Windows Vista not booting

These are the similar threads to my issue but I couldn't figure out where to go half way through them and need some help pin pointing what exactly is wrong and the steps to take to fix it.

Here is one of the similar posts that brought me here to post for reference. http://reboot.pro/to...b4dos-error-17/

Some information regarding the computer in question. Its not my computer and it was setup to be used for business. The operating system wasn't updating so they did an upgrade from Vista Home to Vista Ultimate which fixed the upgrading part. Then malware/crack happened.

Its a desktop computer. Asus brand maker that had Windows Vista Home installed on it. It was recently upgraded to Windows Ultimate. Someone decided it was a good idea to run a Vista ultimate crack from pirate bay and when rebooting afterwards the computer failed to load Windows Vista, displayed the error 17 msg and dumped into Grub4dos prompt. I've tried windows repair but they computer is not finding the hard drive and windows partitions that would need fixed or corrected. I would like to repair the windows boot on this machine and then purchase an official valid license afterwards so they can avoid crashing it again. I don't think the hard drive went bad, but some software has certainly been corrupted/messed up on it or the bios that is causing issues.

From what I can see this computer has 1 sata hard drive installed. The number of partitions on it I am not exactly sure if it was 1 or 2 or even 3 partitions. It probably shouldn't have more than 2 at max i guess and only 1 partition might be possible. I'm hoping I can get some help on figuring that out.

Anyways, here is what I'm seeing on the screen for reference. .

Booting Windows Vista
acpi

vista loader 2.1.2

Done

Fallback 1

Find--set-root /bootmgr

error 17: file not found

Booting 'Windows NT/2000/XP'

Fallback 2

Find--set-root /ntldr

error 17: file not found

Booting 'Enter Command Line

Boot Failed! Press any key to enter command line. 

Pressing a key brings me to Grub4dos 0.4.3 2007-03-13
grub> 




From here I put in

grub>geometry (hd0)

What was put out was this

Drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=16383/255/163, Sector Count/Size= 625142448/512

Partition Number 0, Filesystem type unknown, Partition type 0x27
Partition Number 0, Filesystem type unknown, Partition type 0x6

Partition Number 0, Filesystem type is ntfs,      Partition type 0x7
 

From here I did some Root (hd0,0) , (hd0,1), (hd0,2) and got really confused there on how to proceed. I know everyone's hard drives and partitions can vary so I've held off and am looking for instructions from someone with the right experience and expertise on the subject. This is my first time posting and I couldn't find any specific posting rules or guidelines so if I missed something please accept my apologies but i couldn't find where they are posted yesterday. 

Anyways thank you for your time and consideration. Hopefully we can fix this. 

Here you have an issue similar to these examples:

http://reboot.pro/to...ta-not-booting/

http://reboot.pro/to...file-not-found/

If you compare the above with your report:

Drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=16383/255/163, Sector Count/Size= 625142448/512

Partition Number 0, Filesystem type unknown, Partition type 0x27
Partition Number 0, Filesystem type unknown, Partition type 0x6
Partition Number 0, Filesystem type is ntfs, Partition type 0x7

 

Of course you did some copy and paste after having typed the first entry, as they would be:

Partition Number 0, ...

Partition Number 1, ...

Partition Number 2, ...

Now the first partition is type 0x27 which corresponds to a "hidden" partition (which is not "recognized" by grub4dos) this is "normal" or "common", usually on OEM laptops it is a "recovery" partition of some kind.

The second one is most probably one of the "normal" partitions of the PC that should have a partition ID of 0x07 (NTFS) but that have been overwritten with a partition ID of 0x06 (FAT16, CHS mapped).

If you confirm that the list you posted has the numbering above AND that you had originally on that PC 2 visible NTFS partitions, the situation is the same as in this post:

http://reboot.pro/to...ooting/?p=45689

You can try to issue a command:

parttype (hd0,1) 0x07

[ENTER]

and then run again

geometry (hd0)

If (as it should) you get:

Drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=16383/255/163, Sector Count/Size= 625142448/512

Partition Number 0, Filesystem type unknown, Partition type 0x27
Partition Number 1, Filesystem type ntfs, Partition type0x7
Partition Number 2, Filesystem type is ntfs, Partition type 0x7

 

continue entering:

root (hd0,1)

[ENTER]

chainloader /boot

[TAB]

it should autocomplete to "chainloader /bootmgr", if it does press [ENTER]

You should get a message like "Will boot NTLDR from drive=0x80, partition=0x0(hidden sectors=0x3f)", if you get it type:

boot

[ENTER]

Report what happens.

Wonko

Followed your instructions exactly and it booted right into Windows Vista after that last boot command with no data or settings lost. You were right about the sloppy copy pasta I did and forgetting to change the numbers to 0,1, and 2. I am truly lucky and grateful that you still check these boards and post here.


Thank you so much for your help.

Good , another happy bunny:

http://www.msfn.org/...artup/?p=828512

Wonko