Vista will not boot

T

Tangus

Member
In my zeal to install a dual boot Ubuntu 7.2 and Vista, I installed Ubuntu on a separtate hard drive which now appears to have distroyed the MBR. I have run through the Vista repair routines to know avail. I thought that I could perhaps use EasyBCD to recreate the boot record, however, since I cannot boot into Vista, I am at a loss as to how to proceed. Can anyone give me some guidance?
 
Thank you Guru for your fast response. Unfortunantly, I have run these to no avail:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

The first two report " the operation completed successfully"
The last one reports "Successfully scanned windows installations. Total idenitified Windows installations: 1 [1] c:\windows. Add installations to the boot list? Yes<Y>/No<N>/All<A>:" When I repsond with "Y" or "A" I receive: "The requested system device cannot be found.

When I reboot the system without the Windows CD, I receive: "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem...
File: \boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.

In reading other threads, it looks as though I could install EasyBCD to fix the problem, but since I cannot boot the system, I do not know how to install and run the software. And if I could, I would need some guidance on how to do it properly.

Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Well, what would help is if you could go into where you were and type "bcdedit.exe /enum" then post what it says here.

It's a lot of text, but unfortunately there is no other way.
 
bdcedit.exe /enum

Thanks again for your quick response. bcdedit.exe /enum generates: "The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The requested system device cannot be found."

Thanks again in advance for your help.
 
Following some other threads, I have managed to get Vista up and running again. I did so by reinstalling Ubuntu on the 2nd disk drive and placing the bootstrap on that drive (Ubuntu installer is woefully inadequate in its handling of this by default). Then I went back into the window repair disk and windows automatically repaired the boot record. Now, however, I cannot boot into Ubuntu. I installed EasyBCD on the Vista installation in order to create an entry for the Ubuntu drive, but EasyBCD doesn't give me a choice of that drive to pick from. The drive (K:smile: is visable from Vista, however. I would like to have a dual boot system with Ubuntu and Vista. Any ideas? Thanks
 
Well, where are you looking?

In EasyBCD | Add/Remove Entries | Linux you should have a list of all drives and partitions (not drive letters, but actual physical partitions).
 
There are two drives listed, 0 and 1; each has three partitions, however, I cannot identify the 2nd SCSI drive that the Ubuntu is installed on which is a Seagate 361 GB drive with one partition. EasyBCD reads:

Drive 0
Partition 0 (???? - 0GB)
Partition 1 (HPFS/NTFS - 461 GB)
Partition 2 (CP/M! - 5GB)

Drive 1
Partition 0 (Bigdos fat16 - 0GB)
Partition 1 (HPFS/NTFS - 461 GB)
Partition 2 (CP/M! - 5GB)

Both drives appear to be 461 GB NTFS drives which is not the case. So I am confused. Thanks
 
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I first eliminated the linux entry I had added before and then tried to add the "grubless" entry. It didn't give me an option to select a drive, but let me add it, although it did not show up in the table of entries. I rebooted and the boot menu did not run at all and just booted directly into Vista.
 
Try adding it again - if it doesn't show up in the entries, it won't show up in the boot menu.

GRUBless Linux doesn't let you select a drive. Instead, it'll search for your Ubuntu installation and boot into it all on its own.
 
I formatted my computer and installed vista. I installed my vista os to drive c: but it somehow put the boot info into drive d: (seperate physical disks)
I realized this situation just after formatting my drive d:
Now i cannot boot my vista. My situation is somewhat similar to Tangus' situation. But he managed to install ubuntu again and changed the boot driver later. I cannot do that.

i tried:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

The first two report " the operation completed successfully"
The last one reports "Successfully scanned windows installations. Total idenitified Windows installations: 1 [1] c:\windows. Add installations to the boot list? Yes<Y>/No<N>/All<A>:" When I repsond with "Y" or "A" I receive: "The requested system device cannot be found.

AND

bcdedit.exe /enum generates: "The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The requested system device cannot be found."

just like Tangus. What can I do? How can I reinstall boot information on drive c:

I appraciate any help..
 
Hi O.U.T., welcome to NST.
Try disconnecting your D disk temporarily so that it doesn't confuse the situation, then boot from your Vista DVD, select repair my computer then repair startup.
You will probably need to do this more than once (it does warn you so), as it only seems capable of fixing one thing at a time.
Eventually, the system should boot properly without needing the DVD, at which point you can reconnect your D disk and carry on where you left off before.
 
You are my man! Thank you for you quick reply.
I have googled all over the internet and found lots of people with same situation. Most of them found a solution by using this forum.
But, man! Your solution is the quickest solution ever. I have tried lots of solutions including the ones in thread http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=767.
I din't disconnected the disk but the thing you've said "boot from your Vista DVD, select repair my computer then repair startup. You will probably need to do this more than once (it does warn you so), as it only seems capable of fixing one thing at a time." saved lots of my time and I hope this works out for other people having the same problem.
Thank you again..

PS: I have done that repairing thing 3 times and it fixed..
 
Unplugging second disk worked

Terry60, thank you for the suggestion. I had a computer with a failed c: drive that had been doing backups to an internal d:

For whatever reason it was completely out of sorts restoring the boot configuration until I unplugged the restore drive temporarily.

Thanks much!
 
hi guys, sorry for a repost but i see this one has more users commenting so maybe someone will have the knowledge to help me out
ive got the same error as you all
and i to have tried
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
The first two report " the operation completed successfully"
The last one reports "Successfully scanned windows installations. Total idenitified Windows installations: 1 [1] c:\windows. Add installations to the boot list? Yes<Y>/No<N>/All<A>:" When I repsond with "Y" or "A" I receive: "The requested system device cannot be found.

AND

also tried sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows
received the offline image has a different platform architecture than the running system

bcdedit.exe /enum generates: "The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The requested system device cannot be found."

i must add its a laptop and not a desktop computer

thanks
 
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