Cannot load form harddisk. Insert Systemdisk and press any key.

cmwslw

cmwslw

Member
First of all, thank you for EasyBCD. It has been so useful for setting up my triple boot situation (Vista, XP, Ubuntu) using the Vista bootloader. I do have one small problem, though. Whenever I select Ubuntu 8.10 on the Vista boot menu, this message appears:
Code: 
BootPart 2.60 Bootsector (c) 1993-2005 Gilles Vollant http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
Loading new partion
Bootsector from C.H. Hochstatter
Cannot load form harddisk.
Insert Systemdisk and press any key.
Many people have had this sort of problem (like this), except when I press a key, GRUB loads and I can boot into Ubuntu fine. This problem is still pretty annoying, though. Does anyone have any suggestions? I followed the Neosmart tutorial for this exactly.

Thanks in advance,
Cory Walker
 
Please post a screenshot of your disk management page.

Then run EasyBCD | Useful Utilities | Power Console
And type in
Code: 
bootpart.exe
and paste the output here.

Thanks.
 
bootpart.exe:
Code: 
Boot Partition 2.60 for WinNT/2K/XP (c)1995-2005 G. Vollant (info@winimage.com)
WEB : http://www.winimage.com and http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
Add partition in the Windows NT/2000/XP Multi-boot loader
Run "bootpart.exe /?" for more information

Physical number of disk 0 : c149c149
 0 : C:  type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 38909398 KB, Lba Pos=63
 1 : C:* type=83  (Linux native), size= 36130185 KB, Lba Pos=77818860
 2 : C:  type=5  (Extended), size= 3108577 KB, Lba Pos=150079230
 3 : C:  type=82   (Linux swap), size= 3108546 KB, Lba Pos=150079293
Physical number of disk 1 : 782ae100
 4 : D:  type=27 , size= 10485760 KB, Lba Pos=2048
 5 : D:* type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 302083416 KB, Lba Pos=20973568

Disk management screenshot is attached.

Thanks for the support!
 

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Have you tried checking the box saying Grub isn't installed to the bootsector under the Linux tab in EasyBCD 2.0 Beta when adding the entry?

-Coolname007
 
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Ok...so when you first start the computer, which boot menu (if any) do you come to first? Grub or the Vista boot menu? Can you hit Esc at the beginning, and get to a menu? If so, then that would be Grub installed to the MBR, and not Vista's loader. I'm not sure, but having Grub (instead of Vista) installed to the MBR might affect whether or not the Linux tab has any affect, when attempting to boot Linux from Windows on another hard drive...
I'm thinking this freezing affect you're experiencing may be a delibrate feature CG incorporated into the program, so he could tell when users were attempting to boot Linux from a Windows install on another drive from a Grub-installed-to-the-MBR drive, which might cause a problem anyway.

If that is the case, then you can simply put your Windows drive (instead of the Linux drive) first in the BIOS boot sequence, occupying the position of drive 0, and boot Linux that way, *directly* from the Vista bootloader.

-Coolname007
 
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cmwslw, I'm working on your problem. This seems to be a bug in EasyBCD 2.0, and I'm trying to pin it down but am having trouble re-producing it :smile:
 
Well the problem comes up when I'm switching from the Vista bootloader to GRUB. It seems to be a problem with Bootpart or how Bootpart is configured. The problem with the Linux tab freezing is a problem of EasyBCD, though.
 
cmwslw said:
Well the problem comes up when I'm switching from the Vista bootloader to GRUB. It seems to be a problem with Bootpart or how Bootpart is configured. The problem with the Linux tab freezing is a problem of EasyBCD, though.
Click to expand...

The 2.0 Beta version of EasyBCD does not use Bootpart, though earlier versions do. Which version of EasyBCD did you use to create the original entry, before trying 2.0 Beta, and the Linux tab freezing up on you? That last problem must be of course a bug in 2.0 Beta, and not a deliberate feature CG incorporated, though that's what I originally thought might be the case. Have you tried reinstalling EasyBCD? We had a poster with a similar issue in this thread, who said he reinstalled EasyBCD, which fixed the issue.

