there was a new entry at the bottom of the boot menu: "Windows (sda5)". Unfortunately, when i select that option, all i get is a white cursor and a black screen - i gave it half an hour but it was well and truly stuck there! Rebooted and tried again but the same happened.

Any more ideas?

Thank you

Hi scrumpy,

please paste a screenshot of your partition layout, there might be something you are missing there!.

Hi, Going on what you have explained might be the issue - is Windows basically 'after' Linux on the Drive? If it is, that will be the issue - you should always put GNU/Linux after Windows or after the Data Drive, e.g.,

C:/Windows (sda1)
D:/Data (sda2)
F:/Zorin (sda5) - but you would not see the F drive in windows at all - this is just for illustration purposes!

Swarfendor - maybe you've hit the nail on the head. My system is indeed set up with Zorin OS 'first', then windows, then a documents partiton (where i kept all my music / photos etc back in Windows days).

I had no idea this would be a problem! I'd heard about the importance of installing windows first, then linux on a dual boot system - but i thought this meant in terms of time sequence (i did install my XP system first, then Zorin later... zorin just jumped the queue)

So... is there any way back from this, or have i been well and truly hoisted with my own petard?

Thank again for your help

ps. have tried to upload screenshot of system setup, hope it worked

Hi scrumpy,

look here for info about partitioning:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2601

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4848

Thanks for the liunks Wolfman, I think i broadly understand what you say there.

But in my specific situation, it seems i need to find a way to move my Windows XP partition to the 'first' volume on the disk, with the Zorin OS in the 'space' where XP currently is.

Just to recap - my current situation is-
SDA1 - Zorin
SDA5 - Windows
SDA6 - Docs

If i'm not mistaken, i just need to swap Zorin and Windows around! Now, i haven't got anything special on the Zorin installation, so i guess my best course of action is to uninstall it, and then perhaps use some Windows paritition manager tool (or maybe Norton Ghost) to move my XP install on to the first part of the disk (i'm not even sure that this is possible. It would be convenient though). Then reinstall Zorin after that. And everything should work fine

My only concern is that, as my big problem currently is that i can't get into my XP os, if i remove Zorin i still won't be able to!

Hi scrumpy,

using the Boot repair disk to simply repair the MBR only, then boot into Windows (Linux shouldn't be an option now) and recover your data, then run Boot Repair again and fix the bootloader so you can boot back into Zorin!!.



Hope it helps.