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AlAyyubi
June 5th, 2011, 02:50 PM
just recently, while attempting to boot to windows 7, i happened to select the wrong boot option by mistake, that is the windows 7 recovery (something like that, cant remember it specifically, but the word 'recovery' is there). the option has been there eversince i installed ubuntu 11.04 on my system, of which i cant find the answer as to why it existed there. so once i selected it (which was by mistake), it took me into some recovery process which i abandoned as quickly. it restarted and the windows 7 option was no longer there. the windows 7 recovery option, however, is still there. can anyone help me to get my windows 7 boot option back?

thank you in advance!

(i apologise for my english, im still learning):KS

oldfred
June 5th, 2011, 09:37 PM
Welcome to the forums.

If you started recovery, you may have overwritten something.

But to see what is where post this:

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum members meierfra & Gert Hulselmans
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste results.txt in a New Reply, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.
Or You can generate the tags first by pressing the # icon in the New Reply Edit toolbar and then paste the contents between the generated [ code] paste here [ /code] tags.
V60 has improved formating and requires code tags to make it legible. New Version is a zip file that you have to extract to get .sh to run.

AlAyyubi
June 6th, 2011, 08:50 AM
thank you for your reply:D



Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


============================= 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.
=> Syslinux MBR (3.61-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
=> Syslinux MBR (3.61-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /boot/bcd

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 19531778. But according to the info from
fdisk, sda5 starts at sector 260708352.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda4: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.02 debian-20101016 ...........>...r>........D.....0...~.k...~...f...M.f.f....f..8~....>2}
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 1410760 of /dev/sdb1 for its
second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the directory.
The integrity check of the ADV area failed. According
to the info in the boot sector, sdb1 starts at sector
0. But according to the info from fdisk, sdb1 starts
at sector 62.
Operating System:
Boot files: /syslinux/syslinux.cfg /ldlinux.sys

sdc1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdc2 starts
at sector 0. But according to the info from fdisk,
sdc2 starts at sector 512002048.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdc3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

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

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 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 * 2,048 209,717,247 209,715,200 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 209,717,248 241,174,527 31,457,280 1b Hidden W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 241,176,574 625,100,799 383,924,226 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 260,708,352 621,182,975 360,474,624 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda6 621,185,024 625,100,799 3,915,776 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 625,100,800 625,142,447 41,648 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 1998 MB, 1998585856 bytes
62 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders, total 3903488 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/sdb1 * 62 3,901,659 3,901,598 b W95 FAT32


Drive: sdc __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500074283008 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60797 cylinders, total 976707584 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/sdc1 2,048 512,002,047 512,000,000 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdc2 * 512,002,048 532,482,047 20,480,000 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdc3 532,482,048 976,703,487 444,221,440 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/loop1 338878d5-f6ef-4060-aa87-7bc23970c09d ext3
/dev/sda1 4EFE5713FE56F2A7 ntfs
/dev/sda2 86F4-D40A vfat 7`9SËòSYÝj·
/dev/sda5 4A648D6C648D5B97 ntfs
/dev/sda6 2ed2f55c-4c80-42b0-9999-1ea6404581b3 swap
/dev/sdb1 A097-4D0D vfat Kingston
/dev/sdc1 F06CBC076CBBC69E ntfs Al Ayyubi
/dev/sdc2 4DA9-B09E vfat
/dev/sdc3 8AFE7DFFFE7DE43B ntfs Super Matador

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437, iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdc1 /media/Al Ayyubi fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_ permissions)


========================= sdb1/syslinux/syslinux.cfg: ==========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# D-I config version 2.0
include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 50
ui gfxboot bootlogo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

================= sdb1: Location of files loaded by Syslinux: ==================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

