IT Professionals

An Experiment With Ubuntu Gone Wrong

Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 | 7 Comments

Gnomie Rossgang writes:

I don’t know if “restoring” is the right word, but here is my problem.

Like other people getting bored with Windows and wanting to try out a new operating system, I downloaded Ubuntu Linux and burned it to a CD. Then, as the directions read, I placed it in my PC to try to load it up as a live-CD (I think that’s what it’s called) and then went to run it. I believe that’s where I made a horrible mistake — I decided to not really read up on it at all and tried to throw it right onto my family’s computer, which my sister and my schoolwork revolves around.

Anyway, I put it in and installed it. It deleted Windows and when I turned on the PC all of these white words and checklists started running down a black screen and it asked me to sign in. This is where I found myself completely lost. Having little to no former experience with any forms of Linux I realized I made the horrible mistake of not reading up on it.

To make matters worse, I bought a new version of XP Home and tried to install it, but nothing works. After it loads it says on a blue screen that Windows cannot be loaded; check BIOS settings. I’m completely lost.

Please, I’m begging you, help me. What can I do to get this computer up and running with Windows again? Mind you, Windows was already installed in the system; can I restore it without buying a new hard drive or having it professionally fixed for money?

  • Dan P.

    Wow.

    Well, I’m glad you decided to take responsibility for what happened instead of coming on here foaming at the mouth about how this is the OS’s fault. Thanks for that.

    Now getting on to your problem.

    First of all, I was mortified reading your post because it would appear you’ve deleted all your data on your hard drive. Let me explain. The ubuntu installer would have been very very unwilling to erase your whole hard drive unless you explicitly told it to, so you probably repartitioned it into two partitions: one for Windows and one for Linux. Your data (still living on the Windows partition) was probably safe up until that point. But you made two more mistakes that cost you… Mistake #1 was trying to reinstall Windows without making sure you kept your data safe, and #2 was paying for that privilege when you most likely already own a license for that computer.

    When you reinstalled Windows, you may or may not have wiped the entire disk, destroying your data.

    My recommendation as my family and friends’ go-to geek is to go to your go-to geek and buy him a case of beer/mountain dew/etc. and ask him to take a look at it. He should be able to pop your hard drive into an enclosure, or his PC, and see if your old windows partition is still there, and still has your data on it. If so, he can then back it up for you.

    Once your data has been secured on a different hard drive, then I’d recommend doing a complete repartitioning and reinstall of Windows. Since you can’t return shrink-wrapped software, you’re unfortunately stuck with a copy of MS’s worst version of XP (Home). But assuming you bought this PC from any well-known vendor at any time since October 2001, it should already have a valid license for Windows XP. You can verify this by finding the little sticker somewhere on your case. Anyway, I’d recommend not reinstalling from the XP CD you just bought, but rather from your computer’s Restore CDs (if you can find them). The reasons being, (1) you might have a better version of Windows such as Pro or Media Center, and (2) if you use the restore, it already includes all your computer’s drivers, whereas if you install from the retail disc, you’ll have to waste a lot of time tracking down the drivers from the manufacturer’s site.

    If your computer came only with a recovery partition and no CDs/DVDs, I feel your pain (damn cheapskate manufacturers) because you probably nuked that when you installed Linux. So go ahead and install from your new CD and then hit up your manufacturer’s support/drivers & downloads page for all the hardware. You’ll want at least these: Graphics/Display, Audio, Chipset, Network card, wireless card (if you have it).

    Good luck, and at least feel good that even if you can’t get your computer fixed, you’ve learned a lesson from this: Don’t install an OS you’re not comfortable with on your main computer. Learn on a spare first. I hope when you try Linux again you have better luck.

    Regards,
    -Dan

  • http://www.piczo.com/thejeffshow Jeffx95

    I hear what you are saying.

    I am 12 years old and that has happened to me to. Thank God i tried it on my old pc (windows XP).Dont Get me fooled…im a 12 year old geek but it went wrong. I burned it onto a CD-R then put in in the PC and re-booted. Then out of the blue i got Blue Screen. I didnt buy another copy of windows…i figured since it was a old computer…the hell with it. Lesson Learned…Never Try that again.!!!!!

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    Just to clarify if there is any confusion.

    Can you hose a Windows partition with Ubuntu during its installation – definately, it is possible, easy even.

    Can the Ubuntu Live CD create a blue screen, which would have to be generated by Windows as Ubuntu does not have such a screen – physically impossible when it is booting from the CD itself – it is read only media, nothing was written to the hard drive.

    Can an Ubuntu install cause a blue screen with Windows? Nope, the two operating systems have nothing to do with one another short of sharing a boot record in the Grub bootloader. So if this happens to you, I would consider the reality that some kind of kernel dump has taken place due to Window’s having a bad reaction to hardware or some kind of malware. Again, Ubuntu is not able to generate Windows blue screens. It is physically impossible, so I would say examine the Windows partition for other errors. :)

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    And for those who have had problems getting a grasp on how partition management works (linux, Windows, etc), I would highly suggest using http://www.acronis.com/promo/ADD/disk-director-014.html

    It is completely fool proof, you cannot destroy a partition unless you blatantly choose to when using this software. ;)

  • JLentz

    As to the failure of the Windows installer. Most likely the Windows installer can not deal with the Linux partitioning scheme. I would suggest using a linux app to delete the partition and then run the Windows XP installer.

  • George

    For one describe after all the set up (what you call white letters on a black screen) it should have taken you to a Ubuntu screen (by chance did it show Windows XP on that screen), if not then I would say that it hid Windows XP. If XP is now hidden when you tried to install the version you bought it would not install because you already have the later version on your hard drive. You need to get a program that can look at your partitioned drives and see if XP is on there and also see if it is by chance hidden now or not active. I still use the old Partition Magic so i do not honestly know now which ones are actually good. But before spending all sorts of money on repairs or high cost techs you should check this out. Your XP might not be hosed. If by chance Windows is not set to active it will not boot no matter what. I think there is a program called Partition Commander that will do all this also.

  • Mark Simko

    This is fixable. Don’t panic.

    Also, if you have your original installation disks from the system, there is no need to waste a perfectly good ‘new’ xp os on this.

    Your issue right now is the boot loader which starts up in the master boot record of the hard disk. There are ways to make the current boot loader point to Windows and load it, but I suspect that what you really want to do is remove it entirely and return to an only Windows disk.

    You’ll need to be able to start up the system using a Windows environment. I suggest that you download Bart’s PE, run it, and with a Windows installation disk in hand, create a bootable Windows cd.

    From there, open a command window (dos box or whatever you want to call it), and read the options for the fdisk command by typing: fdisk /?

    What you are looking for is fdisk /mbr, which will replace the grub boot loader with a M$ boot loader. From there, you will be able to go back to installing XP. M$, thinking it is the only OS on the planet, does not make its operating systems check for the possibility of another boot loader by default. Using the /mbr switch on the fdisk command will fix this.