Windows 7 DVD fails to restore the bootloader

[darkod]

EDIT: I didn't make the partitions on the VM in advance, just told the installer to make a new partition on "Drive 1" using up all the available space. It made a 100mb partition on "Drive 0".

OK, but now that it exists there is nothing stopping you doing a new win7 install on the existing partition right? It's a new empty OS anyway. Try a new install and that might sort your issues because when you use existing partition it doesn't want to create the small 100MB partition and it puts all boot files on the partition you select as destination. That's what you want, right?

And once the new install is there with all boot files, update-grub will have no problem adding it.

[Lisiano]

I'm so gonna

shred -x -n 8 -z -f

the VM once this is over.

Anyway, sdb1 is marked as system, when trying to reinstall, the installer tells me it will move stuff to Windows.old, I accept and it states "The setup couldn't create or a find an existing system partition. Extra information can be found in the installation log." (Translated from Russian). Any idea where the log is?

EDIT: Think I found it. It basically says it checked if the partition I wish to use has enough free space then went on to find the System disk or partition and says that everything "doesn't meet criteria for system volumes..."

[darkod]

I know windows is sometimes idiotic but I have never seen this. And I have also installed few times on previously prepared partition so that it will not create the 100MB one.

If you tell it to install on sdb1, it should do it.

You have a serious windows problem man. And it's not even installed. Wait when you install it and the real problems start.

[Lisiano]

Heh, why do you think I love Linux? Boot problems? grub-install and update-grub and you are all set. Broken dependencies? apt-get -f install. Unconfigured stuff? dpkg -a configure. Only got a disk with an old grub or even lilo? chroot and you are all set. Want to move your system to a newer rig? Just move the disk.

Windows - more problems than you can shake a stick at.

Hmm... On rage, deleted swap, it fails, deleted root, it passed... Hmm. Maybe if I move root 200mb (Extra space just incase) then maybe it will create it's evil 100mb partition.. Then maybe I could move boot/ and bootmgr to C: and it might decide to accept defeat and boot. Or at least let /rebuildbcd work.

EDIT: Ctulhu and Flying Spagheti Monster bless VMs.

EDIT2: Interesting. Before, Ubuntu did not detect any users on Win7 but when reinstalling Ubuntu this time, it detected and even marked Win7 as "Windows 7 (loader)". Maybe plainly moving the files works... If it does, then I want to find the person who made the 100mb partition creation decision and strangle him/her with my own hands.

[Lisiano]

!@#$%^&*()_+-=... God dammit. Plainly moving files _works_. Ubuntu easily detected Windows 7 on sdb1 and offered in Grub. I hate the Windows devs even more now.

I'll keep this unsolved until I try this on actual hardware, aka the laptop.
Either way, time to shred this darn VM.


P.S.

I see the same problems of fixing a windows boot on the same HD as a Linux setup when Linux is before the windows partition.

Installing Ubuntu on my own systems then installing Windows later worked fine, though I did use a trick to halt the Installer from creating the 100mb partition, it didn't work on the laptop or the VM though.

I think the installer for windows is just limited in these ways in a stock use of it. A crack, IT person, can probably get around this stuff though.

Maybe, though if that IT person doesn't know how to think outside the box, he will hardly do it. For example, MS recomends using audit mode to install software. That mode fails a lot if you try to install a driver or anything that might install a dll. I find opening CMD on the Welcome Screen and then opening notepad, navigating to the files I want to install, then installing them this way is _way_ faster and _always_ works (Well, except for Chrome as it install into AppData). Either way, the guidelines and the way it installs stuff, is for lunatics I say. Why must we still use primary partitions when we can easily shove it into a logical one? Linux lets us do it for a long time now.