Triple boot vista64/xp/ubuntu FDisk error

Hello,
I've been looking around for help for awhile so hopefully some of you can help me out here. My machine currently has one partitioned harddrive with Vistax64 and XP on it and it works fine. I found an old small 13GB harddrive collecting dust in my house and decided to put Ubuntu linux on the whole drive to mess around with and learn linux in my freetime. I searched the web and came across EasyBCD and installed everything using the step by step process found here Ubuntu - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki . I follwed everthing step by step and it looked like everything went successful until I booted over to linux. I got a message saying something along the lines of reedit the partition table with a compatible microsoft fdisk error 82. So anyone know what happened and what I can do to fix it? I would be very much appreciated if you could help me out, I tried talking to people in IRC #ubuntu about this, but they were rude and unsupportive bashing EasyBCD.
 
Hello NASAchusetts and Welcome to NeoSmart Technologies!

Honestly this is the first time i have seen this issue. What fily system did you use with the Ubuntu partition? Did you go with raiserfs? Maybe you should try the default ext2 instead? Since it is a older file system and you are using a older drive? Maybe that would work?

Mahmoud would have to answer this since i dont have a clue why this would come about.

Nice to see support from the OpenSource Community. Grated they dont like it cause it allows OpenSource to be controled by a Microsoft based product instead of GRUB. Usually Ubuntu Community is very supportive....
 
I did use raiserfs. The drive that has Ubuntu is an older IDE drive and the other OS's are on an SATA drive, not sure if that really matters. Here is what things are like right now:
There are a total of 3 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 10 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #3

Name: NeoSmart Linux
BCD ID: {e26a750b-cde4-11dc-a8d2-00e04d1018e4}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\NeoGrub.mbr


And


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {06287e80-7f84-11dc-bd36-e6175f68ed52}
resumeobject {06287e81-7f84-11dc-bd36-e6175f68ed52}
displayorder {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
{06287e80-7f84-11dc-bd36-e6175f68ed52}
{e26a7508-cde4-11dc-a8d2-00e04d1018e4}
{e26a750b-cde4-11dc-a8d2-00e04d1018e4}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 10

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {06287e80-7f84-11dc-bd36-e6175f68ed52}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {06287e81-7f84-11dc-bd36-e6175f68ed52}
nx OptIn

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {e26a750b-cde4-11dc-a8d2-00e04d1018e4}
device partition=D:
path \NST\NeoGrub.mbr
description NeoSmart Linux

Hope that helps.
 
Hello NASAchusetts, welcome to NST.

I'm pretty surprised to hear about the Ubuntu IRC thing - NeoSmart Technologies has had some amazing support coming in from the Ubuntu Forums and community and consider them to be great friends. We've contributed code to their project (with respect to certain aspects of dealing with the Vista bootloader, no less) and they're constantly referring new dual-booters our way and giving what help they can at ubuntuforums.org

(IRC is, generally speaking, not the best place to ask for help :smile:)

We recently updated the Ubuntu pictorial, and no longer recommend the use of ReiserFS because of a bug in the Ubuntu installer: Ubuntu's Buggy Support for non-ext3fs Partitions The NeoSmart Files

Did you follow the new instructions or the old ones? The new instructions install GRUB to the bootsector, the old ones to the MBR.
 
I was following the old instructions using the reiserfs way of doing it. I will give it a shot with those new instructions and let you know how it went. As for #ubuntu, it seemed that some people were trying to help me but I couldn't really follow along because the channel must have been flooded with people who weren't ops and just bored so they were just being jerks. Thanks for all the help!
 
OK followed the directions but now when I boot over to ubuntu it says that it could not load the BOOTMGR. I followed everything from these directions Ubuntu - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki. However, there were a few things I ran into that confused me though. In step 3 , you say to use the "ext3fs", but I only saw "ext3" I assumed it was the same thing so I went with that, and then on the smaller partition I made that the swap. Then when I click advanced I was still unsure of what to type in for hd# so I put the number of the main ubuntu partition there. You had 2 numbers separated by a comma, do I have to do the same with the ubuntu partition and the swap partition? When it came to BCD I chose the main ubuntu partition when adding to the list but do I have to check "GRUB isn't installed to the bootsector" before adding?
 
