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Thread: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

  1. #1
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    Red face New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    (Attempt 4)
    Greetings new family. I need a safety net!

    Bottom line 1: I can't boot either Windows or Ubuntu (8.04). I do get the menu for which OS I want to boot but it goes nowhere from there.

    Bottom line 2: What is the best emergency boot software I can buy/download so I can repair the Windows partition? (I am smarter about Ubuntu and will install differently next time.)

    The details:
    My primary hard drive is 200GB and I had used Partition Magic to set up my Windows-XP partition at ~ 100GB (ok, 97GB & change), leaving 92GB unused. (That was years ago.) When I installed Ubuntu last night, I chose "Guided, using largest unused partition" and it seems to have done so. And when I boot from the main drive, I do get the dual boot menu. And then the fun begins:

    • If I choose Windows, I get the banner page with the slider flashing left & right but I never thee the login screen.
    • If I choose Ubuntu, I get an error (can't recall it at the moment) and a menu of alternate "boot devices". All but one give me an error and a repeat of that menu. One gives me a command line but I don't know what to do next.


    Booting to Windows Safe Mode yields a godzillion error messages but no Windows.

    I have booted from the Ubuntu installation CD to get out this far. The partition editor tells me the ntfs partition is still there but the information page on said partition, it displays errors when "Checking filesystem consistency". (Interestingly, I cannot select text from that page to copy here.)

    Cluster accounting failed at 492 (0x1ec); extra cluster in $Bitmap
    ...
    Cluster accounting failed at 498 (0x1f2); extra cluster in $Bitmap
    ...
    A few more such messages.

    The summary:
    Filesystem check failed! Totally 23109 cluster accounting mismatches.
    ERROR: NTFS is inconsistent. Run chkdsk /f on Windows, then reboot it TWICE!

    There you have it, folks. The obstacle: Booting into Windows. Hence, my request for advice on an emergency boot CD.

    • I am looking for the Partition Magic disk but I don't recall if it is bootable.
    • My very talented son suggests I boot from the original Windows CD, that this will give me the chance to run chkdsk.
    • I am about to ride to J & R or another sotware retailer to purchase a product that purports to do this.


    Any better ideas?

    Thanks.

    -- Rasputin Paskudniak (Silly nom de guerre, I know, but it's *mine*!)

  2. #2
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Well, as the error message states, you have an unclean windows volume.
    Booting with the ERC on windows and running chkdsk /f is one way around this, however a successful Ubuntu install would not be stopped by a faulty windows install- so I think you have more than one problem.

    The Hardy 8.04 live install cd may contain ntfsfix (havent checked, but running ntfsfix /dev/sda ) is a linux method of checking an ntfs filesystem.

    Boot with the Hardy 8.04 live CD and post the output of

    fdisk -l

  3. #3

    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Sounds as if your Grub does not have a correct partition list.

    Before doing anything else, boot to the live CD, use GParted. What does it report for the partitions you have? That is, what are the partition numbers, file systems, sizes? Which one is marked "boot" (probably not the problem, but worth knowing)? Are the partitions primary, extended, logical?

    Then, use the Terminal:

    ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

    Put that information here, and maybe one of the forum experts can help you.

    Also, post the contents of the Grub menu.lst on your hard drive (not the live CD's own file, but the one on your hard drive where you expect to boot).

  4. #4
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    If it's Windows XP you can use the original CD. The install menu will run. at some point it will ask you whether you want to have a new install or go into recovery mode. In recovery mode you'll get a terminal prompt. Perform your chkdsk /f. Enter fixmbr (return) and then fixboot (return) and then when it finished you should be able to reboot (Ctrl-Alt-Del) into Windows.

  5. #5
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Kevbert,
    Thanks very much. Your is the solution I will initially go for; I have printed them out and will let y'all know how it went. (I did have a mildly scary moment looking for the XP disks I had not looked at in 4 years.

    -- Rasputin II (I see the name Rasputin is already taken. )

  6. #6
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevbert View Post
    If it's Windows XP you can use the original CD.
     Do note that you will have to re-install GRUB (the bootloader) afterward, but I can walk you through that easily enough. (It’ll be a limited run of the Ubuntu installer.)
    —Joel

  7. #7
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Kevbert,
    I'm sory to report another obstacle to running the chkdsk /f command. My XP installation disk is pre-SP; my SP2 was a separate download. The chkdsk command does not recognize /f, only /p and /r. The /r purports to recover bad sectors and recover data. "The /f command automatically fixes
    any errors encountered." The output of /p states there are no errors, so I suspect no bad sectors - only some stuff in the partition header page[s], which I think will not be affected by /r.

    If I could borrow a neighbor's recent XP installation disk, perhaps I could get the correct version of chkdsk. My son is looking for his old CD, although he may have tossed it since he installed Ubuntu. (He will never go back to Windows; I still have much committed in there.)

    Q. Will the Vista install disk have the correct chkdsk for ntfs?

    Q reprise: So what is the best emergency boot software I can buy ASAP?

    Responding to Hal8000 (Scarier moniker than Rasputin ): My WIndows install has been quite robust until now. It developed faults only with the Ubuntu install. However, I will take up your other suggestions on Wednesday.

    Rallg: I will take up your suggestions as well, posting what I can of the GParted output. The ls output will be easy enough. But the GParted windows seem to resist select for copy/paste. How do I capture a whole window as a graphic, so I can post it? (Yucch - all that space!)

    (Whew) Sorry about the long-windedness here.

    Thank much for the suggestions.

    -- Rasputin II

  8. #8
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Have a look at this post first: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...68#post5055068
    Try the ntfs fix first.

    [QUOTE=rpaskudniak;5059606]Kevbert,

    Q. Will the Vista install disk have the correct chkdsk for ntfs?

    Q reprise: So what is the best emergency boot software I can buy ASAP?
    /QUOTE]

    A1. I don't know as I've tried to keep away from Vista.

    A2. You could try using super grub which can be found here: http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
    See RHS for download. It gives you an option to boot windows and is free.
    Documentation can be found here: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzo...bDiskPage.html
    Last edited by Kevbert; May 28th, 2008 at 08:58 AM. Reason: Link to another post added.

  9. #9
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Just curious. You say you chose the option:

    "Guided, using largest unused partition"

    However AFAIK there is no such option. There is an option:

    "Guided using largest contiguous space" or something like that. Is that what you used?

    I am asking because also being new to UBUNTU the contiguous space option is not immediately clear as to what it means. Does it actually mean largest unused partition or not?

  10. #10
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    Re: New install will boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu

    Quote Originally Posted by darexx View Post
    Just curious. You say you chose the option:

    "Guided, using largest unused partition"

    However AFAIK there is no such option. There is an option:

    "Guided using largest contiguous space" or something like that. Is that what you used?

    I am asking because also being new to UBUNTU the contiguous space option is not immediately clear as to what it means. Does it actually mean largest unused partition or not?
    Largest contiguous space means that the installer will look at partitions that have data on them and will try to shrink the used partition, create a new one and install Ubuntu on that. Often the install can fail (especially in the case on WinXP) as a paging (ie swap) file is put towards the end of the partition.
    More often than not its better to install Ubuntu (and its derivatives) with manual partitioning rather than guided. The system files should be given at least 10Gb, formatted as ext3 and mount point as / The swap partition has no formatting and should be a minimum of two times the ram memory in the PC.
    Hope this is of use.

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