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

============== sdb1: Version of COM32(R) files used by Syslinux: ===============

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

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda2

00000000 eb 58 90 4d 53 44 4f 53 35 2e 30 00 02 10 24 00 |.X.MSDOS5.0...$.|
00000010 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 08 80 0c |........?.......|
00000020 00 00 e0 01 f2 3b 00 00 00 00 00 00 72 09 01 00 |.....;......r...|
00000030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 80 00 29 0a d4 f4 86 4e 4f 20 4e 41 4d 45 20 20 |..)....NO NAME |
00000050 20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 33 c9 8e d1 bc f4 | FAT32 3.....|
00000060 7b 8e c1 8e d9 bd 00 7c 88 4e 02 8a 56 40 b4 41 |{......|.N..V@.A|
00000070 bb aa 55 cd 13 72 10 81 fb 55 aa 75 0a f6 c1 01 |..U..r...U.u....|
00000080 74 05 fe 46 02 eb 2d 8a 56 40 b4 08 cd 13 73 05 |t..F..-.V@....s.|
00000090 b9 ff ff 8a f1 66 0f b6 c6 40 66 0f b6 d1 80 e2 |.....f...@f.....|
000000a0 3f f7 e2 86 cd c0 ed 06 41 66 0f b7 c9 66 f7 e1 |?.......Af...f..|
000000b0 66 89 46 f8 83 7e 16 00 75 38 83 7e 2a 00 77 32 |f.F..~..u8.~*.w2|
000000c0 66 8b 46 1c 66 83 c0 0c bb 00 80 b9 01 00 e8 2b |f.F.f..........+|
000000d0 00 e9 2c 03 a0 fa 7d b4 7d 8b f0 ac 84 c0 74 17 |..,...}.}.....t.|
000000e0 3c ff 74 09 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 eb ee a0 fb 7d |<.t............}|
000000f0 eb e5 a0 f9 7d eb e0 98 cd 16 cd 19 66 60 80 7e |....}.......f`.~|
00000100 02 00 0f 84 20 00 66 6a 00 66 50 06 53 66 68 10 |.... .fj.fP.Sfh.|
00000110 00 01 00 b4 42 8a 56 40 8b f4 cd 13 66 58 66 58 |....B.V@....fXfX|
00000120 66 58 66 58 eb 33 66 3b 46 f8 72 03 f9 eb 2a 66 |fXfX.3f;F.r...*f|
00000130 33 d2 66 0f b7 4e 18 66 f7 f1 fe c2 8a ca 66 8b |3.f..N.f......f.|
00000140 d0 66 c1 ea 10 f7 76 1a 86 d6 8a 56 40 8a e8 c0 |.f....v....V@...|
00000150 e4 06 0a cc b8 01 02 cd 13 66 61 0f 82 75 ff 81 |.........fa..u..|
00000160 c3 00 02 66 40 49 75 94 c3 42 4f 4f 54 4d 47 52 |...f@Iu..BOOTMGR|
00000170 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ............|
00000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 0a 52 65 |..............Re|
000001b0 6d 6f 76 65 20 64 69 73 6b 73 20 6f 72 20 6f 74 |move disks or ot|
000001c0 68 65 72 20 6d 65 64 69 61 2e ff 0d 0a 44 69 73 |her media....Dis|
000001d0 6b 20 65 72 72 6f 72 ff 0d 0a 50 72 65 73 73 20 |k error...Press |
000001e0 61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 72 65 73 74 61 |any key to resta|
000001f0 72 74 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 ac cb d8 00 00 55 aa |rt............U.|
00000200

Unknown BootLoader on sdc2

00000000 eb 58 90 4d 53 57 49 4e 34 2e 31 00 02 40 3c 00 |.X.MSWIN4.1..@<.|
00000010 01 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 00 00 00 |........?.......|
00000020 00 80 38 01 c4 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 |..8.............|
00000030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 80 00 29 9e b0 a9 4d 4e 4f 20 4e 41 4d 45 20 20 |..)...MNO NAME |
00000050 20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 33 c9 8e d1 bc f4 | FAT32 3.....|
00000060 7b 8e c1 8e d9 bd 00 7c a0 fb 7d b4 7d 8b f0 ac |{......|..}.}...|
00000070 98 40 74 0c 48 74 0e b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 eb ef |.@t.Ht..........|
00000080 a0 fd 7d eb e6 cd 16 cd 19 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |..}.............|
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00000100 0d 0a 52 65 6d 6f 76 65 20 64 69 73 6b 73 20 6f |..Remove disks o|
00000110 72 20 6f 74 68 65 72 20 6d 65 64 69 61 2e ff 0d |r other media...|
00000120 0a 44 69 73 6b 20 65 72 72 6f 72 ff 0d 0a 50 72 |.Disk error...Pr|
00000130 65 73 73 20 61 6e 79 20 6b 65 79 20 74 6f 20 72 |ess any key to r|
00000140 65 73 74 61 72 74 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |estart..........|
00000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0e 06 80 b5 8a 77 57 40 |.............wW@|
000001a0 b3 9a e3 df 8e 81 b1 a1 3b d6 67 49 29 2e d8 4a |........;.gI)..J|
000001b0 83 99 f6 a3 39 e3 d0 01 00 00 e0 02 00 00 00 00 |....9...........|
000001c0 00 00 80 d2 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 a2 00 00 00 00 |.......... .....|
000001d0 72 53 76 44 02 00 00 00 00 00 78 78 78 78 78 78 |rSvD......xxxxxx|
000001e0 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff |xxxxxxxx........|
000001f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 1f 2c 55 aa |.............,U.|
00000200


