(Another) 0xC000025 error

[cello]

Hello all,
I've searched and searched through these forums and still cannot figure out what to do.

The details:
I had Windows 7 (not sure whether it's 32 or 64 bit as this is a company computer) installed on my computer. When booting into Windows, there were, I believe, already 5 partitions:

1. A 300 meg SYSTEM partition
2. A 220 gig Windows partition
3. An unallocated x gig partition for installation of linux.
4. A 15 gig (yes you read that correctly) "repair" partition by the friendly people at HP.
5. Another 2 gig partition allowing me to access my BIOS from within Windows (why I would want to do this I have no idea)

Now, I was interested in installing Ubuntu Linux 10.10 32-bit on the 3rd partition, so I rebooted using the live cd and prepared that partition for install. However, Linux couldn't really see the 4th and 5th partitions, so I decided (probably stupidly) to just install it into the "unknown partition" of size X+17 gigs. This may have been the source of the subsequent problem.

On reboot, I was prompted with a typical GRUB setup, though strangely there were two options to boot windows (on /sda2 and /sda3). These probably correspond to the SYSTEM and the actual bootable windows 7 partition. Nonetheless, both options fail with a 0xC0000225 BSOD. I cannot start windows in safe mode or recovery mode or any of those things.


What I've tried:

1. I've read some of these forums and noticed that I can use a generic Windows 7 recovery disk (hosted at neosmart.net). I downloaded and tried both the 32 and 64 bit versions to no avail. In both situations they cannot see my C: drive. For example, if I go into the command prompt and type C:, it says something like "no drive mounted with that letter".
2. Upon going to linux, everything is fine. I can see my hard drive and its contents fine if I mount /sda3.
3. I've tried "checking the disk" on the linux side in gparted - no problem.
4. I've tried looking for whether ACPI is enabled on the BIOS - this was likely an act of desperation...

The only assumption I can make is that some sort of active flag has been removed from my C: drive causing it to be unknown to Windows and known to Ubuntu...?

Thanks in advance.

 

[theog]

Take a look at this post:
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/136381-windows-7-recovery-problem.html

 

[cello]

I'm not sure what you mean from that post. I can't boot into windows in order to convert the disk to a basic one. I can't run anything other than what's offered by the system recovery disk or linux. Can you give me a few pointers? Much appreciated.

 

[cello]

Well, I'm in Partition Wizard, but I'm not sure what to do.

 

[cello]

Wonderful.... I just used "Repair MBR," and now when I reboot I get "Non-System disk or disk error."

Please help!!

 

[cello]

This is absurd. Why would "repairing" the MBR cause this sort of damage to the computer. Using this link Non-System disk or disk error | Computer does not boot doesn't work since there now is no more fixmbr command in Windows 7, at least apparently. I'm relatively computer savvy but I am completely stumped on this one.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

First boot to diskpart and use Option Two #3 in the second tutorial to see if the Windows partition is marked as "Active" if not, make it so; then do the startup repairs to see if this will get it booting.


DISKPART : At PC Startup

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

 

[cello]

Ok, this time I'm going to be very careful and ask many questions, so I hope you don't mind! I've decided to instead use MiniTool Partition Wizard to mark the partition(s) as active. The issue is that I do not know which ones to mark active, since there is both a SYSTEM and my typical Windows NTFS partition. The System one is 300MB and the other one is a 200 gigs or so.

Thanks for replying

 

[gregrocker]

GRUB can corrupt Win7 and make it irreparable when on the same HD. We see it all the time here.

If you can't repair Win7 using the standard method of marking it's partition Active then running 3 Startup Repairs with reboots, then it's likely it is corrupted beyond repair. You'll need to wipe the GRUB corruption off the HD and clean reinstall Win7 from DVD or use Factory Recovery disks if you want the pre-installed bloatware.

Are you able to install Linux to a separate HD to boot either via the BIOS as this is by far the best method.

 

[cello]

Ok, sorry for the previous hasty remarks. I'm now in diskpart, which is a nice little utility, and is showing me stuff that is likely useful for debugging.

Here we go. First off, when I do list disk, it shows:
Disk## Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
disk 0 Invalid 298GB 0B *

select disk 0
list partition
Partition 1 is "Dynamic Data", size is 992KB at offset 31KB (interesting I guess they don't use the first 31 kb)
Partition 2 is "Dynamic Data", size is 300MB at offset 1024KB
Partition 3 is "Dynamic Data", size is 212GB at offset 301MB
Partition 4 is "Primary", size is 85GB, offset is 212GB.

Note that Partition 3 should be the Windows partition, Partition 4 is the Linux partition, and the fact that all first three partitions are "Dynamic Data" is troublesome - I recall someone mentioning that the disk should be in basic not dynamic mode. The other obvious troublesome aspect is that the status is "invalid."

Let me know what to do next. Thanks!

 

[gregrocker]

You must have selected to convert to Dynamic in order to create the fourth partition for Linux.

You'll need to convert the HD back to Basic: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html?ltr=C

If you can find version 4.2 of free Partition Wizard, it still has conversion included in the free version and is the only non-destructive way to convert. Back up your data anyway if you can access it: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93347-copy-paste-windows-recovery-console.html

If Win7 won't start after conversion, make sure it is marked Active using Partition Wizard CD, then run Startup Repair from the DVD/Repair CD repeatedly with reboots to try to start it.

 

[cello]

OK, re converting the disk from dynamic to basic, I have "paid" for the Professional edition of Partition Wizard. Upon clicking on "Bootable CD" in the professional edition, I get redirected to a page which simply tells me how to download the free one. I downloaded that (located here: Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online) and when I try to use it the dynamic to basic conversion is grayed out.

Am I missing something?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I just tested this in VirtualBox and it will convert a Dynamic disk to Basic with the Partition Wizard 4.2 installed to Windows 7 and it requires a system reboot to complete the process.

I don't know how to go about it if you can't boot to Windows to start with.


See the link in THIS post.

 

[gregrocker]

I would email Partition Wizard support to ask how to get the feature you paid for supplied on bootable disk.

Otherwise I'd move the HD to another computer, install PW 4.2 then do the conversion based on BFK's test which worked from Windows.

 

[cello]

So it appears as if there is nothing I can do? By the way, by making the 3rd partition "Active" I now no longer have the "No bootable disk" problem at startup, but windows still has a BSOD.