Windows partition unmounted, stuck in grub rescue!

[AndyOpie150]

I Accidentally unmounted Windows partition thinking I had only unmounted the Linux partitions inside of the Windows partition while trying to install a Linux distro( I managed to boot into my Windows OS from the linux). To make matters worse after doing some re-partitioning to even out the partition size's in my Windows OS I lost the boot.img and ended up in grub rescue on a reboot. I already knew I would loose the boot.img and was prepared with a boot repair CD which also has a live linux distro (which is how I'm able to start this thread).
I tried running the boot repair CD and It tells me there is no OS detected so it cannot repair the boot img, which is how I figured out my Windows partition is unmounted.

Is there a way to mount the Windows partition from the Live Linux distro and therefore, be able to fix the boot image?

2003 SONY VAIO PVC V200G Desktop with 120 GB hard drive with 1GB of RAM with a intel pentium 4 running at 2.80 GHz.
Inside the Windows partition I have a Windows OS partition at 30GB, a 27GB unallocated partition (this was fixing to have a Bohdi linux distro installed onto it), a 27GB linux Mint distro partition, a 30GB Kubuntu partition, and a 990MB swapp partition (was trying to figure out which distro I liked the best and had them all installed for comparission).

root@debian:/home/user# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   8        0  117220824 sda
   8        1   31744405 sda1
   8       16   15667200 sdb
   7        0     327416 loop0

root@debian:/home/user# ntfs-3g /dev/sda /mnt/windows
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?


root@debian:/home/user# ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
Failed to read last sector (63502328): Invalid argument
HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet,
   or it was not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...),
   or a wrong device is tried to be mounted,
   or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS),
   or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
root@debian:/home/user#

[AndyOpie150]

user@debian:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="01CDA32221FB5DC00" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"

Any suggestions on how to get my XP and Kubuntu up and running would be greatly appreciated.

[critin]

Inside the Windows partition I have a Windows OS partition at 30GB, a 27GB unallocated partition (this was fixing to have a Bohdi linux distro installed onto it), a 27GB linux Mint distro partition, a 30GB Kubuntu partition, and a 990MB swapp partition

Are you using Wubi for all of these?

Run the boot repair again and run the report option, post the report url.
Also check the disk utility in the live cd to see if it sees it. Gparted too.

[AndyOpie150]

Don't have desktop hooked to router. Had to transfer report to phone, then copy to clipboard. This is pretty long

 Boot Info Script 0.61.full + Boot-Repair extra info [Boot-Info August 2nd 2012]

============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks for (,msdos7)/boot/grub on this drive.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows XP: NTFS Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda1 has 63502328 sectors, but according to the info from fdisk, it has 63488809 sectors. Mounting failed: Failed to read last sector (63502328): Invalid argument HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet, or it cw Xx xwas not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...), or a wrong device is tried to be mounted, or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS), or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid). Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around? Failed to read last sector (63502328): Invalid argument HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet, or it was not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...), or a wrong device is tried to be mounted, or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS), or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid). Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

sdb: ___________________________________________________________________________

File system: vfat Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.04 2011-04-18 Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 1062800 of /dev/sdb for its second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the directory. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files: /syslinux/syslinux.cfg /ldlinux.sys

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 70 63,488,879 63,488,810 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS

"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs /dev/sda1 01CDA3221FB5DC00 ntfs /dev/sdb D4F4-0F3C vfat MYLINUXLIVE

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sdb /media/MYLINUXLIVE vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush) /dev/sr0 /live/image iso9660 (ro,noatime)

========================== sdb/syslinux/syslinux.cfg: ==========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------default vesamenu.c32 prompt 0 timeout 300

menu title Bodhi Linux menu background splash.png menu color title 1;37;44 #c0ffffff #00000000 std

label live menu label live - boot the Live System kernel /casper/vmlinuz append file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash --

label xforcevesa menu label xforcevesa - boot Live in Generic safe graphics mode kernel /casper/vmlinuz append file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper xforcevesa initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash --

label nomodeset menu label nomodeset - boot Live in ATI safe graphics mode kernel /casper/vmlinuz append file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz nomodeset quiet splash --

label ramboot menu label Boot into RAM kernel /casper/vmlinuz append file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash toram --

label hd menu label hd - boot the first hard disk localboot 0x80 append -

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

================== sdb: Location of files loaded by Syslinux: ==================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

?? = ?? ldlinux.sys 1 ?? = ?? syslinux/syslinux.cfg 1 ?? = ?? syslinux/vesamenu.c32 1