Can anyone help me out any further? Do I just have to keep playing around with settings until it will boot? Also, if I reboot my PC to the Vista side it takes very long to start up I would say 7-10min. It used to boot up right away, did I screw up somewhere?
 
Okay well yes you are right. "ext3fs" is just ext3. The "fs" at the end stands for File System.

Yes you will have to use the 2 numbers seperated by the comma. If not it will jsut install it to the root of the drive instead of where you want it.

As for the rest Mahmoud will have to direct you. I am sure that the Wiki has all this already calrified as much as we can on our side. If you used the ext3 file system i am sure you dont have to check the box. As that was added because the original instructions were to use the raiserfs which doesnt support GRUB being loaded elsewhere. Since you are using GRUB and laoding it on the Ubuntu partition you should not have to check that box.

As for the boot. I couldnt tell you. When i added Ubuntu my Vista boots just fine. What have you added to Vista since last time that could cause this?
 
OK followed the directions but now when I boot over to ubuntu it says that it could not load the BOOTMGR. I followed everything from these directions Ubuntu - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki. However, there were a few things I ran into that confused me though. In step 3 , you say to use the "ext3fs", but I only saw "ext3" I assumed it was the same thing so I went with that, and then on the smaller partition I made that the swap. Then when I click advanced I was still unsure of what to type in for hd# so I put the number of the main ubuntu partition there. You had 2 numbers separated by a comma, do I have to do the same with the ubuntu partition and the swap partition? When it came to BCD I chose the main ubuntu partition when adding to the list but do I have to check "GRUB isn't installed to the bootsector" before adding?

The two numbers separated by a comma are the drive and the partition; not two different partitions

(hdx,y) ----> hard drive x, partition y
You need to have two numbers.
 
As for the boot. I couldnt tell you. When i added Ubuntu my Vista boots just fine. What have you added to Vista since last time that could cause this?

I installed EasyBCD and TweakVI. Maybe I pressed something in TweakVI that messed something up so I will restore everything and see if that helps out.
 
Turns out it was that old hard drive I found laying around that slowed down the boot time. I'm guessing maybe the hard drive is too old to work with so I'll try the Ubuntu triple boot sometime in the future. Thanks for everyone's support.
 
Alright. I have gotten rid of that old slow harddrive. I shrunk down one of my brand new backup harddrives to try it out again. After doing everything step by step from the Wiki, I get this message when I try to boot into Ubuntu:

BootPart 2.60 Bootsector (c) 1993-2005 Griles Vollant BootPart
Loading new partition
Bootsector from C.H. Hochstätter
Cannot load from harddisk.
Insert Systemdisk and press any key.

Here are some screenshots I took showing exactly what I have done.




Those were the right numbers to stick in there right?
After it was finished, I went over to BCD and did this
bcdzp7.jpg

capturerh5.jpg


Anybody know what I did wrong?
 
I'm being told by my friends on the Ubuntu dev team that perhaps it is more reliable if you enter something like "/dev/hdc2" into the "Device for boot loader installation" prompt instead of "(hd0,1)" or whatnot. Care to give that shot?
 
OK, I will try that out. Does it matter that I am using the 64 bit ver. of Vista? Also, Vista is installed on a SATA drive and Ubuntu on an IDE drive, so would that have anything to do with it?
 
64-bit is not an issue... but the IDE/SATA confusion is what caused the error above. Linux and non-Vista versions of Windows are notorious for having dual-boot issues when used in a mixed HD controller environment. SCSI and SATA get along well, but those two don't mix well at all with IDE controllers.

Supposedly using the /dev/sd* notation will solve that issue since Ubuntu interprets that as the drive/partition combo, instead of expecting you to guess it yourseslf.

Take a look at Drive Letters and Numbers - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki for more info on this topic....
 
I am still getting the cannot load from harddisk. To avoid IDE and SATA confusion, I even shrunk my main SATA drive Vista is on and tried installing it on the same drive with the same message. I'm not sure why it isn't loading, I scanned the Ubuntu disk for problems but it is clean. ??? I'm not sure what else I could try.
 
After re-installing Ubuntu (and telling it to install GRUB to another location), did you re-create the EasyBCD Linux entry?
 
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