EasyBCD destroyed my system!

K

Ken

Member
I had (notice the past tense) Vista installed on a RAID1 disk array. I then installed Ubuntu 7.04, allowing it to create a partition. I rebooted, which took me to Vista. I installed EasyBCD and used to to add Ubuntu.

<problem>
Your instructions say: "When prompted to set up the bootloader, make sure you specify to install LILO, GRUB, or whatever to the bootsector of the partition that Linux is being installed to and not the MBR of your hard drive."

Ubuntu asks me where to install the bootloader, but only gives me hdd0 as an option. I don't know what that means or how to specify something different. It doesn't let me choose Lilo or Grub and doesn't tell me which one it is using, or where it is being installed, and it doesn't let me choose between MBR and bootsector.
</problem>

I rebooted, I got the bootloader, I chose Ubuntu but no go. I rebooted, chose Vista, ran EasyBCD, deleted Ubuntu, rewrote the MBR, and added Ubuntu. There is probably a serious error in there that I could have avoided if your instructions about bootloaders had matched the real world.

<catastrophe>
When I boot, the machine says "missing operating system"

If I boot from the Vista disk, it offers to repair the system but (surprise, surprise) can't repair it.

</catastrophe>

I'm prepared to set everything up again from scratch, but I would like to know how to follow these instructions:

"When prompted to set up the bootloader (I'm not), make sure you specify to install LILO, GRUB, or whatever (I can't) to the bootsector of the partition (won't let me) that Linux is being installed to and not the MBR of your hard drive."
 
This is actually Ubuntu's fault, they make it so darn impossible to understand where GRUB is being installed to.

When you begin the installation, in the last screen before the actual copying of files begins, there is a button called "Advanced"

If you click this button, you actually get a single dialog box which only asks you where you want to install grub.

The default value is something like hd0.
You have to change this to hd0,1 or whatever to reflect your setup. Quite misleading honestly.

However, there is something very interesting in your explanation: going by what you said, it should have booted directly into Ubuntu and not let you boot into Vista - but in your case it did the exact opposite.

This leads me to believe that something wrong happened during the setup.

***********SOLUTION***********************

Perform a repair install of Windows Vista. This will fix Vista, and keep your data and programs intact.
Install Ubuntu. During the setup, either
1) Go with defaults and do some work later
2) Tell it to install GRUB to the partition that you installed UBUNTU to. This is hdx,y depending on your configuration. both start at 0.

If you chose [1] then you'll end up straight in Ubuntu, with GRUB giving you an option to boot into Ubuntu or Vista. Both should work just fine - so long as you don't mind having grub.

if you choose [2], after setup finishes, your PC will reboot and you'll be back in Vista. NOW you need to add Ubuntu in EasyBCD.

Good luck!
 
The repair installation did not work. I undid the RAID and installed Ubuntu on the second disk. I installed Windows on the first disk. I used your instructions to reinstall Grub on the second disk. I was working of the optical disk, I have never booted from the hard disk yet. I got a message that it had worked. I went back into Windows and used EasyBCD to add Ubuntu. I rebooted and got the boot manager. I selected Ubuntu and got some text on the screen that said that Grub was missing or something to that effect.

Next step is to reinstall Ubuntu on the second disk. However, I might not bother, since Ubuntu only supports 1280x1024 monitors with a color depth of 32 during installation, not afterwards. (So what's the point of that?) I am NOT buying a monitor just to install Ubuntu. I have found lots of solutions for the monitor problem, none of which (in typical linux fashion) actually work.

If this goes much futher without results, I'll give up on Ubuntu and Linux. My time is worth something, and this OS is simply getting too expensive.

I'd still like to install Ubuntu, but I am skeptical it is possible and I am beginning to lose interest.
 
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