=============== sdb: Version of COM32(R) files used by Syslinux: ===============

syslinux/vesamenu.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

File descriptor 7 (pipe:[5830]) leaked on lvscan invocation. Parent PID 7731: bash File descriptor 8 (pipe:[5830]) leaked on lvscan invocation. Parent PID 7731: bash No volume groups found mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION : =================== log of boot-repair 2012-10-08__01h17 =================== boot-repair version : 3.18-0ppa52~lucid boot-sav version : 3.192-0ppa24~lucid glade2script-gtk2 version : 0.0.1-0ppa4~lucid boot-sav-nonfree version : 3.18-0ppa14~lucid Please connect internet. Then close this window. /usr/share/boot-sav/gui-update.sh: line 328: add-apt-repository: command not found /usr/share/boot-sav/gui-update.sh: line 328: add-apt-repository: command not found deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/os-uninstaller/ubuntu lucid main /usr/share/boot-sav/gui-update.sh: line 328: add-apt-repository: command not found /usr/share/boot-sav/gui-update.sh: line 328: add-apt-repository: command not found deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu lucid main W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'cdn.debian.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Could not resolve 'cdn.debian.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.bz2 Could not resolve 'cdn.debian.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/squeeze/updates/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'security.debian.org'

W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/squeeze/updates/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Could not resolve 'security.debian.org'

W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/squeeze/updates/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.bz2 Could not resolve 'security.debian.org'

W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze-updates/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'cdn.debian.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze-updates/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Could not resolve 'cdn.debian.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze-updates/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.bz2 Could not resolve 'cdn.debian.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu/dists/lucid/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu/dists/lucid/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu/dists/lucid/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.bz2 Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/os-uninstaller/ubuntu/dists/lucid/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/os-uninstaller/ubuntu/dists/lucid/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net'

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/os-uninstaller/ubuntu/dists/lucid/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.bz2 Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net'

W: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 55 not upgraded. WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated! os-uninstaller Err http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/os-uninstaller/ubuntu/lucid/main os-uninstaller all 3.18-0ppa12~lucid Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net' Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/os-uninstaller/ubuntu/pool/main/o/os-uninstaller/os-uninstaller_3.18-0ppa12~lucid_all.deb Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net' E: Some files failed to download

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 55 not upgraded. WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated! boot-repair Err http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu/ lucid/main boot-repair all 3.18-0ppa52~lucid Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net' Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu/pool/main/b/boot-repair/boot-repair_3.18-0ppa52~lucid_all.deb Could not resolve 'ppa.launchpad.net' E: Some files failed to download File descriptor 7 (pipe:[5830]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 3822: /bin/sh File descriptor 8 (pipe:[5830]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 3822: /bin/sh No volume groups found boot-repair is executed in live-session (Boot-Repair-Disk 18.07.2012, squeeze, Debian, i686) CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit sdb may have broken partition table. Failed to read last sector (63502328): Invalid argument HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet, or it was not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...), or a wrong device is tried to be mounted, or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS), or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid). Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

=================== os-prober:

=================== blkid: /dev/sda1: UUID="01CDA3221FB5DC00" TYPE="ntfs" /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" /dev/sdb: LABEL="MYLINUXLIVE" UUID="D4F4-0F3C" TYPE="vfat"

Failed to read last sector (63502328): Invalid argument HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet, or it was not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...), or a wrong device is tried to be mounted, or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS), or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid). Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

=================== dmesg | grep EFI : This live-session is not EFI-compatible.

=================== PARTITIONS & DISKS: sda1 : sda, not-sepboot, no-grubenv nogrub, no-docgrub, no-update-grub, 32, no-boot, no-os, not--efi--part, part-has-no-fstab, part-has-no-fstab, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, no-grldr, no-b-bcd, nopakmgr, nogrubinstall, no---usr, part-has-no-fstab, not-sep-usr, standard, not-far, /mnt/boot-sav/sda1.

sda : MSDos, not-GPT, BIOSboot-not-needed, has-no-EFIpart, not-usb, 70 sectors * 512 bytes

=================== parted -l:

Model: ATA ST3120022A (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 120GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 35.8kB 32.5GB 32.5GB primary ntfs boot

Model: (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: loop

Number Start End Size File system Flags 1 0.00B 16.0GB 16.0GB fat32

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0 has been opened read-only.

Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label

=================== mount: aufs on / type aufs (rw) tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755) proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620) /dev/sr0 on /live/image type iso9660 (ro,noatime) tmpfs on /live/cow type tmpfs (rw,noatime,mode=755) tmpfs on /live type tmpfs (rw,relatime) tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev) fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw) /dev/sdb on /media/MYLINUXLIVE type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush)

=================== ls: /sys/block/sda (filtered): alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro sda1 size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent /sys/block/sdb (filtered): alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent /sys/block/sr0 (filtered): alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent /dev (filtered): agpgart block bsg btrfs-control bus cdrom cdrw char console core cpu_dma_latency disk dvd dvdrw fd full fuse fw0 hidraw0 hidraw1 hidraw2 hidraw3 hidraw4 hpet initctl input kmsg log MAKEDEV md mem net network_latency network_throughput null port ppp psaux ptmx pts radio0 random rfkill rtc rtc0 scd0 sda sda1 sdb sg0 sg1 sg2 shm snapshot snd sndstat sr0 stderr stdin stdout urandom usb v4l vbi0 vga_arbiter video0 video24 video32 xconsole zero ls /dev/md:

