James2k
April 17th, 2010, 04:19 PM
Hey Ubuntu community,
I've just came across something rather strange. I've been having a problem with GRUB 2 and Windows as highlighted in this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1322942
Often when I attempt to access my Windows partition from GRUB I will get the Windows failed to start error, but today I may have found something rather interesting that may help me solve my problem. Sorry if it looks like im double posting, but im asking something different.
Basically when Windows fails to boot it restarts and when I attempt to boot it again I usually get the Windows failed to start screen with the option to run Startup and Repair when I ran it earlier, I suddenly saw the Windows Vista Loading bar, which is rather impossible as im running Windows 7. But my laptop came pre-loaded with Windows Vista as well as a recovery partition with Windows Vista on it. I thought I'd removed them both completely but now seeing the Windows Vista Loading screen says otherwise. It looks like some part of the Vista loader remains and well could be the cause of my boot issues.
So im wondering how can I go about fully removing the Windows Vista Boot loader?
bumanie
April 17th, 2010, 04:52 PM
As far as I remember, the vista bootloader and the win 7 bootloader are the same and should be able to boot each other, however it may be that only one or two vista boot files are left which will not give a completed boot. If it were me, i would repair the win 7 bootloader and then reinstall grub. It is not unusual for part of a bootloader to get left behind. If that doesn't work, you could zero the drive and start from scratch - zeroing a drive will wipe everything on there. To do this use darik's boot and nuke live cd or use dd commands from a live ubuntu cd
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx replacing the x in /dev/sdx with the drive letter you are wishing to zero eg /dev/sda
oldfred
April 17th, 2010, 04:55 PM
Have you run the boot info script as it probes the MBR and PBR to see what it there:
Boot Info Script courtesy of forum member meierfra
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Be sure to highlight and use code tags (# in edit panel) to make it easier to read when you post the results.txt.
Your Vista bits may be because you had two windows installs and windows combines boot moving boot files to the windows active (boot flag) partition.
To get each MS to have its own boot loader make a partition and set its boot flag on, then install the 2nd product in it. Multibooters, Pictures here worth 1000+ words
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html
A user who installed two windows & it worked to boot from grub directly
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1271600
James2k
April 17th, 2010, 05:10 PM
Thanks for your replies. I'd rather not Nuke my HDD until im all out of options. The various FixMBR and FixBoot commands don't solve my problem. So I'll just that Boot info script and see if anything is there.
James2k
April 17th, 2010, 05:17 PM
Thanks for your replies. I'd rather not Nuke my HDD until im all out of options. The various FixMBR and FixBoot commands don't solve my problem. So I'll just that Boot info script and see if anything is there.
Here what I got from the boot script
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010
============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #5 for /boot/grub.
sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe
sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:
sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu lucid (development
branch)
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img
sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition Boot Start End Size Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 218,204,886 218,204,824 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 291,606,528 312,578,047 20,971,520 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 218,210,895 291,595,814 73,384,920 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 218,210,958 288,495,269 70,284,312 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 288,495,333 291,595,814 3,100,482 82 Linux swap / Solaris
blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/sda1 829C99399C992925 ntfs
/dev/sda2 EAF8F5BEF8F588D9 ntfs College Work Backup
/dev/sda3: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92 ext4
/dev/sda6 b299e17d-f687-48f6-bfda-4429d1eb4086 swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
error: /dev/sdb: No medium found
============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================
Device Mount_Point Type Options
/dev/sda5 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sda2 /mnt/collegework fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/windows fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
=========================== sda5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="4"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}
function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=20
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash ipv6.disable=1 acpi=force
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-21-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 829c99399c992925
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ===============================
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=df97da0b-a902-4779-b4ef-bdfad7c6ca92 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
#Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=EAF8F5BEF8F588D9 /mnt/collegework ntfs defaults,“umask=022″ 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=829C99399C992925 /mnt/windows ntfs defaults,“umask=022″ 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=b299e17d-f687-48f6-bfda-4429d1eb4086 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================
111.9GB: boot/grub/core.img
115.1GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
124.5GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
113.5GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
124.5GB: initrd.img
113.5GB: vmlinuz
=======Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive==============
sdb
oldfred
April 17th, 2010, 07:16 PM
While the script tries to tell Vista from 7 is may not always be correct. It looks like everything is win7 and looks normal to me. I think your issues is purely windows and perhaps they have a solution.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.2 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.