Unable to boot into Windows after failed Ubuntu installaton

[wilee-nilee]

No problem, there are several users on now that are really good at this lets wait for their comments as well.

Do you have a recovery or install disc for the windows install if needed?

[westie457]

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 63 2,047 1,985 42 SFS
/dev/sda2 * 2,048 409,599 407,552 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 409,600 1,119,934,463 1,119,524,864 42 SFS][/CODE]
Whoa there. MAJOR PROBLEM. Somehow your hard drive has been converted to 'Dynamic' which is Windows proprietry. Only Windows can work with it however not even Windows can install to the hard drive. It is possible to re-convert it back to a normal drive but is a task filled with danger to your files, ie - you might lose them completely.

Get all of your personal files off that hard drive and put them somewhere safe (dvd, USB drive or external hard drive.

Am now going to find the procedure to re-convert the partitions. worst-case scenario from here is to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything including Windows.

If you have a recovery partition on the hard drive back that up as well. This is very important.

EDIT:

Have found what is probably the best thing to use here.
http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-...n-manager.html

This is a free program and some people have had success using it. There is an on-line help section that covers disk conversion. The whole process is best done with Windows running. Cannot stress enough now how important it is to back things up in case it goes the way of the pear.

[meijin3]

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 63 2,047 1,985 42 SFS
/dev/sda2 * 2,048 409,599 407,552 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 409,600 1,119,934,463 1,119,524,864 42 SFS][/CODE]
Whoa there. MAJOR PROBLEM. Somehow your hard drive has been converted to 'Dynamic' which is Windows proprietry. Only Windows can work with it however not even Windows can install to the hard drive. It is possible to re-convert it back to a normal drive but is a task filled with danger to your files, ie - you might lose them completely.

Get all of your personal files off that hard drive and put them somewhere safe (dvd, USB drive or external hard drive.

Am now going to find the procedure to re-convert the partitions. worst-case scenario from here is to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything including Windows.

If you have a recovery partition on the hard drive back that up as well. This is very important.

EDIT:

Have found what is probably the best thing to use here.
http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-...n-manager.html

This is a free program and some people have had success using it. There is an on-line help section that covers disk conversion. The whole process is best done with Windows running. Cannot stress enough now how important it is to back things up in case it goes the way of the pear.

Can this be done without Windows running? The whole problem is that we can't boot into it in the first place.

[vikingBoi]

No problem, there are several users on now that are really good at this lets wait for their comments as well.

Do you have a recovery or install disc for the windows install if needed?

i do have repair disk that you can make from your computer but it doesn't work because it says that a device is disabled. almost like the system recovery information can't be accessed just like windows. i can order a recovery disk from hp if needed though but it will cost money

[wilee-nilee]

i do have repair disk that you can make from your computer but it doesn't work because it says that a device is disabled. almost like the system recovery information can't be accessed just like windows. i can order a recovery disk from hp if needed though but it will cost money

Did you perchance make a full backup, a full image off the HD?

With the HD being turned dynamic this may or may not be fixable, way beyond my knowledge area really.

Even the best at this stuff on the forum can at best give links on apps that work for some and not others, with a dynamic conversion.

If you have a full image back up you could slip that back in after after wiping the HD of the dynamic stuff, just an option so asking.

[westie457]

Hi the program mentioned in my earlier post has an option to create a bootable CD. http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

Do you have access to an external drive or another drive to use as internal? It must be the same size or bigger for this cloning operation, also make sure it has nothing of personal value on it because it will be wiped of all information and have the contents of the currently unusable hard drive written to it. Once the hard drive has been copied disconnect the original. We will be working on the copy. If the repair procedures work then they can be used on the original, if they fail then the original can be cloned again for the next step.

The command to use is something like this

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4096

I am assuming here that SDA is the messed up drive and SDB is the extra one connected, ensure that you get this the right way round otherwise the wrong drive will be copied.

See

man dd

for more info.

Drive has been cloned, yes? Good.
Boot using the 'Partition Wizard' cd you created earlier and convert the partitions back to 'Primary'. If successful try to boot the converted drive into Windows. You will know if the conversion is successful because Windows will throw a fit because some of the hardware has changed. This is normal behaviour from Windows. The next stage will be to repeat the procedure on the original drive.

Post back here with the news, good or bad for the next installment.

[meijin3]

Hey guys, thank you so much for your help! We ended up buying a restore disc from HP and backed up all the files. We're going to re-image the computer and start over. Thanks so much for your time!

[wilee-nilee]

Hey guys, thank you so much for your help! We ended up buying a restore disc from HP and backed up all the files. We're going to re-image the computer and start over. Thanks so much for your time!

Cool, enjoy.