[SOLVED] Grub doesn't list Windows XP

[techee1]

Ubuntu 9.10 / Windows XPsp3, dual boot. Installed 9.10 over a month ago, no problems since today, update manager, now Windows is not listed. I've been using dual boot since 8.04, but still not very adept at terminal, and have no knowledge of GRUB. Help, please!

[OldGrantonian]

now Windows is not listed

For a grub issue, you should probably wait for someone from the A team to reply

However, you can pass the time by looking at this article:
Grub/XP/Vista Bootloader - Ubuntu Forums

Scroll down to the section "How to restore the Windows XP bootloader"

You can see that you only need to type 3 commands

(I think I've done this, but I can't remember )
.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

The latest version of Ubuntu uses GRUB2 rather than GRUB legacy as was used by prior versions of Ubuntu. You should be able to use the SuperGRUB LiveCD to restore GRUB if you wish. I'd advise downloading version 1.21, or later for working with GRUB2 machines:

Super Grub Disk Homepage

There is also a very good HowTo for working with Ubuntu and GRUB 2, here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

[techee1]

Ubuntu 9.10 / Windows XPsp3, dual boot. Installed 9.10 over a month ago, no problems since today, update manager, now Windows is not listed. I've been using dual boot since 8.04, but still not very adept at terminal, and have no knowledge of GRUB. Help, please!

This install of 9.10 was an upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04, I checked GRUB v 0.97...hope you can help, thanks

[D-cat]

That should make things easier. You just have to add back in the Windows entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst A typical one looks like

title Microsoft Windows NT/98/95 and MS-DOS
  root        (hd0,0)
#  rootnoverify (hd0,0)
  makeactive
  chainloader +1

Though you may have to edit the (hd0,0) if Windows is not the first partition on the first hard drive.

[techee1]

I'm totally clueless, I need to be walked through this one. Thanks.

[devils casper]

Execute this

cd /boot/grub
ls

If it lists menu.lst file then post the contents of menu.lst file here.

In case there isn't any menu.lst file, install startup manager.

sudo apt-get install startup-manager

It will install GUI of GRUB2. It doesn't have much options but you can check if Windows OS has been detected correctly or not.

Post the output of sudo fdisk -l command too.

[techee1]

here is the list
Screenshot-mfp@mfp-desktop: -boot-grub.jpg

[yancek]

You do have a menu.lst file so post its contents as suggested above. Open a terminal and do:

sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

post the contents here.

[techee1]

Here it is.