Can you tell me how to replace the MBR on a laptop Sata drive where the full
XP CD cannot find the drive.

I don't have any experience of laptops, so I'll have to assume that they
are similar to desktops.

Are you saying that when you try to install XP from the CD it can't find
the SATA drive?

If it was a desk top you would go into the CMOS menu, and check that the
SATA drive is enabled, sometimes it's called a SCSSI drive. Then check
the boot order Floppy first (if you have one), then CDROM, then SCSSI
last.

Hope this helps, otherwise could you explain the symptoms of your problem.

Well thanks for the advice but no, as I said it does not have a floppy drive
The SATA is the only hdrive on a laptop and yes it is working because it
took the Linux OK. It does not appear to matter how it boots from the CMOS
set up it still say it cannot find the hard drive.

So I cannot load the XP cd.

> The SATA is the only hdrive on a laptop and yes it is working because it
>took the Linux OK. It does not appear to matter how it boots from the CMOS
>set up it still say it cannot find the hard drive.

Is the problem that you can't boot up Ubuntu, after you've installed it?

>So I cannot load the XP cd.

Does the CD boot up OK?

Are you trying to replace Linux with Windows?

A very useful program for sorting out boot problems is SuperGrub. You
can download it from the web (do a Google search). You then make a
bootable CD. IIRC You can do this in Windows or Linux. I found it very
useful for getting a corrupted system to boot.