Messed up

[StanW]

I had configured a usb memory stick to bootup bt5 . Worked like a charm but I was too lazy to carry the usb stick around with me and decided to bootup from a sd card . The pc is a eee Pc with a sd card reader. Googled what I thought would be the best way to format the sd on a eee and came up with "dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda" - that worked , well kindof .lol Looks like it copied my usb card to the boot sectors on my hd - can't get it to boot windoweeze (xp) any more - like it or not I have a linux pc . What would be the most efficient way to get windows back ? thanks

[StanW]

Been doing some reading - looks like dual boot might be the way to go but the question is do I install it as if linux is installed first or as if windows is installed first. Or can I simply boot from a windows iso and select repair would that do it ?

[Tubbs]

Hi
Don't know much about Linux, But when I made my Windows XP duel boot.
I had XP on the computer, so I did the auto install with a Linux start up disk.
It saw the XP, so it readjusted my partition so I had room for both operating systems.

So now when I boot up the computer, get a start up screen asking me as to witch operating system I want to start.


Thing that I don't like, is if I don't make a choice, it will start Linux and not the XP.

I wish it was the other way.
Hope this helps you a little, I'm not much help with Linux

[StanW]

Looks like this is one nifty command : "dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda" looking at the hard disk with paragon - clean as a whistle ( apart from the stuff it copied from the usb stick) . I wonder if there is any way to recover it ( no b-up).

[StanW]

Had to use the recovery partition on the eeepc to reload windows . I did manage to undelete my d partition with paragon .So I have a brand new pc - straight out of the box. Before I do anything I'll try dual boot - if I bungle it I can always restore again .lol

[slugworth]

fdisk lets you set the active partition,never tried it from usb tho.
I used it for dual boot xp/osx86
They tell you to load osx86 first,then xp so you will have the option of os on bootup.
I did just the opposite and used fdisk to choose the xp partition as active then proceeded.

[StanW]

I finished about an hour ago - a painless process . Xp installed on pc , booted from backtrak 5 from usb , selected option to install bk5 - one of the questions that it asks you is if you want to install linux side by side with your other os , this effectively installs dual boot .

... now to see if I can mess it up again .lol

[dekoohs]

Tubbs, you can select in Windows XP which you want to boot first, Win or Linux/Ubuntu/Centos etc. That way if you dont choose, the first option listed i.e. linux, will boot. So, choose linux then win (yuck) and it will always choose Linux!ins

Most PC Ive bought have had by default win loaded, so ive always added a program to dual boot with. Your absolute best bet would be to download VM Ware player, then load your OS's. Dual booting is about 8 years behind the curve.