-Coolname007
 
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Sorry, I would fix it, but CG's got a 12-hour limit on post edits for normal users like myself. So try this one instead.

-Coolname007

EDIT: Strange, this one's not working either...I don't know why. Its definitely the right thread number, 33540. Ok, so let's skip the easy thread linking just this once, and post the whole link: Error 19: Cannot mount selected partition - The NeoSmart Forums
That should work fine. BTW, I still think you should try reinstalling EasyBCD...it might fix [post=33540]the problem with the Linux tab freezing.[/post]
 
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Reinstalling EasyBCD didn't work. If I could get the source (If you allow this), I would happily debug it and see where the problem lies.

-Cory Walker
 
Computer Guru said:
cmwslw, I'm working on your problem. This seems to be a bug in EasyBCD 2.0, and I'm trying to pin it down but am having trouble re-producing it :smile:
Click to expand...

Cory, the project is closed source. CG has worked very hard to maintain it and unfortunately a previous party NeoSmart worked with continues to maintain Vista Boot Pro (which is what EasyBCD was formally known as). As you can see from the above quote however, he is working very hard to pin point the problem you are having.

It is important to remember that a beta is being used. With betas come potential problems, but hopefully all the kirks will be ironed out with the final product.
 
You have the same problem as everyone else with this issue - your MBR is damaged or even corrupted and EasyBCD can't handle that.

Look at the output of BootPart. Compare it to the screenshot of disk management.

Supposedly you've got an extended partition which contains the Linux SWAP partition. Yet in the Computer Management screen, the SWAP partition is listed as primary, which as far as I can tell, is incorrect.

User "Andymin" had the same problem.

Addendum:

How did you partition your disk? What software did you use?
 
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Computer Guru said:
You have the same problem as everyone else with this issue - your MBR is damaged or even corrupted and EasyBCD can't handle that.

Look at the output of BootPart. Compare it to the screenshot of disk management.

Supposedly you've got an extended partition which contains the Linux SWAP partition. Yet in the Computer Management screen, the SWAP partition is listed as primary, which as far as I can tell, is incorrect.

User "Andymin" had the same problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I noticed that as well. :wtf: Strange...
So you say that was Andymin's issue all along too?
hmm...
I'm not sure if I understand how having an MBR messed up could affect Easy so badly, though...
So you say that's what causing the Linux tab to freeze?

-Coolname007
 
EasyBCD uses info from BootGrabber to generate the list of partitions. BootGrabber reads the MBR directly from the disk. In both cases, the MBR was badly messed-up, which crashes BootGrabber.

When BootGrabber crashes, since it's a helper process EasyBCD also hangs.

Addendum:

For comparison, this is Andymin's problem:

From Windows:
attachment.php


From Linux:
attachment.php


The same *exact* issue.

Addendum:

BootGrabber needs to read the MBR info then uses that knowledge to process partitions on the disk. When it's given invalid or inconsistent data, it goes haywire.
 
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Computer Guru said:
EasyBCD uses info from BootGrabber to generate the list of partitions. BootGrabber reads the MBR directly from the disk. In both cases, the MBR was badly messed-up, which crashes BootGrabber.

When BootGrabber crashes, since it's a helper process EasyBCD also hangs.

Addendum:

BootGrabber needs to read the MBR info then uses that knowledge to process partitions on the disk. When it's given invalid or inconsistent data, it goes haywire.
Click to expand...

Ahh...I see. :smile: I'm just now being to understand what exactly EasyBCD is doing behind the scenes...
It makes perfect sense, CG.
BTW, has Andymin's problem been resolved yet? We haven't heard from him in a while. :wink:

-Coolname007
 
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