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Windows 7 wont boot
I recently removed my ubuntu installation from my computer so I could repartition my hard drive into a more organized fashion. I was successful but then tried to wubi install ubuntu 12.10 and decided I would like to reallocate my partitions so that i wouldn't have any unallocated memory left over. Using minitool partition wizard, i tried to reallocate my space, but ended up making my computer unable to boot into windows 7. After various attempts to fix my computer, I am stuck at the point where when I use my installation CD for Windows 7 the recovery tool knows I have a Windows 7 install somewhere on my hard drive with a certain amount of memory but says its location is unknown. The startup repair doesn't fix anything even after completing "successfully" after forty minutes or so. Also at first the C:/ drive was my hard disk and another drive, D:/ I believe, was my Recovery drive. After the partition fail, those two letters were swapped when I accessed the recovery tool command prompt. In my desperation I ran boot repair to try and restore Windows booting, which I believe now in my noobiness was not a good idea. Now my D drive is a drive that says EFI as a folder which I believe holds boot information for ubuntu which I no longer have installed. I do not see my partition in command prompt, but I do see it as a gparted partition when I run LiveUSB ubuntu, even though I cannot access my files. If I had an external hard drive to save my Windows drive to I would have earlier. I understand if my computer is beyond repair, but I thought I would ask the community for some help :) Thanks
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
Have you tried this? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
If all else fails it is possible to install Windows 7 over the top of an existing installation without (in theory) losing your exisiting data. Perform the install as normal but choose not to format the partition. As part of the installation process all the existing data wil go into a Windows.old file on, I believe, the root of C:\. You will be able to recover your old data from there.
I used this method when I was moving from XP to 7 and like you did not have an external drive to put it to.
Obviously the normal warnings apply with doing the latter method. There is potential to lose the data but it shouldn't.
Hope this helped
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
I have tried bootrec but I will try it again. I will definitely try the reinstall without formatting the drive though (I'm going to look up a bit more on it first). I'll let you know how it goes, thanks for the reply.
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
So when I try to install over the drive my Windows system is on, I get this message: "Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition is an EFI system partition (ESP)."
Also I can't find my drive in the recovery tools command prompt and running bootrec and all of its options does nothing for me. Because of the way the partition is set up I guess windows can't mount the drive?
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
I have to admit to not being too familiar with EFI so not sure where to go with the "install over".
With Bootrec, I have two thoughts. 1) WinRe creates a RAMdisk and assigns it a drive letter which means it probably won't reflect the same drive letters as your use to (My students to have to go through the driv letter alphabet until they find what they want lol). 2) you may need to mount the EFI partition using mountvol to see it properly.
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
Before messing by failure, I suggest you understanding the problematic situation.
Do not change (write to) the partitions in the problematic HDDs.
Boot with live Ubuntu or some live linux distribution and run boot info script (or boot repair) and generate a log (RESULTS.txt and/or the URL of the uploaded information on your PC).
Boot info script can be downloaded at:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Post the contents of the generated RESULTS.txt between "[ code]" and "[ /code]" tags (omit the spaces just after the "[") or the URL generated by boot repair.
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
Code:
Boot Info Script 0.61 [1 April 2012]
============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
=> Syslinux MBR (4.04 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
sda1: __________________________________________________________________________
File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type ''
sda2: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:
sda3: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files: /Windows/System32/winload.exe
sda4: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 12.10
Boot files: /etc/fstab
sda5: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: vfat
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sdb5: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.06 2012-10-23
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 61796 of /dev/sdb5 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, sdb5 starts at sector
63. But according to the info from fdisk, sdb5 starts
at sector 16128. "63" and "2048" are quite common
values for the starting sector of a logical partition
and they only need to be fixed when you want to boot
Windows from a logical partition.
Operating System:
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /syslinux/syslinux.cfg
/efi/BOOT/grubx64.efi /ldlinux.sys
============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 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 1 1,953,525,167 1,953,525,167 ee GPT
GUID Partition Table detected.
