Help!

[Jonathan183]

I think I might have installed it over vista - I am guessing that if I did I cant get it back? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Correct ... but post sudo fdisk -l output and we can check

Ed: You should get an output like this ... but less partitions ... bold entry Windows (in my instance Win2k)

[jonathan@Desktop-pc ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
Password: 

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80054059008 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9732 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x15551555

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         256     2056288+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2             257        2168    15358140    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            2169        9732    60757830    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            2169        3910    13992583+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6            3911        5784    15052873+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7            5785        5915     1052226   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8            6872        7509     5124703+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9            7510        8401     7164958+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           9602        9732     1052226    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda11           5916        6871     7679038+  83  Linux
/dev/sda12           8402        9601     9638968+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
[jonathan@Desktop-pc ~]$

[smolloy]

Start up from the liveCD and do as Jonathan183 said. If you give us this information we'll be able to tell you what happened, and give you some advice.

[StudentMum]

It wont do anything - I keep pressing esc to get into the menu but it wont do it. So much for Linux made easy!

[smolloy]

I don't understand. What are you doing?

I want you to do this,
1/ Put the installation CD into your CD drive.
2/ Start your computer.
3/ Let it boot into the standard Ubuntu desktop.
4/ Tell us when you're done.

[Jonathan183]

It wont do anything - I keep pressing esc to get into the menu but it wont do it. So much for Linux made easy!

If you have the Ubuntu desktop then you should be able to move the cursor over the menu using the mouse (left click to select menu items) ... did you boot using the live CD?

[StudentMum]

Ok its back to the screen now - has applications, places and system menus at top, then a thing of examples and an install icon.

[smolloy]

Cool!

Now you need ot open a terminal. From memory, I think it's in the Applications menu (at the top left). Have a look in each of the sub-menus and look for something called "Terminal".

Click on it.

Then type the following and hit enter,

sudo fdisk -l

Try to copy what it says here so that we can read it. You should be able to copy and paste it if you have web access from Ubuntu.

[StudentMum]

Ok - done that and this is what it says:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
units+ cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1a83193b

Device     Boot    Start        End                Blocks          Id         System
/dev/sda1   *      1             60044           482303398+      83        Linux
/dev/sda2           60045      60801            6080602+          5     Extended
/dev/sda5           60045      60801            6080571          82     Linux swap/Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntiu:~$

I am presuming you know what it means? I sure dont!

[smolloy]

I hope you don't mind, but I edited your post to make it easier to read the output.

Well. I don't know how to say this, but it kinda looks like you've overwritten Vista with Linux. I'm sorry. This means that you won't be able to use Vista until you reinstall it -- I hope you have recovery discs?

I'm sorry.

From here it would be easy to go on to install Linux, and I'm sure we can get that working easily, but I'm guessing you're keen to get Vista back first?

[StudentMum]

Damn! Oh well, my own fault. Gonna get a copy of good old xp and install that - thanks anyway but I will be sticking with windows from now on!