1st time using Ubuntu. Ran 7.04 Live CD. Now can not boot Windows XP :(

HELP!

That's all I have to say at this point.

First off, I ran Ubuntu "Fiesty" 7.04 Beta off a Live CD today in order to test Ubuntu before I make the full install. I LOVE Ubuntu. Once this mess is sorted out, I DO want to make it my main operating system for this computer.

I have a Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad R60e that I bought just a few weeks ago. One of the Intel video driver files under Windows XP Home became corrupt. I went through hell trying to reinstall the video drivers with no luck. Even the Thinkpad technical support place in Hong Kong was unable to fix it. But this is a whole 'nother story. Finally, I decided "enough is enough" and decided to download Ubuntu today. I know the final release of 7.04 comes out on the 19th, so I decided just to make a live CD of the beta tonight to test it.

Actually, my plan was to use IBM's Recovery and Rescue program to "restore Windows to it's factory state". I wanted to restore Windows XP Home to it's original "just left the factory" state and then find a way to duel book my computer to have both Ubuntu and Windows XP.

I did not get that far. In fact, I have not gotten anywhere.

I booted the Ubuntu 7.04 Beta live CD. Everything with Ubuntu works like a dream! I love it. Linux is everything I expected and more.

THE PROBLEM is when I try to restart my system, I should expect it to automatically try to boot into Windows XP as usual, right? WRONG.......

IF I have the Ubuntu live CD in the CD/DVD ROM drive then it will boot Ubuntu. However, if I DON'T have the live CD in the CD/DVD ROM drive then it simply will boot into IBM's Rescue and Recovery program. There seems to be no way to get it to boot into Windows XP or find an option to boot into Windows XP.

ACTUALLY, the main problem is I simply want to restore my system and Windows XP back to it's "original factory condition" with all of the original files. However, when I try to do this in the Rescue and Recovery program I get the following error message: "Product Recovery failed to restore your system". I figure it has something to do with the fact that I can't even boot up Windows! This problem began three hours ago after I first booted the Ubuntu live CD. Therefore, I'm assuming that perhaps Ubuntu changed something related to the "boot loader". After searching Google for an hour, I came up with some results. It turns out there should be a file located here: /file system/boot/grub/menu.1st.... However, in this beta of 7.04.... this file seems to not exist.

I'm at a lost. I don't know what to do. This is my first time using Linux/Ubuntu. I simply want to find a way to restore my system back to it's original factory state using Rescue and Recovery and also be able to boot-up Windows XP.

Two other problems related to fixing this issue that I should note.
1) I bought this Thinkpad brand new. However, as it turns out, when I bought this computer it did not come with any Windows XP disk. Therefore, I have no sort of back-up of Windows or way of reinstalling. My only hope is the IBM Rescue and Recovery program, which is suppose to be able to reinstall Windows by itself; but in my case I got the following error:
"Product Recovery failed to restore your system"
2) I am currently on work assignment in China (I'm originally from the U.S), so it's impossible for me to get to an IBM service center to have them assist with me with these errors. My only hope is that I may be able to get some advice on here to try to resolve the issues all by myself.

 

I don't think Ubuntu would have done anything that would cause recovery to fail, unless you started to install it. Just running it from the cd shouldn't do anything to your hard drive.

I'd be more worried about something fundamentally wrong with your hardware or the data on your recovery partition.

 

Did you try installing Ubuntu? Because the LiveCD will not touch the drives unless you tell it to. If you didn't, GRUB (the boot loader) will not be installed. You may consider accessing the BIOS of your laptop when you reboot it, and reset it to defaults. That may clear up the booting issue, and is the only thing I can think of. I can confirm that I have run the Kubuntu 6.10 LiveCD on my T43 here, and it never changed anything on the hard drive at all.

 

Yeah, the LiveCD doesn't touch the hard drive, it's all memory. There must be some hardware issue going on like l33t_cow said.

 

As all the others have said, the LiveCD doesn't touch the hard drive unless you try to install it or use the built-in partition manager. Otherwise, it won't even try to access it. Either something's wrong with your hardware, or Windows just suddenly decided to take a dive. That happens too you know. I booted up my old laptop one day to find it suddenly saying that the file "pci.sys" had been deleted (though it worked fine when I shut it down last) and it wouldn't boot. Not even a system repair fixed it, and all i could do was reinstall Windows. You might want to call Lenovo and see if you can get a Windows disc from them. It's always good to have in any case, and most manufacturers will give you the OEM disc for either very cheap or free.