[cyberdyne]

Hi there,
I have installed Linux (Ubuntu 'Dapper Drake') on a slave drive which is working well.
I have WinXP Pro SP2 on my master drive and the auto-installed Linux grub gives me the option of which to load at boot (default-Linux).

Both O/S's were working well together and I had rebooted succesfully around 20 or so times, switching between O/S's over the last 36+ hours since I originally succesfully installed Linux.

However, I have just attempted to load WinXP and an error message popped up entitled 'Windows Product Activation' saying: "Some files are missing or damaged. You cannot log on at this time. Please use your installation CD to reinstall or repair Windows. Error Code:0x80040507"

Now, I've done as instructed and booted the PC using my original WinXP installation disc. I've launched the recovery console and have logged into Windows (dos screen) as Administrator.

However, I'm unsure of what steps to take next as there are no options available.

Any advice / help greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[Advertisements]

my guess is the wp.dbl file has been lost due to harddisk corruption, but I have not seen that one before.

I would run
chkdsk /r
<enter>

from within the recovery console first,


if that failed, I would run a repair install (this leaves your files in tact, however, it will overwrite grub and stop you from getting into linux unless you install it or some other boot loader)

http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

[gerryf]

my guess is the wp.dbl file has been lost due to harddisk corruption, but I have not seen that one before.

I would run
chkdsk /r
<enter>

from within the recovery console first,


if that failed, I would run a repair install (this leaves your files in tact, however, it will overwrite grub and stop you from getting into linux unless you install it or some other boot loader)

http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

[cyberdyne]

Thank you, i will run 'chkdsk /r' now.

edit:
====
Ran 'chkdsk /r' and it did not report any bad sectors or problems.



Before I go ahead with a repair install, how would I run / install another boot loader to try and preserve access to my linux install please? Which do you recommend please?

Also, does it help at all that I have full access to my windows install via my linux? ie: could I manually edit / add / replace anything to attempt a repair that way ?

Thank you very much.

Edited by cyberdyne, 01 July 2006 - 03:24 AM.

[cyberdyne]

Found the solution for anyone else who encounters this error.

It turned out that by making my windows drive accessible via my linux drive, i had inadvertently set the windows folder and more importantly, the wpa.dbl file as 'read-only' to "prevent causing any problems2 (haha) from linux!

See here for further info.

Thanks very much for your help though.

[gerryf]

ahh, cool. glad to know that and thanks for the update....I was reasonable certain something odd had happened to wpa.dbl, but had not encountered that error

How innteresting that mounting the ntfs drive rendered WINDOWS read only....was that something you did by accident, or Linux did without your knowledge?

[cyberdyne]

Well, I copy and pasted the instructions (0222 0 0) from the Ubuntu help pages here (Make partitions automatically available) with the intention of changing it (0 0 0 0) once i was happy nothing nasty would happen (ironic really).

Edited by cyberdyne, 01 July 2006 - 06:49 AM.