99 replies to this topic

[Saquar]

Its my older brother and its the family business. He's pretty good at computers, except he installs a lot of unnecessary things. If he can't fix something in under 5 minutes he'll usually give up, which is where I come in.

None of the volumes are spanned, stripped, mirrored or part of a RAID set. They are all simple volumes.

I should probably mention that there is a second hard drive that my brother cloned onto this one, but its irrelevant as its going to be removed. It was supposed to be removed prior to my brother installing linux and grub4dos on this computer as it was on the verge of a hardware failure. There's nothing important on it.

I have a Vista Recovery Disk, it hasn't helped with the current problem but will it work as a boot disk?

[Wonko the Sane]

Sure, the Vista boot cd/dvd has the minimal tool eventually needed.

If you are sure that what you had before were two partitions, NTFS formatted, you can try :

parttype (hd0,0) 07

[ENTER]

and follow with:

geometry (hd0)

[ENTER]
which should hopefully get as feedback:

partition num: 0, filesystem type is ntfs, partition type 0x7

and then:

find /

[TAB]
and post output.

If you find with the above last command a "bootmgr" file listed, try:

chainloader /bootmgr

[ENTER]


Wonko

[Saquar]

ok, I typed find / and got :

Possible files are :$WINDOWS.~Q .rnd autoexec.bat Boot bootmgr BOOTSECT.bak config.sys Documents_and_Setttings EPSONREG FINIS_IT.TXT grldr hiberfil.sys hp pagefile.sys Program_Files ProgramData RHDSetup.log Shared System_Volume_Information Temp Users Windows $AVGB.VAULT$ $INPLACE.~TR $Recycle.Bin

I typed Chainloader /bootmgr and got:
Will boot NTLDR from drive=0x80, partition=0x0(hidden sectors=0x3f )

it then gives me the grub prompt

what next?

EDIT: nevermind, I restarted the computer and vista booted.

Wonko, you are simply fantastic. Thanks so much for all your help and patience

[tinybit]

I typed Chainloader /bootmgr and got:
Will boot NTLDR from drive=0x80, partition=0x0(hidden sectors=0x3f )

it then gives me the grub prompt

what next?

type one more command of boot, this will do.

EDIT: never mind, I restarted the computer and vista booted.

good. Thank you for feed back.

Wonko, you are simply fantastic. Thanks so much for all your help and patience.

You may click the "thanks" button around Wonko's post.

[Wonko the Sane]

Wonko, you are simply fantastic. Thanks so much for all your help and patience

Only too happy to have contributed to another happy bunny!
http://www.msfn.org/...artup/?p=828512


Wonko

[Book Reader]

I have a similar problem can someone please help I am lost.
Thanks for any help.

[Book Reader]

It says Error 17 Cannot mount selected partition
How do I use grub commandline to fix this problem
Please help.

[Wonko the Sane]

It says Error 17 Cannot mount selected partition
How do I use grub commandline to fix this problem
Please help.

I need some more details.

• HOW was the drive partitioned/formatted BEFORE you did whatever you did?
• WHAT you did?
• WHICH OS was running?
• WHICH version of grub4dos (or GRUB) is it? (it is usually visible once accessing the command line in the top of the screen)

Just follow the initial posts.

You need to press "c" to access command line and at it type:

root (

and press the [TAB] key.

Post the result (feedback on command line grub4dos gives you).

This way we will know which devices grub4dos sees.

You should have at least one "hd" device.

If yes, try :

geometry (h

and press the [TAB] key.
Line should autocomplete to either "root (hd0" or "root (hd" and you can add to it the 0 - once you have the "full" line:

geometry (hd0)

press the [ENTER] key.
Post the result of the command.


Wonko

[doolally]

hi, want to apologize in advance just in case someone has already asked this in regards to this specific post but i believe i checked and im sort of in the clear.. with that said.........
heres my dilemma, my "IT" guy came by yesterday and basically discombobulated my vista os.. he was doing something with the boot and managed to install some prog... feeling like he made a booboo, he tried correcting it with grub....so, im stuck. ive done all suggestions listed in these 4 pages, but im afraid to say im still stuck.. what all should i post ? please please please help.. before i end up dismembering my IT guy.. i appreciate it


update>> ive followed instructions and got to where it boots, i.e; loading windows files, etc... HOWEVER it takes me to my emachines recovery management which asks me "how would you like to restore?" and only 1 of 2 options available, the unclickable "restore system from factory default" or "exit" .. ugh.. any suggestions?

Edited by doolally, 30 June 2011 - 06:02 PM.

[steve6375]

buy a hatchet and a bin bag...

