hi Y. Tried 3 different bootup disks. none worked from newest to oldest all boot into languages,then 64bit failsafe. newest disk did not produce the bottom line texts. ie. F2 to F6 No texts, 2nd disk and 3rd disks showed texts - help languages etc. Each disk was given 20 minutes to start working. I guess no windows files to load.

So there is nothing more we can do. Thanks for your help.

CP codes you gave me to enter, despite taking great care to get them right, may have had an error so all fault lies with me. Its a mystery as to what happened. I would be grateful if you could advise the numbers I was asked to change just to ensure I got it right. ie hd1 or ,2 or both. I will give it one last attempt. If no joy goodbye windows and hello to my 500BG HDD to load more distros onto.
Can I change the numbers after pressing entry or must I enter the full text from beginning each time, Please I learned a bit and thats important too.


Best wisher to all keep safe

oh one last fact The disks failed to work on my old PC I assumed this was because they were 62bit and it is 32bit so I downloaded a 32bit edition but that did not work either. perhaps my ISO,s are not loading correctly onto disk. ?? as Douglas Murray would say "who knows" I always use DVD-R blank disks. They also stop on the front page. In anycase they always worked before. cheers

swap the cables of the windows drive and the other drive and see if windows will boot using bios boot.

"reinstall windows or ubuntu which would be most effective and easy/fast to correct"

Posted in first entry....

Assuming
you primary concern is to have working system AND
you do not care if you loose data on a disk you are using

use whatever media your Linux ISO is on

AND

install fresh copy AKA reformat your HDD
of Linux FIRST. "...most effective and easy/fast to correct"

AFTER you get it working to you spec /comfort

rinse and repeat

same procedure for Windoze ( this is Linux forum , is it not ?)

ask for help on Windoze forum to "install Windoze alongside of Linux"

and watch for smoke...

Its odd boot repair doesnt work, I think, because it cant find windows files.
GParted struggles but eventually works, Aomei immediately loads windows files and works as normal.
Aomei shows both partitions as separate, 1 system reserved primary and 2 NTFS primary. I very rarely use windows so I think its time to take the plunge and stick with linux only. I can always re-install at a later date if its needed. Anyway I have windows 7 on my old PC.

You have been brilliant and very much appreciated. Thanks Take care Keep safe

Thank you Jan. We were hoping to repair files on 2 windows partitions. yes something when wrong this time. I probably inadvertently changed the partitions on the windows drive when installing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS I know how to install windows and linux but I guess we all occasionally make mistakes.
thanks for trying to help