Using Mint, need to reinstall Windows XP

bSlick

I've got Mint and Windows XP on a dual boot. I want to wipe my XP install and put it back on again. I take it this is going to be alot trickier than reinstalling Mint? Anyone know what's involved in the process or any guides out there that might be of help?

ravydavygravy

Should be ok, but windows will wipe the MBR, so when the whole thing finishes, you'll lose your dual boot. You'll need to book linux from a rescue CD or live CD and use grub to rewrite the MBR.

See here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/reinstall-ubuntu-grub-bootloader-after-windows-wipes-it-out/

smeg_for_brains

I dont use windows so dont know exactly but you are probably better off looking in the Mint forums for specific help.
See here:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=46&sid=297772871964bb7fec55ea7bfed1c51c

Johnboy1951

ravydavygravy wrote: »

Should be ok, but windows will wipe the MBR, so when the whole thing finishes, you'll lose your dual boot. You'll need to book linux from a rescue CD or live CD and use grub to rewrite the MBR.

+1

Yep after XP has been reinstalled you must reinstall Grub to the MBR to give you the choice at boot up again.

bSlick

OK, I reinstalled XP, then reinstalled grup and everythings working fine except for one thing, XP is now taking about 4 minutes to boot up. Previously it was very quick, prob 30 seconds. It works fine once it's loaded...any idea why it takes so long to boot?

Dartz

Might be where the files are on the disk. You'd be surprised how much of a difference that actually makes, especially if they've been dumped innefficiently. You might be able to help it along by running a defrag, followed by a run through with CCleaner and another defrag....

It's that way. It sucks a bit... but thaat's the way it goes. I had the same problem when I reinstalled windows.

bSlick

Dartz wrote: »

Might be where the files are on the disk. You'd be surprised how much of a difference that actually makes, especially if they've been dumped innefficiently. You might be able to help it along by running a defrag, followed by a run through with CCleaner and another defrag....

It's that way. It sucks a bit... but thaat's the way it goes. I had the same problem when I reinstalled windows.

Hmmm, I followed your advice with the defragging and running ccleaner mate but it hasn't had any effect unfortunately. Any other ideas?

kierank01

some questions in no particular order:

what partition is the windows installation on?

how have you partitioned your unix sysyem?

what way is grub configured? what does menu.lst look like?

have you changed menu.lst since you re-installed xp?

did you delete the xp partition, and recreate a new partition filesystem?

if menu.lst uses udev partition identifiers, the new partition would have different identifier, and may be causing a timeout.

how does xp actually boot? does it stop at one point, and wait 4 min, and then continue, or does the 'starting windows' stay for 4 min?

you could have a driver conflict, check the event log in the ctrl panel.

cable842

format te hard drive and then install windows. or use vitural box

Johnboy1951

If XP is slow to boot then it is something in the XP install that is causing it.

If you cannot get it sorted it may be worthwhile deleting the contents of the XP partition and then Formatting it from within Mint -- do not delete it -- and then reinstalling XP again and then Grub.

That should ensure that you have a fresh install of XP on a clean partition.

After that it is again up to XP .....