(or boot from a Vista Recovery DVD and run 'Repair')

[doolally]

already got 'em, but thanks! quick question; cant find grbldr anywhere in root menu.. could that b affecting my crappy results?
oh yeah and my vista dvd never gave me a repair option. my pos desktop didnt come with os dvd so when my nephew riddled my system with multiple viri, i had to use a dowloaded version because emachines wanted me to buy a new os outright. tried using a borrowed genuine vista dvd but because it was a home extreme ultimate version or whatever and i just had home basic, i was sol.

Edited by doolally, 30 June 2011 - 06:25 PM.

[steve6375]

Any Vista DVD should be able to Repair a Vista OS - just don't install with it.

[doolally]

great, basically go borrow another vista disc? im confused, so what about grub? it still is acting as my bootthingymabob

[steve6375]

you tell me - what do you see on the screen? I suspect that your active partition is now the recovery partition. What happens when you get to the Recovery menu and then hit SHIFT+F10?
Do you get a Windows console?

[doolally]

nope no windows console, tried to get it to boot to hd0,1 and it told me the files are corrupt and could not load, with a blinking cursor and froze. no option to bloody repair or create a new partition in the install, bootmgr is jank. thanks for ur input anyway sorry to have wasted any time

[Ravisoni]

Hi,
I am having same problem on Windows 7 and after performing all steps as per solution provided above, I am still stuck at below message:
grub > chainloader /bootmgr

Error 1 : Filename must be either an absolute pathname or blocklist


I am able to list bootmgr file under (hd0,0) partition and stil getting above error.

Any help would be really appreciable.

[steve6375]

try

find
root (hd0,0)
ls /bootmgr
chainloader /bootmgr

report back what you see...

[Wonko the Sane]

Hi,
I am having same problem on Windows 7 and after performing all steps as per solution provided above, I am still stuck at below message:

NO.
THis thread was started by a user that had a problem.
That specific problem was diagnosed, and then, solved.
Other people assumed they had the same problem (that they mostly had not) and senselessly tried the same solution whith either success or failure AND senselessly posted on this thread.
Thus in this thread there are more different problems reported and more than one solution provided.
You are assuming to have the same (WHICH one) problem and you say you performed steps for the above solution (WHICH one)?

Start by posting some DETAILED info on the symptoms and on your setup, how it happened, etc., see Standard Litany:
http://homepage.ntlw...ard-litany.html
Posting the EXACT version of grub4dos would also be useful.

Right now you are in the "I'm ill, doctor. Help!" situation .


Wonko

[Wonko the Sane]

First thing, DON'T PANIC (imagine that to be written in large, friendly letters .

 

Second thing the:

 

1. Win 7

2. Ubuntu

 

was NOT shown by the BIOS, you must have installed a bootloader/bootmanager of some kind to have those two choices when you installed  the Ubuntu (I presume) after the Windows 7.

 

Third thing, whatever happened may have happened "suddenly" but only after you installed the "SLIC loader" which is a way to work around Windows Activation.

 

Your best option is to boot from a Windows 7 DVD (or USB stick with it) and repair the booting sequence.

Before that you may try choosing the "Grub command line" and in it run:

find --set root /bootmgr
root
chainloader /bootmgr
boot

report what happens.

 

Wonko

[Wonko the Sane]

My bad (typo):

Quote
find --set-root /bootmgr
root
chainloader /bootmgr
boot

it is dash dash set dash root

But it is strange that the root command by itself did not return anything .

Try again with the above commands.

You can also try running a:

geometry (hd0)

and report the feedback

Wonko

[Wonko the Sane]

Well, I am interested in the output of each single command, just to make sure that:
1) a BOOTMGR is actually found
2) itis actually a copy of the Windows BOOTMGR (and not *another* file renamed).
3) it is actually chainloaded and the reboot is not due to a BOOTMGR related error? <- try as soon as you press [ENTER] after having typed the boot command to press quickly and repeatedly F8

Are you sure that the output of the geometry command is correct?
I doubt that you managed to install UBUNTU on a NTFS partition

The output of the command is saying that you have on that disk:

• 2 primary partitions/volumes
• 3 logical volumes inside extended

ALL of them NTFS.

Do you remember how EXACTLY the PC was setup before? (i.e. which partition had which files, etc.)

In order to boot the UBUNTU (which i have to presume was loaded though GRUB2) it should be a matter of finding the GRUB2 core.img file, which is usually on /boot/grub

Try on each volume (i.e. looping through n=0,1,4,5,6):
root (hd0,n)
ls
ls /boot/ <- only if "boot" is listed in the above
ls /boot/grub <- only if "grub" is listed in the above


Wonko