Vista partition drive letter gone and recovery does not find anything

[zmalex]

Hi

So from one problem to another

This time I can not boot Vista anymore since the partition can not be found after I removed a partition holding the MBR.

Here is what happened.

I had a nice dual boot Vista and Ubuntu going. The drive looked like this
/dev/sda1 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda2 Vista x64 - C: 200gb
/dev/sda3 Linux Swap - 2gb
/dev/sda4 Linux ext3 - Ubuntu 20gb. Grub installed and booting through Vista booter
unused space 20gb

I figured I'd do a smart format of the unused space using vista disc manager. However disc manager transformed all my linux drives to RAW. Then it moved my partitions one number ahead and introduced a 1mb partition as sda1. This partition most likely held the MBR.

That screwed up my Ubuntu boot probably due to switch in partition order.

So I removed sda1 thinking I could recreate a MBR through Ubuntu. BAD IDEA.

I was not able to get Vista to boot so I tried different approaches to get Ubuntu to boot instead and then perhaps go from there. I finally managed to get Ubuntu and GRUB up and running but I am having a hard time getting Vista going again. The recovery program gives me a blue screen. I have probably messed something up bad.

Now my setup is like

/dev/sda1 Ubuntu 20gb. This was used by the 1mb MBR before so the numbering is a bit off.
/dev/sda2 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda3 Vista x64 - Not mapped and unrecognized by any of the tools. Not removed though so it should be intact.
/dev/sda4 Swap
/dev/sda5 ext3 formatted partition. Not used.

I have tried super grub iso to get vista up. Unfortunately I have not created any restore points or backups to use with the recovery tools and the boot part does not find any partitions.

So I need to somehow reset the partitions to something like:
/dev/sda1 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda2 Vista x64 - C: 200gb
unused

just to get going again. Could anyone tell me if this is even possible? I have not touched those partitions so the data on them should be ok. I have access to neosmart rescue disc and EISA is booting up but can't find anything. (probably since it's looking for C: or active or similar)

So I think either fixing so that I can use the standard resque disc approach to recreate standard Vista MBR OR using ubuntu and GRUB to boot into Vista and then using EasyBCD to rewrite the MBR and THEN setting this up to boot into Ubuntu partition Grub just like it was in the first place.

Pretty please help me. I don't have the Vista discs to start over from since it was preinstalled and I was supposed to create rescue discs.

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by zmalex

Hi

So from one problem to another

This time I can not boot Vista anymore since the partition can not be found after I removed a partition holding the MBR.

First of all, the MBR sits on the drive before any partitions, so it is impossible to have to have a partition containing the MBR... What you must have actually done is removed the EISA partition, which unfortunately contained your Vista boot files...

Here is what happened.

I had a nice dual boot Vista and Ubuntu going. The drive looked like this
/dev/sda1 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda2 Vista x64 - C: 200gb
/dev/sda3 Linux Swap - 2gb
/dev/sda4 Linux ext3 - Ubuntu 20gb. Grub installed and booting through Vista booter
unused space 20gb
I figured I'd do a smart format of the unused space using vista disc manager. However disc manager transformed all my linux drives to RAW. Then it moved my partitions one number ahead and introduced a 1mb partition as sda1. This partition most likely held the MBR.

Yeah, that was a bad move... What you thought was "unused space" was actually your Linux partitions, and messing with those with Vista's Disk Manager caused your dual-boot setup to get all screwed up...as can be seen from the following quote.

That screwed up my Ubuntu boot probably due to switch in partition order.
So I removed sda1 thinking I could recreate a MBR through Ubuntu. BAD IDEA.

By "recreating an MBR through Ubuntu" do you actually mean installing Grub to the MBR of that drive? And by "removing sda1" do you mean you deleted that partition?

I was not able to get Vista to boot so I tried different approaches to get Ubuntu to boot instead and then perhaps go from there. I finally managed to get Ubuntu and GRUB up and running but I am having a hard time getting Vista going again. The recovery program gives me a blue screen. I have probably messed something up bad.

Now my setup is like

/dev/sda1 Ubuntu 20gb. This was used by the 1mb MBR before so the numbering is a bit off.
/dev/sda2 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda3 Vista x64 - Not mapped and unrecognized by any of the tools. Not removed though so it should be intact.
/dev/sda4 Swap
/dev/sda5 ext3 formatted partition. Not used.

I have tried super grub iso to get vista up. Unfortunately I have not created any restore points or backups to use with the recovery tools and the boot part does not find any partitions.

