twisted willow
April 29th, 2014, 01:45 PM
I threw caution to the wind this morning and tried to install Ubuntu on my Windows 8.1 laptop to dual boot (HP Pavillion g7). During the install I manually configured the partitions, picking on I was pretty sure I created a few monthsd ago after an earlier failed attempt to install Ubuntu. Needless to say it's all gone wrong. This is what I have had and tried so far:
Neither Ubuntu or Windows would boot initially. Ubuntu appeared in the startup menu but threw an error. Windows 7 and 8 were also options but didn't work
I booted into the live DVD and ran Boot Repair. This got the windows login screen back but this then flashed a blue error screen and went into repair mode
I couldn't run any of the repair tools, getting an error message to say the drive is locked
I tried a DOS programme called Diskpart - this gave a status of invalid for my hard drive
I tried CHKDSK /f but this wouldn't run. CHKDSK came back with something like errors in the uppercase file
I unfortunately don't have a Windows 8 disk as I downloaded only when I purchased it and haven't made a recovery disk (stupid I know).
I can still access the data on my hard drive (photos, music, etc) via Ubuntu live.
Worst case scenario I can back up the data on an external hard drive I have and reinstall everything from scratch, but is there anything I can try before this? I guess when I set up the partitions I inadvertently overwrote the MBR or something - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing as they say!
Neither Ubuntu or Windows would boot initially. Ubuntu appeared in the startup menu but threw an error. Windows 7 and 8 were also options but didn't work
I booted into the live DVD and ran Boot Repair. This got the windows login screen back but this then flashed a blue error screen and went into repair mode
I couldn't run any of the repair tools, getting an error message to say the drive is locked
I tried a DOS programme called Diskpart - this gave a status of invalid for my hard drive
I tried CHKDSK /f but this wouldn't run. CHKDSK came back with something like errors in the uppercase file
I unfortunately don't have a Windows 8 disk as I downloaded only when I purchased it and haven't made a recovery disk (stupid I know).
I can still access the data on my hard drive (photos, music, etc) via Ubuntu live.
Worst case scenario I can back up the data on an external hard drive I have and reinstall everything from scratch, but is there anything I can try before this? I guess when I set up the partitions I inadvertently overwrote the MBR or something - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing as they say!