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Geek Culture / My Windows XP Killed Itself?

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Libervurto
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Posted: 7th May 2011 16:02
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I have a dual-boot system running Ubuntu and XP. The other day I loaded XP up and it went through a hard disk check and started deleting files, I thought "You better not be touching Linux!", I loaded up Ubuntu and it was fine but when I went back into XP there was an error saying it could not find the BrowserUI files! So I had XP but without any user interface so I couldn't use it!

What the hell happened and why did XP self harm?

I have since deleted the partition XP was on and now I want to install Win98 on it, but I'm worried I might damage the linux partition. I don't have the XP disc any more. Any advice?

Your memory has been erased by a mod - Your new name is Brian.
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Posted: 7th May 2011 16:19
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If you create a fresh partition I don't think you will have any problems installing Windows again. What boot manager are you using?

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bruce3371
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Posted: 7th May 2011 16:21
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I can't tell you why XP suicided, but I can tell you that I have a multiboot system with ME, Ubuntu and XP.

98/ME has to go on the 1st partition, something to do with the MBR having to be at the start of the hard drive (I never really did understand exactly why lol). Then Ubuntu can be installed from within windows.

I don't know of any way you can install 98/ME after already having Ubuntu installed, so I think you will have to back up all your Ubuntu gubbins, then start from scratch.

But don't just take my word for it, I'm still a relative n00b when it comes to Linux , I'm sure someone out there knows better than I do!

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Libervurto
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Posted: 7th May 2011 17:50
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Quote: "What boot manager are you using?"

err, not sure, I think it is an Ubuntu one that automatically worked when I installed XP. (XP seems completely unaware of Ubuntu on the hard drive!)

Thanks bruce, that might be the best way to go about it, I loaded the win98 disk and it said "A non-windows operating system was detected... blah blah" basically it wasn't guaranteeing that Ubuntu would be safe if I installed win98.

I have a third operating system that is another Linux distro that I had before Ubuntu, so I could just get rid of all that and start again with Ubuntu and win98.

Your memory has been erased by a mod - Your new name is Brian.
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bruce3371
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Posted: 7th May 2011 18:02
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You're welcome. I think the general rule of thumb is that any fat32 OS gets installed first, then, once you've done that, dual/multibooting is relatively straight forward.

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AutoBot
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Posted: 7th May 2011 19:44 Edited at: 7th May 2011 19:45
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About the XP suicide... Could it have been malware? I haven't heard of anything like that happening unless if there was a virus on the system.


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Libervurto
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Posted: 7th May 2011 22:46 Edited at: 7th May 2011 22:47
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Quote: "About the XP suicide... Could it have been malware? I haven't heard of anything like that happening unless if there was a virus on the system."

I don't think so, I only use windows for Dark Basic. It was during the disk scanning thing it does every so often, I don't know what happened :S

I couldn't get windows 98 to install after I'd formatted the hard drive, strange as I haven't had problems with it before and it's the one OS I've installed about a dozen times. The win98 installer couldn't format the drive for some reason so I ran Ubuntu from a usb stick to do it, maybe that had something to do with the problem. Anyway, now I have installed the latest Ubuntu 11.04 and it has the run of my entire hard drive. I hope I can figure out how to get DB to run on Wine.

Your memory has been erased by a mod - Your new name is Brian.
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bruce3371
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Posted: 7th May 2011 23:01
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I'm guessing you used fdisk from the win98 boot disk? (Or is your PC a modern one with no floppy drive?!)

Good luck with Wine, hope you get everything running

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Libervurto
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Posted: 8th May 2011 05:35
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Quote: "I'm guessing you used fdisk from the win98 boot disk? (Or is your PC a modern one with no floppy drive?!)"

fdisk? Sorry I am a bit ignorant with this sort of thing.
I don't have a floppy drive, win98 is on CD (although it seems to think it's a floppy disk)

Ubuntu is great, it's so much nicer than windows for me. It feels like a proper operating system, not just a bunch of programs piled on top of each other, which is how windows always felt to me.

I hope I can get DB working
Thanks for the help everyone.

Your memory has been erased by a mod - Your new name is Brian.
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 8th May 2011 05:52 Edited at: 8th May 2011 05:59
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Quote: "not just a bunch of programs piled on top of each other"


BIOS->Grub->linux kernel->(???ubuntu software???)->gnome

All computer programs are giant sandwiches!

[edit]
sooo, this is how I *think* you can set it up:
1stly, back up all your important information from ubuntu. Then, make sure you have a linux boot CD you can boot into. Then, install windows on its partition. (If you don't remember which partition it is... i dunno, google around)
Now, windows will be installed, but you can't boot into linux - this is because windows overwrote GRUB with its own bootloader. All that means is that you have to reinstall grub! I think you can do this from the ubuntu boot CD. this looks like a good guide.


Tell me if there's a broken link to images in a thread I post, and I'll fix 'em.
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Libervurto
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Posted: 8th May 2011 14:13 Edited at: 8th May 2011 14:28
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@Neuro
That seems like it should work but I when I tried to install win98 it said there was an error (on the disk? I have tested and there are no errors anyway)
Maybe it didn't like the way Ubuntu formatted the drive, I'll try it again...

First I will try playing with wine, I'd prefer not to have to dual boot tbh.

Your memory has been erased by a mod - Your new name is Brian.
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 12th Jul 2011 07:21
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Quote: "All computer programs are giant sandwiches!"
As long as mine is a bacon cheesburger im happy.

Lol the OP made me laugh so hard--i am sad though that it happened to you. I just always think it is funny when Windows does weird things. Once my friend was running Minecraft then it made a weird burping noise followed by a BSOD and it deleted the world he was on.



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Indicium
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Posted: 12th Jul 2011 18:13
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Bump alert

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French gui
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Posted: 12th Jul 2011 20:18
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Quote: "My Windows XP Killed Itself..."


Wow, please post a tutorial on how to force that...
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Libervurto
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Posted: 15th Jul 2011 21:36
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Why would you want to force that? For the lulz?
Anyway it is not something that can be taught, only the chosen one can make Windows self destruct!... His name is Bill Gates

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 21st Jul 2011 22:43
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Ahh, does that mean Bill hates you?


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