9.10 & windows 7 dual boot - 7 doesn't boot

[Hakimjo]

Thanks for helping out with yet another dual boot issue:

on a compaq presario, I installed windows 7 on a clean hard disk and it booted nicely.

I then installed a custom kubuntu choosing the "side by side" option. This had worked nicely on a lenovo desktop with XP.

BUT in this case, when Grub 1.97beta offers to boot windows 7, it does start the windows boot normally, but falls back to Grub some seconds later. kubuntu boots without problems.

What's the trick, PLEASE ?

Thanks,

Joachim

[Mark Phelps]

The "trick" was to have NOT used the Ubuntu installer to shrink the Win7 OS partition to install side-by-side. That runs the risk of corrupting the Win7 OS partition -- which is likely the reason that Win7 won't boot for you.

Before you installed Ubuntu, you should have used the Win7 Backup utility to create and burn a Win7 Repair CD.

Since you probably did not do that, use the link below to download an Win7 repair CD image:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

Once you have burned that CD, boot from it and run Startup Repair three times. It takes three passes to make all the repairs.

You will then lose Ubuntu boot in the process, and have to reinstall GRUB to get that back.

[Hakimjo]

Thanks for the trick ! I am starting the download of that disc now.

Just curious: a new install of Win7 and then Ubuntu into the now existing partitions would not do the job ?

Thanks again,

Joachim

[oldfred]

You should not have to reinstall. But it should work. It would be quicker to repair and install the grub boot loader.

Windows installs two ways. If a new clean install it creates a 100mb boot partition and the main install partition. If an install to an existing NTFS partition it does not create the boot partition.

To reinstall boot loaders to the MBR:
How to restore the Ubuntu/XP/Vista/7 bootloader (Updated for Ubuntu 9.10)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

Vista or 7 repair
Always run chkdsk and run again until there are no errors, that may be all that is required
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
Repair often does not work, some say run 3 times others recommend the command line bootrec.exe

You will need to boot with your Vista/Windows 7 installation disk. Hit Enter at the language selection prompt then hit "R" to get to the repair section. You can then select the automatic boot repair tool, but it often will not do any good. Then select the command prompt (console) and type in the following commands:
BootRec.exe /fixmbr #updates MBR master boot record do not run if you still want grub
chkdsk /r
BootRec.exe /FixBoot #updates PBR partition boot
BootRec.exe /ScanOs
BootRec.exe /RebuildBcd

[Mark Phelps]

Just curious: a new install of Win7 and then Ubuntu into the now existing partitions would not do the job?

Yeah, it would .. but a boot repair will prevent you from having to reinstall and reconfigure all your apps and settings.

[Hakimjo]

The problem was solved entirely with one run of the win 7 repair disc. No need to reinstall anything, not even grub. Thanks again.

[Mark Phelps]

Glad we could be of help ...