edited the grub menu which now looks
like this:-


title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
uuid efb31d69-870b-45a6-b03c-082f3d4bab50
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic
root=UUID=efb31d69-870b-45a6-b03c-082f3d4bab50 ro quiet splash vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid efb31d69-870b-45a6-b03c-082f3d4bab50
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic
root=UUID=efb31d69-870b-45a6-b03c-082f3d4bab50 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows XP Home
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdb1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1



I am now able to set grub to automatically boot to any of the operating
systems.
I also discovered that the removal of a usb 8gb memory stick stopped the
disk checking and reduced the start up time.