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

unlzma: Decoder error
/home/ubuntu/Desktop/boot_info_script060/boot_info_script.sh: line 1579: [: 2.73495e+09: integer expression expected



i ran bootinfoscript whilst booting into my liveusb.

oldfred
June 6th, 2011, 04:38 PM
You have no system files for either windows nor Ubuntu shown from the script.

Grub is trying to boot from sda7 which does not even exist. The only windows files shown is in sda2 which is probably your recovery partition.

Depending on how much was overwritten testdisk may recover some old partitions, but if any part of a bootable partition was written into then it will not be bootable. If you do not have a good backup you can use photorec to recover some data. Photorec just scans a drive for something that looks like a file. It does not recover file names, but does know types & photos & flac files have internal data that you can use to rebuild a file name. Sorting files can take hours or days. I had one text file I recovered and it had saved it many times as I kept editing it. I had to look at each one and try to file changed data. Lots of grepping & viewing files.

enable the "universe" repository to download testdisk
System>Administration>Software Sources>Ubuntu Software.
Maverick the software sources is System, Administration, Update Manager, settings button on lower left.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p21.html (http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Eherman546/p21.html)
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/recoverdeletedfiles/
Instructions
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Menu_Analyse

Testdisk & photorec
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/recoverdeletedfiles/
How to recover lost files after you accidentally wipe your hard drive
http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/56588

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/After_Using_PhotoRec
use flac tags to rename files
http://lglinux.blogspot.com/2008/10/use-flac-tags-to-rename-files.html
http://ubuntu4beginners.blogspot.com/2011/01/recover-deleted-data-using-photorec-in.html

AlAyyubi
June 6th, 2011, 05:14 PM
thanks again for your kind reply :D really appreciate your assistance.

im sorry i should have mentioned earlier that, prior to running the bootinfoscript, i managed to actually try the recovery process via windows recovery boot option (i left the process earlier, during an attempt to boot to windows 7). i was expecting a different result, but unfortunately, the problem still remains (no option to boot to windows 7). only now everything got erased. i was lucky to have all my files backed up to my external hd.

my question now is, how do i restore my system to the way it was when everything was running normal and i get to boot to either ubuntu or windows with ease?:sad:

oldfred
June 6th, 2011, 05:48 PM
You are starting over.

I think most recovery systems are just an image of the hard drive as of the day you purchased it and it has to use the entire drive or at least the part that was the main install. Then you have to run all the updates & houseclean all the cruft that windows has.

Then you have to shrink windows and create partitions for Ubuntu. I recommend a shared NTFS partition for any data that you may want to use in both. I have my Firefox & Thunderbird still in my shared NTFS but now boot XP very little.

Quackers
June 6th, 2011, 05:51 PM
Running the recovery function's initial boot up should not cause anything to be over-written. That should only happen if you actually run the recovery, not just booting it.
As oldfred has already stated, the only possible way to get everything back is by using testdisk, or a similar program.
If that doesn't work you are faced with having to re-install your operating systems. If the Windows recovery doesn't work (as you seem to be suggesting) you will need another source for Windows, like an installation disc or if it was an OEM installation, the computer manufacturer may sell recovery discs.

