Replies

Well, I just formatted the darn thing. Decided if I could put anything on it, and it worked. So that’s it, I guess..Backed up some files and opened them.

I too have mint 17 installed in VB and use every day. In its disk utility is says this drive is bootable and hpfs/ntfs file system.
Still won’t open anything. Windows disk mgmt. states the drive is ntfs and healthy. Won’t open anything!! I found the same info when I booted up an ubuntu disk 1304 … In windirstat, which i don’t understand at all,,,it’s so complex. the dirve is listed and bootable it says ….Won’t open anything…

Windows normally cannot read a Ubuntu drive if it is formatted under EXT2 or EXT3. There are utilities available which do allow you to READ but not WRITE TO such a drive.

If the OP used the whole drive under Ubuntu, he should use a Ubuntu live CD to read the disk. He can also use GParted to totally clear the entire disk and then create an NTFS or Fat32 partition on it. If the disk is OK, Windows will now recognize it.

Thanks all for your help, I thought ubuntu was the problem. I have that and mint installed in virtual box and use every day, but couldn’t figure how to access my usb drive in ubuntu.. However, in disk mgmt. the drive says its ntfs , so linux shouldn’t be the problem, right??
Thanks for all the help suggestions
PS even gparted wouldn’t find the usb drive.

NO, it won’t. in disk mgmt. it states windows back up on it, that’s not true . NO back at all on it. Just ubuntu distro.. The way the drive opened in my xp box was the mbr gave a choice of windows or ubuntu..I don’t see anything like that now in disk mgmt. just files!!

It opened files in chkdsk s: says everything is ok. Still I can’t open see anything on the drive. What’s on this drive is an old ubuntu distro. I’ll remove it and put on windows 10 when it’s rc compliant…

to Sudo15,
NO, but I’ll do that now and report back..
Thank you

Well -Guys,
Guess I spoke too soon…lmde finally decided to install and works….Slow but hey a 10 yr old laptop, only 512 ram, who cares.
It does work , that’s all I wanted…
Thanks all who stayed with me and wanted to help..Most appreciated!!
John in Dallas

Hello – Guys,
Well nothing has worked so far….Lmde 386 wouldn’t load plymouth. Just stalled. I don’t understand puppy well enough to attempt it….Can’t d/l anything… Guess this old laptop is ready for recycle bin!!!!
I really appreciate all you help here..The only ones ,too!!
John in Dallas

Hi-Star Lounger,
Well I thought that pae page would help. But, 7.10 ubuntu was/is so old and not working the terminal was so wonky I didn’t know if the scripts took or not…what did happen grub is now dead. System won’t boot period.. So that terminal stuff I used corrupted grub. I ‘ll try pupy and see if it corrects grub???
Thanks for all your help…So much for the linux forums!!! NONE have responded!!!

Star Lounger,
Thanks for help. But mint 13 won’t install …sys errrs cfg802011 what ever that means..Won’t even run the dvd..
Is this laptop beyond use? I won’t connect xp to the internet….don’t want infections to my network !! I do have ubuntu 7.10 installed but it’s so old and beyond support won’t update….None of the linux forums answer this topic…They have no idea which distros will work!!!

I tried mint 12 lts no luck still pae required!! There should be a way to enable /pae switch in boot.ini…With sp2/sp3 these options were added ie dep. that’s enabled that should pass pae ????

Hello – All,
Thanks guys who helped me.. All is working fine , creating my first image!! Will take the entire drive it says WOW!! I will now use my original windows xp drive for more such images if needed.

Hello ~ Ms. Capen,
I too, am running the preview of win 8 in virtual box. I noticed you are doing the same, is it the real version or the preview?
I couldn’t find a way to buy/upgrade to win 8 pro, as advertised!? How did you do it?
Thanks for your information.
a subscriber to WS from the beginning.

Hello – Fred,
So enjoyed this task scheduler article , thought for sure it would work for me..BUT, I can’t wake my computer to start media center.? All entries are correct according to your instructions. Does the computer need to be in sleep mode to wake? It will NOT wake from a normal shutdown.
System: win 7 home 64bit
Thanks for all your great tips. A follower from the Langa list days.
John in Dallas

Finally., found the answer….YEAH!!!! Hope this might help others ….

Is your audio setting for your Ubuntu guest virtual machine set to ICH AC97?
ICH AC97 is the only VirtualBox VM audio setting which allows me to get sound when running Ubuntu as a guest and either Windows or OS X (10.6.8) as the host.
In particular, if a VM’s audio setting is Intel HD Audio then sound does not work in an Ubuntu 12.04 desktop guest.
On the other hand, sound will only work for a Windows 7 (64-bit) guest when the audio setting is Intel HD Audio. This can be rather annoying when you are working with a VM which dual boots either Ubuntu or Windows 7 as the guest OS.
I have never investigated this further to find out why it works this way or if there is a way to work around it. If you happen to find one, please let us know about it.
Note: You will have to “power off” your VM to change its audio setting.