So I need to somehow reset the partitions to something like:
/dev/sda1 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda2 Vista x64 - C: 200gb
unused

just to get going again. Could anyone tell me if this is even possible? I have not touched those partitions so the data on them should be ok. I have access to neosmart rescue disc and EISA is booting up but can't find anything. (probably since it's looking for C: or active or similar)

So I think either fixing so that I can use the standard resque disc approach to recreate standard Vista MBR OR using ubuntu and GRUB to boot into Vista and then using EasyBCD to rewrite the MBR and THEN setting this up to boot into Ubuntu partition Grub just like it was in the first place.

Pretty please help me. I don't have the Vista discs to start over from since it was preinstalled and I was supposed to create rescue discs.

Hold on while I think of a solution to the problem...

-Coolname007

EDIT: Have you tried using the NST recovery disk yet to attempt to repair Vista's boot?

[zmalex]

No I didn't remove the EISA partition.

After disc manager did its magic it put a 1mb partition BEFORE all the other partitions. Thus going from:

/dev/sda1 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda2 Vista x64 - C: 200gb
/dev/sda3 Linux Swap - 2gb
/dev/sda4 Linux ext3 - Ubuntu 20gb. Grub installed and booting through Vista booter

to

/dev/sda1 1mb disc manager crap.
/dev/sda2 EISA backup - not mapped 12 gb
/dev/sda3 Vista x64 - C: 200gb
/dev/sda4 Linux Swap - 2gb (Displaying as RAW in Vista dm)
/dev/sda5 Linux ext3 - Ubuntu 20gb. Grub installed and booting through Vista booter (Displaying as RAW in Vista dm)

When runing the Ubuntu LIVE CD I could still see all the other partitions. The unused space was indeed unused space which was unpartitioned and I was planning to use it for Mac OSX. Unfortunately the mac installer doesn't do a good job finding unpartitioned space so I wanted to make a dummy partition using windows disc manager. That's what got me in to this mess

I have tried the NST disc but it can't find any partition to fix. Perhaps since the drive letters are all messed up now.

Actually I'm reading Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki but I'm stuck on how to get the bootsect.exe into the system?!?!?

Any suggestions? Will USB drives be mounted in NST mode if I copy it from EasyBCD folder? Kinda stuck here.

"By "recreating an MBR through Ubuntu" do you actually mean installing Grub to the MBR of that drive? And by "removing sda1" do you mean you deleted that partition?"
Yes and Yes . I figured if I got Ubuntu going I could use it to boot Vista somehow. Removing the sda1 was done with the "it's only 1mb big. How bad can it get" approach.

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by zmalex

No I didn't remove the EISA partition.

After disc manager did its magic it put a 1mb partition BEFORE all the other partitions.

Hmm...it could be then that when the 1 MB partition was created before all the other partitions, it became "active" instead of the EISA partition, which according to the screenshot you posted in the other thread was the "active" partition, and obviously contained your Vista boot files...
So, if that's the case, then you could try setting the EISA partition to "active" again, using Gparted from the LiveCD, and see if it boots into Vista as it should.

Cheers.

-Coolname007

[zmalex]

I'll try to get Grub back on line with super grub disc.

Any ideas on how to get bootsect onto the NST recovery session?

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by zmalex

I'll try to get Grub back on line with super grub disc.

Not sure what you mean by that... I was simply stating to set the EISA partition to "active" again with Gparted, which will hopefully fix the issue with Vista not booting.

Any ideas on how to get bootsect onto the NST recovery session?

No need to...you can use the Command Prompt on the recovery cd to navigate to the bin folder within the EasyBCD directory on your Windows partition, and run bootsect from there if you have to, but I really don't think that's necessary at this point. Just set the EISA partition to "active" and see what happens.

-Coolname007

[zmalex]

I meant that I needed to use super grub to set Grub as default booter again.

Well I can't use the command prompt to browse since it is only browsin my EISA partition for some reason. Probably related to the NST rescue tools not working as they should.

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by zmalex

I meant that I needed to use super grub to set Grub as default booter again.

Well I can't use the command prompt to browse since it is only browsin my EISA partition for some reason. Probably related to the NST rescue tools not working as they should.

First try setting the EISA partition to "active" again, and see if Vista boots. Though you could probably get it working from Grub, you would be going to a whole lot of trouble, what with editing the menu.lst and all, and so you would be better off just setting the EISA partition to "active" and then Vista should boot.

Cheers.

-Coolname007

[zmalex]

I'm updating my Ubuntu packages now. It was a fresh install so I will get back to you once I have gparted up. Should I also set the Vista partition as active?

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by zmalex

I'm updating my Ubuntu packages now. It was a fresh install so I will get back to you once I have gparted up. Should I also set the Vista partition as active?

