[Boot-Repair] Graphical tool to repair the PC boot in one click

[jeff6]

Thanks for this thread. I ran the Ubuntu Boot Repair tools as recommended, and now cannot boot my windows PC. Now all I get is Ramdisk (EMS) boot option only.

So I am not sure what to do next. Here is the url that I was instructed to write down from boot repair for your reference.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/5951173/

Thanks for any assistance you can give me as I try to repair this windows 7 home premium laptop...

Jeff

[oldfred]

Boot-Repair is not a Windows repair tool. It will do some minor repairs like reinstalling a Windows (work alike) boot loader or a few other minor things. You really need to use a Windows repairCD that you make from Windows to fix a Windows only system.

http://www.pronetworks.org/forums/ho...s-t118842.html

Make your own Windows repairCD (not vendor recovery):
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1114725.htm

Windows 7 repair USB, Also Vista if service pack installed
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-re...tion-dvd-disc/
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/creat...usb-drive.html

[jeff6]

Thanks oldfred. I only resorted to this as my windows repair disc was unsuccessful at repairing the system... an unmountable boot volume thing. A source on another troubleshooting blog advised that Ubuntu could be used to repair the drive as a last resort, and back up my files. I do not have original windows 7 installation disk. I will try the sources you mentioned in hopes I can get something to work. I am a hack novice at best when I am in this deep. Will probably do more damage than good, but would really like to get past this boot problem. All the files on the laptop appear to be in tact, and I feel if I could get the boot volumn repaired that things may get back to normal, so any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks again...

[jeff6]

The only reason I resorted to Ubuntu was b/c of an unmountable boot volume. Cannot get to windows system at all, and system repair disk was unsuccessful. Nothing work, not safe mode, recovery, nothing. Cannot get past to boot volume issue. Another blog suggested Ubuntu to fix my windows system and to backup my system files, and that is good. I was able to back up important photos, videos, etc. Then I read were I could use boot repair and disk utilities to possibly repair the boot sector and restore the boot volume. So, that is where I am. I am trying a few items you suggested again, just to make sure. Ultimately, I may have to purchase a copy of Window 7 Home premium install disc just to restore my system, or maybe HP would send me a set. I am trying whatever it takes, as I use this laptop to teach, and just don't want to have to purchase another and set up everything again. Anyway, thanks again for your assistance... Will advise...

[oldfred]

@Jeff6
Have you run chkdsk? That often is an issue.
While you should always have a current version repairCD, some of the third party Windows tools include chkdsk. You might look at these:
Also has chkdsk and some other Windows repairs in free version:
http://www.partitionwizard.com/features.html
May be able to run chkdsk from Hiren's boot CD. (mini xp.)
Hiren's Boot CD, and do a chkdsk on the XP

EASEUS Partition Master
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

If you have access to another Windows 7 system, it just needs to be either 32 or 64 bit like yours any version.

Make your own Windows repairCD (not vendor recovery):
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1114725.htm
Windows users only - Silverlight
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/w...em-repair-disc

Windows 7 repair USB, Also Vista if service pack installed
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-re...tion-dvd-disc/
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/creat...usb-drive.html

[calvin-higby]

Hey Guys, I am attempting to repair a Wiki server that is unable to boot. Currently it goes to the grub prompt only (grub>). When it first was happening, it gave me an ash prompt (initramfs). I ran the repair disk and it prompted me to try again after installing raid drivers. I did it the way it was, since the machine is a vm, not set up for raid, and when that didn't work I tried it again with the raid drivers with no success. Here are the 2 pastes from the sessions, I hope you can help me! http://paste.ubuntu.com/5955379/ http://paste.ubuntu.com/5955463/ Thanks, Calvin

[oldfred]

I do not know LVM and I believe Boot-Repair has difficulty telling RAID from LVM as both use /dev/mapper.

Your first partition is too close to the start of the drive and then grub has difficulty installing. Old systems like yours usually started at sector 63 and both grub legacy & grub2 would have more boot info in the sectors after the MBR but before the first partition (new systems start at sector 2048 for SSD and new 4K drive compatibility). Because you do not have that space, it forces grub to install with blocklists which are hard coded addresses and a major update of grub may move the files and force a reinstall of grub.

/usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: This msdos-style partition label has no post-MBR gap; embedding won't be possible!.
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and its use is discouraged..
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: error: if you really want blocklists, use --force.

Better to move the start of sda1 to sector 63. You also show a lot of old kernels and may want to remove most of them. I normally keep the working version and one old one just in case. If you have a gui you can use synaptic, otherwise the command line works. Example is standard, you need to adjust to your specific kernels including that they are pae also.

Determine your current kernel:
uname -a
uname -r
In synaptic search for linux-image to choose to delete old ones
Also command line in post #8
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1283521
cd /boot
ls vmlinuz*
sudo apt-get purge linux-image-[version]-generic linux-image-[version]-generic
Multiples, just be sure not to delete your current kerne.:
sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.5.0-{XX,XX,XX,XX,XX,XX}-generic
Example:
sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.5.0-{17,18,19,21,22,23,24}-generic

[YannBuntu]

I do not know LVM and I believe Boot-Repair has difficulty telling RAID from LVM as both use /dev/mapper.

True. The difficulty is to know when there are both Raid and Lvm, or only Raid, or only Lvm.
By proposing both drivers, B-R remains compatible with all cases.

[calvin-higby]

Better to move the start of sda1 to sector 63. You also show a lot of old kernels and may want to remove most of them. I normally keep the working version and one old one just in case. If you have a gui you can use synaptic, otherwise the command line works. Example is standard, you need to adjust to your specific kernels including that they are pae also.

Thank you very much for your quick response!!! The way you explained it, it definitely sounds as if there would not be enough space for the newer version of grub. My next question is, as a fairly new user, how would one move that partition to another physical sector on the drive? Is this something that could be accomplished with gparted? It appears that gparted is included with the boot-repair tool, so that could be an easy way to move it perhaps.

I may try to run through and clean up some of those old kernels once(if) I can get the system operational again. Could those old kernels have contributed to the lack of space for grub to update, do you think?

[oldfred]

@calvin-higby

If you have a gui, or a liveCD/DVD/Flash drive you can use gparted. I would not use the old gparted you may have with you old version, but download a new version. The very newest version from their site.

http://partedmagic.com/
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/faq.php

You seem to have a larger /boot partition, so having the extra kernel should not have contributed to the issue. But not sure how core.img with grub2 is created. I know that some that have used other file formats (than ext3, ext3 or ext4) have had issues as core.img became very large for whatever reason.

I think you have to shrink partition from right but then move it. That will take time as it then has to copy all data. It would be quicker if housecleaned first. But you would have to chroot into system from liveCD and modify it from that.