Partition Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors System
/dev/sda1 2,048 264,191 262,144 Microsoft Reserved Partition (Windows)
/dev/sda2 966,656 27,672,575 26,705,920 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
/dev/sda3 27,672,576 1,743,808,511 1,716,135,936 EFI System partition
/dev/sda4 1,743,808,512 1,952,548,863 208,740,352 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
/dev/sda5 1,952,548,864 1,953,523,711 974,848 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
Drive: sdb _____________________________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.2 GB, 16231956480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1973 cylinders, total 31703040 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 * 16,065 31,696,244 31,680,180 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 16,128 31,696,244 31,680,117 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda2 01CDEE8A86E9CFE0 ntfs RECOVERY
/dev/sda3 0E42D1A842D194B5 ntfs Windows
/dev/sda4 882a6a82-e525-4efe-be08-0c458ea67271 ext4
/dev/sda5 256F-E928 vfat
/dev/sdb5 07FF-376C vfat PENDRIVE
/dev/sr0 udf UDF Volume
================================ Mount points: =================================
Device Mount_Point Type Options
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sda4 /media/ubuntu/882a6a82-e525-4efe-be08-0c458ea67271 ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sda5 /media/ubuntu/256F-E928 vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=999,gid=999,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sdb5 /cdrom vfat (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sr0 /media/ubuntu/UDF Volume udf (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=999,gid=999,iocharset=utf8,umask=0077,uhelper=udisks2)
=============================== sda4/etc/fstab: ================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=882a6a82-e525-4efe-be08-0c458ea67271 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=b9179341-e549-452e-9ad6-36c97dfe2087 /boot ext4 defaults 0 2
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=9ECC-D8ED /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=29fbb3a8-a9ef-460a-a8bd-820810b64a3e none swap sw 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=========================== sdb5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if loadfont /boot/grub/font.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=auto
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod gfxterm
terminal_output gfxterm
fi
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
menuentry "Try Ubuntu without installing" {
set gfxpayload=keep
linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi.signed file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash --
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "Install Ubuntu" {
set gfxpayload=keep
linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi.signed file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity quiet splash --
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "OEM install (for manufacturers)" {
set gfxpayload=keep
linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi.signed file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity quiet splash oem-config/enable=true --
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "Check disc for defects" {
set gfxpayload=keep
linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi.signed boot=casper integrity-check quiet splash --
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
========================= sdb5/syslinux/syslinux.cfg: ==========================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# D-I config version 2.0
include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 50
ui gfxboot bootlogo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=================== sdb5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================
GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
?? = ?? boot/grub/grub.cfg 1
================= sdb5: Location of files loaded by Syslinux: ==================
GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
?? = ?? ldlinux.sys 1
?? = ?? syslinux/chain.c32 1
?? = ?? syslinux/gfxboot.c32 1
?? = ?? syslinux/menu.c32 1
?? = ?? syslinux/syslinux.cfg 1
?? = ?? syslinux/vesamenu.c32 1
============== sdb5: Version of COM32(R) files used by Syslinux: ===============
syslinux/chain.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
syslinux/gfxboot.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
syslinux/menu.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
syslinux/vesamenu.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================
./bootinfoscript: line 1646: [: 2.73495e+09: integer expression expected
No volume groups found
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
I guess that /dev/sda5 should be EFI system partition.
/dev/sda3 should be Windows System partition (partition type should be Windows SOME partition).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Pa...ion_type_GUIDs
To confirm the above guess of mine, execute
Code:
for a in sda2 sda3; do echo $a; sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/$a /mnt -o ro; ls /mnt/; sudo find /mnt -iname BCD; sudo umount -l /mnt; done
and post the result.
Execute
Code:
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda5 /mnt -o ro
sudo find /mnt -iname *.efi
sudo umount -l /mnt
and post the result.
I hope that there is some .efi file to boot windows, maybe on /dev/sda5.
You may be able to change the partition type by "gdisk /dev/sda" and command "t".
You can refer to http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...8/gdisk.8.html.
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
I cannot now really tell if you had a UEFI Windows install or BIOS Windows install and partitions were converted to gpt?
Normal UEFI/gpt has an efi partition, MSR, & Windows. Vendors may add Microsoft recovery first and vendor recovery last.
Normal BIOS/MBR has hidden 100MB boot/repair and main install. Then Vendor recover & utilities to use all 4 primary partitions.
UEFI spec says efi partition (ESP) must be first, but Windows often makes it second which seems to be ok.
Windows Recommended UEFI-Based Disk-Partition Configurations
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...8WS.10%29.aspx
Change the booting style of Windows Vista or 7 x86_64 versions from BIOS-MBR mode to UEFI-GPT mode without formatting or reinstalling
https://gitorious.org/tianocore_uefi...4_BIOS_to_UEFI
If you Installed Ubuntu in UEFI mode then it would create a efi partition later on drive.
Boot flag has totally different meanings in BIOS and gpt.
In GPT fdisk, ESPs have a type code of EF00. In libparted-based tools, you mark the ESP as such by setting its "boot flag." Note that the libparted "boot flag" means something entirely different under MBR, and you should not set the "boot flag" on any OS partition under GPT!
What partitions did you "houseclean" as it seems they may have been essential. You are at the least either missing the Windows efi boot file or the BIOS boot files from the boot partition. Your main install does not contain the boot files with Windows 7 or Windows 8.
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Re: Windows 7 wont boot
So I've decided to give up on trying to get windows to boot and now I'm more concerned with getting my files off of the hard drive. Should I just copy the partition to an external source? The drive doesnt show up as accessible in ubuntu.