How to Re-Add Windows XP to grub menu after Ubuntu 11.10 Re-install

dual-boot grub2 windows-xp

9,862

boot-repair is probably your best option. Here's how you can use it.

Boot into Ubuntu
Open a terminal and run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install boot-repair
Open boot-repair
Use choose the Recommended Repair
Follow the instructions you are given
Reboot once boot-repair is done
Profit!

9,862

Moose

Installed Ubuntu several years back and fell in love with the open source ideal! Mostly self-taught, I know Java and dabble in bash scripting, C, C#, and Python.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Moose almost 2 years
Basically, I messed up my partitions and decided to do a full re-install of both Windows XP and Ubuntu 11.10 (I know that 11.10 is outdated, but I was planning to do an update to 12.04 as soon as I got everything happened). Here is a sequence of what I did:
1. Installed Windows XP onto 20gb of hard-drive space
2. Installed Ubuntu 11.10 onto the remaining 10 gb of space using the advance setup option where I partitioned: (1gb swap, 200mb /boot, and 8.8gb / , (see screenshot))
3. Trouble struck, when I rebooted, grub2 didn't show Windows XP under my boot options.
4. I ran sudo update-grub but it still didn't find windows
5. I opened gparted and added the 'boot' flag to my windows xp partition (I was getting desperate and didn't know what to do)
And now, I'm stuck with only Ubuntu, and I don't want to have to re-install both Ubuntu and Windows to get grub working again.

Please note, I have seen How to boot Windows XP (no GRUB menu is shown)? and Add windows to my boot menu but I couldn't find anything useful.

Thanks a lot,

DevNewb
- mikewhatever almost 11 years
  
  The first link contains a useful link for the Boot Info Script. You should use it and let us see the results.
- Moose almost 11 years
  
  Ok, the results are at: paste.ubuntu.com/6149731
- Moose almost 11 years
  
  It doesn't make sense, because I did pretty much the same thing when I first installed ubuntu, but it doesn't work now...
- mikewhatever almost 11 years
  
  Not sure how you've done it, but I see two problems: Windows boot files are missing, and /dev/sda is a logical partition. Pretty sure it wouldn't work in such a setup, even if you could somehow load it. Don't think you can solve it without a reinstall.
- Moose almost 11 years
  
  OK... I will restore the windows mbr and see if it boots, if not I'll just reinstall :P
Moose almost 11 years

It doesn't work because it doesn't support Ubuntu 11.10.... I need to wait till next month to download 12.04 because of my Internet package...