[SOLVED] Can't Boot Vista After Ubuntu Install

[WhyCantEveryOSBePerfect]

HELP! I cannot boot into windows vista anymore. I get to the screen where I have a couple options to boot (vista and ubuntu) and ubuntu boots fine. However, if I select vista the microsoft screen comes up like usual, then instead of starting windows I get a big screen that says GATEWAY on it (my laptop manufacturer) and a system recovery tool opens up. HELP!

[drowner]

Hi.

You should start by posting the output of

sudo fdisk -l

and

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

This will tell us what partitions you have and what grub thinks they are.

[WhyCantEveryOSBePerfect]

sudo fdisk -l won't help because I have a raid0 setup
it just returns: Unable to seek on /dev/sda



## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro splash vga=795
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro splash vga=795
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /memtest86+.bin


Those are the respective results. However, when I start my computer it detects Windows Vista as an option. It starts to load and then brings me to my system recovery options. I think this means something within vista got screwed up? Does ubuntu/grub overwrite anything in Vista?

[tangibleorange]

grub shouldn't touch vista but if you resized your vista partition with GParted (in the installer) it might have affected the vista settings. it's possible GRUB is trying to boot to the recovery partition rather than the real Vista partition. unfortunately without some kind of partition list, i can't really say...

[ostamp]

sounds to me like grub is not recognizing the correct startup file for windows and probably installed somewhere strange. here's a thread to reinstall grub

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351.

besides that, i would check the grub menu file with

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

in terminal and post up what the file has on your windows install. hope this starts to help.

[Dark_Stang]

It sounds like you're booting to the recovery partition on the laptop and not the main OS partition.

[kansasnoob]

That's not a grub problem folks!

That happens when Vista gets corrupted by resizing with anything other than it's own partitioning tools.

This may work:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...sta-partition/

If not there are two people that frequent this site that know how to fix it:
meierfra and caljohnsmith. Maybe others but I know they can.

[davidryder]

Add this to your menu.lst file:

title Windows Vista (1)
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

title Windows Vista (2)
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

The first entry will try to boot from the 1st partition of the 1st disk, and the second will try to boot from the 2nd partition of the 1st disk. It's a little trial & error, but logic follows that if Ubuntu is on your 3rd partition, Vista is on the 1st or 2nd.

Your error is likely being caused by GRUB incorrectly identifying your recovery partition as Vista's partition. Once you identify which of those options boots to Windows you can just delete the other one.

[klytu]

sudo fdisk -l won't help because I have a raid0 setup
it just returns: Unable to seek on /dev/sda



## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro splash vga=795
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro splash vga=795
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID06 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /memtest86+.bin


Those are the respective results. However, when I start my computer it detects Windows Vista as an option. It starts to load and then brings me to my system recovery options. I think this means something within vista got screwed up? Does ubuntu/grub overwrite anything in Vista?

Vista is not listed in your GRUB menu ... When you say "it detects Windows Vista as an option." What does "it" refer to? How are you trying to start Vista if not from the GRUB menu?

[WhyCantEveryOSBePerfect]

Vista was originally resized with its own tools before ubuntu was installed. It sounds like what you said, that it's booting the wrong partition could be right, I sure hope so. Here's the data from
sudo fdisk /dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0p1 1 1786 14346013+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0p2 * 1787 46031 355391264 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0p3 * 46031 46093 504713+ 83 Linux
/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0p4 46094 48641 20466810 5 Extended
/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0p5 46094 46580 3911796 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mapper/isw_diihdeefba_RAID0p6 46581 48641 16554951 83 Linux

Command (m for help):


So I think it does look like the first partition there is my backup partition. I guess that's what grub is booting into?

When I said "it" in my earlier posts I guess I mean grub. On the menu where I select which OS to boot looks something like this

Windows Vista
Ubuntu 8.04.1 blah blah blah
Ubuntu 8.04.1 (recovery)
Ubuntu 8.04.1 blah blah blah
Ubuntu 8.04.1 (memtest)
The highlighted option will boot in 15 seconds.