You can only have one "active" partition per hard drive, so the only one that needs to be set to "active" in your case is the EISA partition...

-Coolname007

[zmalex]

I see. Trying to get gparted now using apt-get install gparted but I can't find it. ?!?!? I'll see if I can find alternatives.

Addendum:

Ok. Set the active partition to the EISA partition. gparted has flagged my ntfs (EISA and Vista) partitions with a warning triangle. Saying that it could not read the contents of those partitions due to some thing (can't translate from swedish) were available. However I can access the EISA partition so I think the data is ok.

Addendum:

I also set my EISA partition to active but it seems like Grub is still booting. I want to add that Grub has added Vista boot alternatives. One is not working since it can not find a file and is most likely the previous EISA alternative. And the one that is working. Probably the old Vista is now EISA.

This must be a result of the /dev/sdaX sequence being changed by Vista disc manager. Could you advise on how to fix this?

Addendum:

I notice that when inside the Vista rescue disc my C: drive is my EISA drive. Is there anyway for me to map my Vista partition as C: instead?

Addendum:

Adding my /boot/grub/menu.lst contents.

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
uuid ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
uuid ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
uuid ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid ec3cc9fa-575f-48e2-94e6-63aba1e0aa89
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda3
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

[zmalex]

Now Gparted seems to recognize my ntfs volumes just fine and I can browse them from Ubuntu.

Adding an image from Gparted.

[zmalex]

Ok. I got Vista back up

I was reading Ubuntu Forums - View Single Post - [other] How to fix XP when the boot files are missing and started by removing savedefault and makeactive from my /boot/grub/menu.lst for the vista alterantives.

Doing that allowed my Vista recovery tools to recreate enough information to let me boot into Vista.

[Coolname007]

You haven't deleted the 1 MB partition! According to the screenshot you just posted of the Gparted screen, the 1 MB partition that you said you deleted still exists... And are you sure you even set the right partition to "active"? The 12.05 partition is the one you should have set to "active", not the Vista partition, or the allegedly deleted 1 MB partition...

-Coolname007

Addendum:

Originally Posted by zmalex

I see. Trying to get gparted now using apt-get install gparted but I can't find it. ?!?!? I'll see if I can find alternatives.

Addendum:

Ok. Set the active partition to the EISA partition. gparted has flagged my ntfs (EISA and Vista) partitions with a warning triangle. Saying that it could not read the contents of those partitions due to some thing (can't translate from swedish) were available. However I can access the EISA partition so I think the data is ok.

Addendum:

I also set my EISA partition to active but it seems like Grub is still booting. I want to add that Grub has added Vista boot alternatives. One is not working since it can not find a file and is most likely the previous EISA alternative. And the one that is working. Probably the old Vista is now EISA.

If you get to Grub first at startup, that means that Grub has been installed to the MBR...so you must have used Super Grub Disk to write Grub to the MBR. Something I advised not to do in one of my above posts...

I notice that when inside the Vista rescue disc my C: drive is my EISA drive. Is there anyway for me to map my Vista partition as C: instead?

Your EISA partition is shown as C: by the recovery disk, because it is the active primary partition on the first drive in the boot sequence (drive 0)... There is no way to change what the recovery disk calls it, but I imagine you would probably see a different drive letter from within Vista itself.
Ok, notice the two quoted entries in your menu.lst...

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda3
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

See the one pointed at (hd0,2), which is the first hard drive, third partition? Now the reason that entry doesn't work is because it is pointed at your Vista partition, instead of the EISA partition, which last time I checked contains your Vista boot files...
But naturally, the one above it works because it is pointed at the EISA partition.

Cheers.

-Coolname007

Addendum:

Anyway, I'm glad you got it all working ok now (from what it sounds like anyway...). You can boot into Ubuntu, right? You can safely remove the extra entry in your Ubuntu menu.lst (the one with the root line pointed at (hd0,2) ) with no problems, if you want, so you don't have any entries in your menu.lst that doesn't work. But, of course, that is optional...

-Coolname007

Addendum:

Originally Posted by zmalex

I see. Trying to get gparted now using apt-get install gparted but I can't find it. ?!?!? I'll see if I can find alternatives.

Oh, and I meant you could use the already existing version of Gparted on your LiveCD... You will find it at System>Administration>Partition Editor while booted from the LiveCD.

Cheers,

Jake

[zmalex]

I had problems running EasyBCD after that so I threw away all Linux partitions and I am going to start from scratch on that.

However now my rescue and vista partitions are not longer at sda1 and sda2 rather at sda2 and sda3.

How can I move them to sda1 and sda2?