AlAyyubi
June 7th, 2011, 05:12 AM
thanks Quackers and oldfred for your replies:) i agree with both of you. i should start over and i really feel i need to reinstall my OSs. but i still have a question, at least for the moment (since im a fair pc user), is there an alternative to the recovery or installation disks given that my laptop does not come with optical drive?

oldfred
June 7th, 2011, 02:18 PM
I have never run a full recovery. My laptop is now older and has a CD drive. If it crashed I would just install Ubuntu from a USB flash drive.:)

What does the vendor of your laptop suggest. Some may just work from the recovery partition or have a way to create a recovery USB?

Quackers
June 7th, 2011, 02:38 PM
To get the recovery option to run, there will be a key (or keys) to press during boot. You should find out what those keys are and try that first. It may work :-)
Sadly, as I don't have a netbook I have never made enquiries as to further recovery procedures without a cd drive. Actually a USB cd drive is quite cheap nowadays and could be another option.
Definitely contact the manufacturer though and see what they say, though I suspect they may just tell you to run it from the hard drive (using the above key(s).

AlAyyubi
June 7th, 2011, 03:44 PM
thanks for both of the replies:)

Quackers> i have done that. for asus eee pc, its f2. but as i said, it took me into several processes and after a while, the system restarted and nothing was changed (that is, everthing got erased, including ubuntu) and i had to reinstall ubuntu over again. it seemed like theres no way out of to this problem. i was thinking of getting a usb cd drive too:) thanks! but at the same time, im hoping that there would be another turnaround for this.

Quackers
June 7th, 2011, 03:55 PM
It sounds as if your recovery partition may not be working properly. That could be a bargaining tool with the manufacturer :-) but probably not :-(
Even if you get a cd drive you still need to find a cd to boot from :-) and the only way to get the OEM system back would be to obtain one from the manufacturer.
I find that making a backup image of the drive with Clonezilla gives me some peace of mind :wink: Too late for that now though.

Actually looking at your last post and browsing the interweb it seems that the key to press for recovery on your system may be F9, during boot.
Doesn't F2 take you to the bios (where, incidentally you may need to turn off a boot booster?).

AlAyyubi
June 7th, 2011, 04:42 PM
i apologise for my lack of knowledge about my own laptop. yes you are right (embarassed:P), f2 does take me to BIOS. hehe. as for f9, it does not work (for me). i tried pressing many times before the system loads, but nothing happens.

p/s: (my boot booster has been disabled forever)

Quackers
June 7th, 2011, 04:47 PM
Hmm, well it's worth checking what the correct key is for your particular machine, as eee pc's do vary, it seems. Check your documentaion or contact support, maybe, or google for your specific machine's recovery key.
If the recovery partition is intact it should really work I would think.

AlAyyubi
June 7th, 2011, 05:13 PM
i think so too. but anyway, thanks for your great help! i will look for windows 7 and start everything from there :D

you guys have been very nice and helpful here. this is my first time involving in a forum ;)

Quackers
June 7th, 2011, 05:16 PM
I'm sure I speak for oldfred as well when I say that you're welcome :-)
I hope you have more luck with that.

gaffajoiner
June 7th, 2011, 05:39 PM
Have sent for a replacement disk at support, I have downloaded the Ubuntu 11.04 disk from the Ubuntu site, burnt to ISO, installed so it said but still goes to windows 7 at boot up, is it compactable with win 7 ? can you please tell me where to go for help, I have 4 Ubuntu’s on my hard drive and I do not know how to remove them. Without formatting my hard drive

Quackers
June 7th, 2011, 05:47 PM
gaffajoiner you will be better off starting your own thread as this one seems near to closing.
If you enclose the output from the boot info script we can get a better look at your system.
Please boot from the Ubuntu Live cd/usb and select "try ubuntu" then when the desktop is loaded make sure you have an internet connection and go to the site below and download the boot script. This will give you a zip file which should be extracted in the same directory as it was downloaded. This produces a folder which contains the script and a changelog file.
You then need to cd to that directory in the terminal (for example
cd Downloads/boot_info_script060 if you downloaded it to your Downloads folder). You don't need to do that if you downloaded it to your home folder.
Then enter

sudo bash boot_info_script.sh

This will produce a results.txt file in the same directory as the downloaded boot script. Please copy the contents of that file and paste them in your next post between CODE tags. For CODE tags click on New Reply (not quick reply)and then click on the # symbol in the toolbar.
This will give a full overview of your current system.
Thanks.

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/