WinXp-Zorn 8 dualboot Fail

Hello everyone. I hope you are doing well. I'm still a newb on this stuff.
I hope I didnt ruin my XP - I intended to keep it and just dual boot between XP and Zorin. Zorin seems to work well, but the XP not so much.
The boot loader I guess is fried. I get the normal choice for Zorin or XP but when I select Windows XP I end up with a black screen
Is there any way to fix this? I have very important files on XP i should have backed up (shoulda, coulda, woulda) I really dont want to lose.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance
~Dave

* Zorin 64 bit
* Windows XP 32bit
* AMD Athlon II 3.0ghz dual core
* 2GB DDR System Ram

Hi Dave,

firstly, you can drag your Windows files (copy & paste) them over from the Windows partition(s) no problem assuming you haven't nuked the Windows partitions.

Open your home folder (Nautilus) and you will see a list of locations and devices on the left, your windows partition will have the name of your PC make like Acer or Compaq, you just need to click on that name and mount the Windows partitions and save your stuff to your Zorin OS home folder!.


You can try repairing the bootloader (Grub) with this terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) command:

Code:

sudo update-grub

and restart your PC and see if that fixes the boot problem, you can also download a boot repair disk here and create a bootable repair disk for Linux/Windows:

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

Let us know if this helps.

Okay - so far everything is a fail. I used the code you gave me...,

Code:

sudo update-grub

and it reported success - but after rebooting I get the same thing as before.
I can access the files to Windows XP but its nothing like on your example. It does not show the name of my computer at all. It just shows
DEVICES
476 GB Volume
Computer

I installed Boot Repair - got a notice that reads.,
"Sorry, the application pastebinit has stopped unexpectedly"

I ran Boot Repair anyway with the easy Recomended Repair option. I was too afraid to try the advanced settings because I really dont know beans about alot of what I was presented with. Nothing has changed at all after running Boot Repair
I deeply appreciate your helping and I hope we can get it fixed. If I just pull XP files over from the "476 GB Volume" of my 1TB drive - I am losing that much space after the files have been imported. But i guess I will live with it if need be. Hopefully I can still keep my XP too. **crossing fingers and eyes for extra luck*

Hi,

please paste a screeenshot of your partition layout using Gparted!.

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

please paste a screeenshot of your partition layout using Gparted!.

Here's my Gparted picture (G-rated, I promise)


UPDATE: On top of the Win XP resulting in the black screen of death.., now my Zorin is taking episodes of freezing when I'm cruising the net. This last time, it froze then rebooted on its own. I couldnt read the error notice, it rebooted to fast. If at all possible I should probably try to get my XP back and remove Zorin. I don't fault Zorin, its probably I had a corrupted download of the 64 bit version.

Hi,

did you do a disk or USB install and follow this advice?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4771

You also have no bootloader partition which isn't so tragic but I would do a complete re-install of Zorin with a newly formatted USB stick or slowly burnt disk!.

You should ideally have 3 partitions for LInux, sawp, root and home, see the partitioning guide for further help in redoing your partition layout:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2601

Let us know how you get on!.

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

did you do a disk or USB install and follow this advice?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4771

You also have no bootloader partition which isn't so tragic but I would do a complete re-install of Zorin with a newly formatted USB stick or slowly burnt disk!.

You should ideally have 3 partitions for LInux, sawp, root and home, see the partitioning guide for further help in redoing your partition layout:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2601

Let us know how you get on!.

I cant recall the exact speed my windows burning program used, but I selected the lowest setting given me. I'm pretty sure it was more than the speeds in the articles you shared with me stated. I am (almost) certain the 32 bit install DVD of Zorin is good, I installed it on my brother's computer about a month a go and its still running perfectly. On my computer I pretty much followed the basic dual boot install with resizing the partitian, etc when I installed Zorin.

I'll be trying to move my files on XP bit by bit to my Win7 computer by USB thumdrive (just in case) - Then roll up my sleeves and try to repair the damage using the info you shared with me. If it can be screwed up, I'm sure I can do it - (insert nervous laughter here).., its late so tomorrow is the day of hell - hahaha. AHEM. However it turns out I thank you for your help.
Just Forgive me if I blow out the entire U.S. power grids doing this. If you don't live in the U.S. then I guess that wont be a problem?

Hi Daveman,

I don't care if you blow the national grid in the States as I live in Germany!.

Just backup all your data and files you need onto a seperate disk/USB stick and you can copy everything you need back again after doing your new install!. Take your time, if you are not certain about something, press the back button and double check it!.

Good luck!.