ubuntuforums-unanswered team mailing list archive

[Jeruvy <question77816@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #77816 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/77816

Jeruvy proposed the following answer:
I'm still not clear on how you installed Ubuntu.  You say:

"...boot from CD and then proceeded to install Ubuntu."

If you booted from CD then Ubuntu loads a liveCD environment.  If you clicked 'install ubuntu' from here, what did you do?
If you selected Install from the boot menu, then it would install normally.
Which method did you use, normal or wubi?  It's sounding a lot like a wubi install.  

To see what OS's are detected at startup, boot the system normally (no
cd in the drive) and hit escape to get the grub menu.  This should list
all your boot options.  Please list off all the choices you have.

Now one of them should be your windows install.  Select this.  Depending
on configuration this should eventually load the OS Splash screen, and
then a welcome/login, and then a desktop.  If it fails here, then it's
likely Windows that has a problem, my guess would be a corrupt disk.
You should run CHKDSK on your hard disk (not ubuntu disks...) that has
windows on it.  Typically C:.

Caveats to WUBI installs:

1.  Need to partition an NTFS volume for a virtual disk.  Done by the installer.
-- If the disk has low free space (I deem less than 50% or 40GB low...even if you don't :) then you're going to cause the hard disk stress by adding another large file (virtual disk) for the WUBI installer.  Should not be the end of the world, but on older hard disks this could be the breaking point.  Remember, windows really likes to see 15% free space in order to not have large performance issues or worse problems.

2.  Fragmentation and existing disk errors are not checked before the WUBI installer runs.
-- Heavy fragmentation means your virtual disk may be all over the place and performance will suffer as a result.  Any errors may get allocated and cause either OS to crash or experience weird problems.  This could be the end of the world :)

So if you install WUBI then you need to make sure your disk is in really
good shape first.  Run CHKDSK /f before to make sure no errors on the
disk.  If you only have a C: drive (one hard disk, one partition) then
make sure you have LOTS of free space.  Defragment the drive before
installing WUBI and if you are using the built in defragmenter in
Windows, run it several times since it's not very good.  Commercial
defragment tools will do this job much better.  Then when you get to
running the WUBI installer create at LEAST ONE partition for Ubuntu that
is 8GB 'just for the system and OS' and another one for your files and
stuff, I'd recommend 20GB for the second one, however if you just want
to make one partition, make it at least 20GB.  This should allow you to
do updates without running out of space and allow you to download stuff
(cause you will :)

HTH,

You received this question notification because you are a member of UF
Unanswered Posts Team, which is an answer contact for Ubuntu.