A day in the life of a Windows 7 user...

Anyone ever had a problem like this:

Earlier today, I said, "What the hell... I think I'll go with a dual boot and install Ubuntu." I went the way of Wubi.

I have an unused 32GB SSD that I thought would be prime for the Ubuntu installation. Also, as far as disks go, I have a RAID 0 with 2 64GB SSDs, a 1TB drive with media, and a 320GB drive partitioned for user profiles and games on the other.

The Wubi installation went great. Got to the point where I had to reboot and did as such.

At startup, I selected Ubuntu from the boot menu, saw the splash screen and black screen! I'm like, WTF? I'm not one for stuff going bad before I even get a chance to even run it, so I was like, "This $#!t is getting off my computer right now!" So, I hit the restart button and selected Windows 7 from the menu. Got all the way to the user login screen, selected my account, input my password, and got a message that the user account service could not be started! I'm starting to get a little upset now. I hit the reset button again and at the RAID console screen noticed that a message stated that an array was offline! After rebooting again, so I could hit the buttons to enter the RAID console, I somehow had a new array -- one that I had not created. It was a RAID 0 with a size of 640GB! It seems, somehow, that the 32GB SSD was mistaken for a 320GB drive and the RAID controller was looking for this phantom 320GB drive to add it to the array with the already installed 320GB drive! I don't know how in Hell this happened!

I shut my PC down cut the power from the wall, waited about 30 seconds and plugged it back in and fired it back up. At the RAID console screen, the phantom 640GB RAID array was not listed. Cool. However, when I tried to log into my account again, same problem as before--user account service could not be started. (I'm ready to break something now)

Had to leave to pick my girls up from school.

When I got home, the first thing I did was to remove the 32GB SSD. I then put the Windows 7 install disk in the drive and booted from disc. Since I have a RAID setup, I had to load the drivers so that Windows Repair could find the installation. Loaded the drivers and got a error message that the disk could not be found! DAMN! Rebooted from the disc again and this time the drivers loaded fine and the Windows installation was found. Restored my computer back to the recent restore point and here I am -- able to use my Windows 7 yet again.

It's working good, but I still feel that I need to break someting to let off this built up anxiety and anger

Erm, Interesting - I also recently loaded Ubuntu 10.04 x64 onto one of my systems using WUBI. A short while later I had the User Profile .... error. At the time I just put it down to coincidence, but your experience has me wondering. Will have to monitor the situation and will post back if this becomes a regular thing

With as many people I see that dual boot with Ubuntu, I wonder if it is a Wubi anomoly only...

Next time you want to install Ubuntu (a real Ubuntu, not Wubi) on your 32GB SSD I suggest you disconnect all other disks during that installation. Then you get a completely independent installation to which you can switch with the BIOS boot sequence. I found this to be the easist solution to avoid trouble. And the day you want to get rid of it, you don't have to worry about MBRs or Grub. You just make a quick reformat on the 32GB SSD.

Interesting I used to dual boot with Ubuntu(wubi) it setup and ran perfectly, would like to know why yours doesn't

whs said:

Next time you want to install Ubuntu (a real Ubuntu, not Wubi) on your 32GB SSD I suggest you disconnect all other disks during that installation. Then you get a completely independent installation to which you can switch with the BIOS boot sequence. I found this to be the easist solution to avoid trouble. And the day you want to get rid of it, you don't have to worry about MBRs or Grub. You just make a quick reformat on the 32GB SSD.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've done it that way before but wanted to see what the Wubi hype was about. :)