=================== df -Th:

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on aufs aufs 490M 7.2M 483M 2% /tmpfs tmpfs 490M 0 490M 0% /lib/init/rw udev tmpfs 485M 200K 485M 1% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 490M 0 490M 0% /dev/shm /dev/sr0 iso9660 347M 347M 0 100% /live/image tmpfs tmpfs 490M 7.2M 483M 2% /live/cow tmpfs tmpfs 490M 0 490M 0% /live tmpfs tmpfs 490M 8.0K 490M 1% /tmp /dev/sdb vfat 15G 679M 15G 5% /media/MYLINUXLIVE

=================== fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes /512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x7fd5b960

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 3952 31744405 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16043212800 bytes 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15300 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes /512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x20ac7dda

This doesn't look like a partition table Probably you selected the wrong device.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 ? 1574463 1785826 216435558+ 7 HPFS/NTFS Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb2 ? 1597667 2551505 976730017 16 Hidden FAT16 Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb3 ? 1 1 0 6f Unknown Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb4 24513 475848 462167897 0 Empty Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

=================== Repair blockers No OS has been found on this computer. Please report this message to yannubuntu@gmail.com

=================== Default settings Recommended-Repair This setting would restore the [(generic mbr)] MBR in sda, and make it boot on sda1. Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s

=================== Settings chosen by the user Boot-Info This setting will not act on the MBR.

No change has been performed on your computer. See you soon!

[AndyOpie150]

Installed a system rescue cd which has gparted, but partitioning doesn't seem to be my strong point. I tried and reformated a partition and then install Ubuntu from a CD, but it couldn't install the grub to /dev/sda and failed.

[critin]

Installed a system rescue cd which has gparted, but partitioning doesn't seem to be my strong point. I tried and reformated a partition and then install Ubuntu from a CD, but it couldn't install the grub to /dev/sda and failed.

So you were finally able to install another ubuntu? I wish I had a screenshot of gparted to see how the disk was setup. I see only sda1, no linux partitions.

Again I ask, are all of these installed through Wubi? I didn't think that was possible, and it probably isn't. I wonder though, where are the ext4 partitions & why is ntfs the only format shown? The disk is (a mess) (sorry) and in danger of becoming corrupted enough to lose Windows.

after doing some re-partitioning to even out the partition size's in my Windows OS

It's dangerous to mess with windows partition. Especially more than once. If you must do something with it, it's best to use Windows disk management to do it. Windows is very picky with its space, linux is very forgiving. A big difference.

Someone else will have to help you retrieve the mbr. I'm sure it can be fixed but only by those who know more than I do about windows.

[critin]

Installed a system rescue cd which has gparted, but partitioning doesn't seem to be my strong point. I tried and reformated a partition and then install Ubuntu from a CD, but it couldn't install the grub to /dev/sda and failed.

Did you get an error message? Can you see the disk from the rescue cd? Can you post a screenshot?

[critin]

============================= Boot Info Summary:

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Partition table entries are not in disk order

=================== Repair blockers No OS has been found on this computer. Please report this message to yannubuntu@gmail.com

=================== Default settings Recommended-Repair This setting would restore the [(generic mbr)] MBR in sda, and make it boot on sda1. Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s

=================== Settings chosen by the user Boot-Info This setting will not act on the MBR.

No change has been performed on your computer. See you soon! [/CODE]

This may not work at all, but run Boot Repair again and this time choose Recommended Repair instead of Boot Info. It will attempt to restore the MBR as stated in red.

[AndyOpie150]

I tried the repair option to no avail.
The MBR suggestion caused me to look in the advanced options. I found the MBR in the 88GB partiton that I formatted to ext.4 to install the failed Ubuntu attempt (Was unallocated by Mini Tool by error as I had three partitions other than the 33GB windows).
Chose to have the boot repair install generic MBR to sda1. Closed out boot repair. On startup I had my boot selection screen with Windowa and Plop Boot Manager options, but would not boot windows.
Reinstalled boot repair and selected default repair. When done I closed out boot repair and on reboot it booted into the Ubuntu distro that supposedly failed.

Went into disk manager and saw that my 33GB Windows partition was unmounted. Tried to mount but it failed.

I'm now running a self test. Will post results when done.

[critin]

Went into disk manager and saw that my 33GB Windows partition was unmounted. Tried to mount but it failed.

What was the error message? Did you have a box with 'details' to check the error?

If you can get to the disk, make sure the Windows partition still has the Boot flag. If it doesn't, put it there.

Can you open gparted and see if there's a red mark (maybe an exclamation point?) next to any partitions? Click on them to see the error.

I always install grub to sda from the first install, (the disk itself) not to a partition. Some do install to partitions, but they seem to have more issues or the experience to know why they chose that option. Each time I add another OS partition, I let the installer default grub to the disk (sda).