[Gloucs] Ubuntu XP Dual Boot

[Steve Greig]

Thanks very much for previous advice which I hope at some point I will
make use of. Unfortunately, I have made a bit of a mistake. I
reinstalled XP onto the lap top using the 'product recovery CD-ROM'.
This was a default install so, as far as I understand, makes a single
partition. However, I believe it is possible that there is a hidden
partition on the disk with an image of the OS on it from something I
have read.

I then booted to the Fedora3 installation DVD I have and reduced the
size of the big 'single' partion using parted (I have typed out the
details of that session at the bottom of this message). My idea was that
this would leave XP on a smaller partition and make some free or
unallocated space into which to install Linux later.

When I had finished the session with the Fedora3 DVD I tried to reboot
the computer normally (ie. from the hard disk) but found that I just got
a black, blank screen with a single flashing dash at the top left
corner. I imagine the booting process is now unable to find some
necessary files on the hard disk because parted has moved them to a new
location.

I am now using my Ubuntu live CD to actually use the computer (ie. write
this email etc.) and have not made any other alterations to the hard
disk. I was wondering if there was some way to get the computer to boot
into XP? I am worried that I may not even be able to reinstall XP and
may have lost it for ever given that (as far as I understand) my product
recovery disk only activates a preexisting image of the OS on the hidden
partition (hopefully that is not rearranged). Also, I don't want to try
and reinstall XP yet just in case there is some easier way round this.

If you do have any advice on this I would, of course, be very grateful.
The session with parted is reproduced below.

Steve

using /dev/hda
(parted)-print
Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-19077.187megabytes
Disk label type:msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
1 0.031 19069.343 primary fat32 boot,lba
(parted)-resize 1 0.031 10069.343
moving data....4% (time left....)
(parted)-print
1 0.031 10072.001 primary fat32 boot,lba