After some tinkering I've run into a problem..
Windows set up all the Windows files in C:\, but as that was partition3 on my Windows HDD (don't ask), it setup partition1 with the boot.ini stuff. So its booting off partition1, loading boot.ini which points to partition3.
Anyhow, I reconnected my Ubuntu drive the other day. I went into the BIOS and told it to boot the Ubuntu drive with a higher priority. After changing a few numbers in my grub menus file, I was back onto my Ubuntu install, which was great.
Today I wanted to boot back into Windows. Using Grub didn't work for some reason, it just hanged when I tried to boot off any of the partitions. No matter I thought, the HDD wasn't touched, I'll just set it as top priority in the BIOS again.
But alas, when I rebooted, I was greeted with a frozen Windows boot screen. It had a timeout of 1 second, and had automatically selected the second (don't know why it chose the second) option of two in this mythical boot.ini I didn't know existed:
Windows (default) and
Windows (default)
My normal boot.ini defines Windows XP Professional, and only one option, so this was bizarre. Neither of the options worked, not in safe mode, anything.
I tried disconnecting the Ubuntu drive, reordering the cables, everything. It wouldn't work. I got desperate and threw in my XP disc. I went into the recovery mode, and due to drive letter ordering it assigned my System drive (partition3, which is normally C when I'm in Windows) the letter D. Its only option to choose which Windows version to fix was
1. D: Windows
I stupidly chose it and ran a fixmbr and fixboot. After that it told me my boot was corrupt and it wouldn't even greet me with the strange boot.ini options menu..
Now I'm back on Ubuntu, lost, frustrated and getting desperate. Because of my repeated rebooting/restarting, Ubuntu will no longer mount the partitions as read/write (only read only) because the NTFS partitions were not shut down properly. I need to get back onto Windows to fix that (shutdown properly). I can't do that until I fix this strange boot problem (and I want my Windows back)
Sorry for how long and confusing this might be but I NEED HELP! Thankyou in advance.
Windows set up all the Windows files in C:\, but as that was partition3 on my Windows HDD (don't ask), it setup partition1 with the boot.ini stuff. So its booting off partition1, loading boot.ini which points to partition3.
Anyhow, I reconnected my Ubuntu drive the other day. I went into the BIOS and told it to boot the Ubuntu drive with a higher priority. After changing a few numbers in my grub menus file, I was back onto my Ubuntu install, which was great.
Today I wanted to boot back into Windows. Using Grub didn't work for some reason, it just hanged when I tried to boot off any of the partitions. No matter I thought, the HDD wasn't touched, I'll just set it as top priority in the BIOS again.
But alas, when I rebooted, I was greeted with a frozen Windows boot screen. It had a timeout of 1 second, and had automatically selected the second (don't know why it chose the second) option of two in this mythical boot.ini I didn't know existed:
Windows (default) and
Windows (default)
My normal boot.ini defines Windows XP Professional, and only one option, so this was bizarre. Neither of the options worked, not in safe mode, anything.
I tried disconnecting the Ubuntu drive, reordering the cables, everything. It wouldn't work. I got desperate and threw in my XP disc. I went into the recovery mode, and due to drive letter ordering it assigned my System drive (partition3, which is normally C when I'm in Windows) the letter D. Its only option to choose which Windows version to fix was
1. D: Windows
I stupidly chose it and ran a fixmbr and fixboot. After that it told me my boot was corrupt and it wouldn't even greet me with the strange boot.ini options menu..
Now I'm back on Ubuntu, lost, frustrated and getting desperate. Because of my repeated rebooting/restarting, Ubuntu will no longer mount the partitions as read/write (only read only) because the NTFS partitions were not shut down properly. I need to get back onto Windows to fix that (shutdown properly). I can't do that until I fix this strange boot problem (and I want my Windows back)
Sorry for how long and confusing this might be but I NEED HELP! Thankyou in advance.