[afronate]

I am currently running Linux of a disk, and need a little help. Is there a way to set how Windows XP will boot? If I do download Linux is there a way to get Windows XP back if I don't have the disk? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Omega_Shadow]

Just making sure I understand you so we are all on the same page.


You are currently running a LiveCD distro

You want to know how to set up a dual boot with both Windows and Linux

If something goes wrong durring the installation of linux, you want to know if you can get windows back without a WindowsCD

Is this correct?

[afronate]

You Nailed It. I need to get new drivers for my graphics card, because Windows XP is messing up badly, and in Linux when I try to install something it says it can't on a "Read Only" system. I also can't log in as the admin or "super user" to change it, I think I need to install it first.

[CouchMaster]

Are you trying to use Linux to fix your WindowsXP because you don't have an XP cd to run a repair? Why don't you just use Linux and blow off Windows?

[Omega_Shadow]

Thats because you are using a LiveCD

LiveCD's are great, but they are AS IS, you cant install additional programs to them in LiveCD mode. You have to install to hard drive to make changes

Dual booting with linux and windows is easy enough. Depending on the distro (version) of linux you want you could be up and running within 20min

Now with windows.... microsucks made it a point to make sure you can not install windows except from a officially stamped and encoded CD. In otherwords no CD, no windows fix. With out a windows CD you cant install windows

[afronate]

Originally Posted by CouchMaster

Are you trying to use Linux to fix your WindowsXP because you don't have an XP cd to run a repair? Why don't you just use Linux and blow off Windows?

Yeah my computer had Windows Xp pre-installed. I want to use Linux but the rest of my family loves Microsoft.

[afronate]

Originally Posted by Omega_Shadow

Thats because you are using a LiveCD

LiveCD's are great, but they are AS IS, you cant install additional programs to them in LiveCD mode. You have to install to hard drive to make changes

Dual booting with linux and windows is easy enough. Depending on the distro (version) of linux you want you could be up and running within 20min

Now with windows.... microsucks made it a point to make sure you can not install windows except from a officially stamped and encoded CD. In otherwords no CD, no windows fix. With out a windows CD you cant install windows

I'm currently using SimplyMepis.

[Bartender]

afronate -
I'm still not clear on what it is you're trying to do. If you have Simply Mepis running (even in the live mode I think) and can connect to the internet, you should be able to download Windows drivers and save them to a folder or USB drive or external hard drive.
You won't be able to install the Windows drivers to your Windows partition from the Mepis environment. I dont think so anyway.
If you're just worried about losing your Windows install in case something goes sideways during the Linux installation, that's a reasonable concern and you should think about that. Can you copy the whole Windows install to a spare HDD? There are several options, don't know what would be best for you.

[afronate]

Originally Posted by Bartender

afronate -
I'm still not clear on what it is you're trying to do. If you have Simply Mepis running (even in the live mode I think) and can connect to the internet, you should be able to download Windows drivers and save them to a folder or USB drive or external hard drive.
You won't be able to install the Windows drivers to your Windows partition from the Mepis environment. I dont think so anyway.
If you're just worried about losing your Windows install in case something goes sideways during the Linux installation, that's a reasonable concern and you should think about that. Can you copy the whole Windows install to a spare HDD? There are several options, don't know what would be best for you.

My Bad....This is why I need to get both OS's. I posted this problem in the Windows Xp section but forgot to put it the Linux section.
I booted up my computer 3 days ago and logged in under my user name, and there were no desktop icons or taskbar, so I restarted my computer and tried every user, still nothing. I went to msconfig to restore it to a earlier point, and when it restarted I went to my user name, and still nothing so I went to msconfig again and booted it up in safe mode, when it restarted, right before the user names screen came up, a black screen with "SAFE MODE" in all four corners pops up for about 3 or 4 seconds, then the user name screen comes up with the ADMIN and the rest of the user names, it doesn't matter what name I log in as it always goes to the same black Safe Mode screen as before but it will freeze there forever. So I had to manually shut it down. When it restarted I hit F8 to get it out of safe mode and chose restart computer normally, then when it restarts the same exact thing thing happens. I've tried every option at the F8 selection screen. So I put in a cd with Mepis Linux on it that my cousin gave me, but I didn't install it I have been running it off the disk. And I have no clue what to do next.

[fenderfreek]

As for repairing Win, the only thing I know to do is to reinstall. If you can't even get into safe mode, then you're pretty much SOL for manually fixing anything, and if you really, really wanted to, it's more a of a pain then you would want to imagine. You can either reinstall windows, which should get you back to a working box, or use the Linux CD to copy your important data off the hard drive, then blow windows away.
Unfortunately, M$ software is nearly impossible to fix without actually booting it up, so sometimes there's not much you can do, even with Linux. All you can do is save your data and blow Windoze away in favor of a real OS, like Linux.

[Bartender]

fender -
If the poster can borrow a copy of Windows XP from a friend - a real Windows XP CD, not one of those phony "Recovery CD"s - he could boot from the CD and at least try the Repair Function, couldn't he?

[fenderfreek]

Yes, you can run the recovery program on the disk, but what that does is basically just reinstall all the system files. FWIW, I'd just go ahead and do a full reinstall if I had the disk.

[Omega_Shadow]

but to do the full reinstall he would need an OEM disk and the install code that came with his computer. Windows is picky that way

[afronate]

If I got a Windows Cd and did a reinstall would I lose everything I had on my hard drives.

[prunejuice]

You can always choose to install Linux without a bootloader, that way, when the computer is started, it goes straight to the Windows installation by default. Then, when you want to use Linux, just boot the computer with a boot floppy or boot CD.
That way, you get your Linux time in, and your family's Windows remains undisturbed.