Boot loader problems

[Undeadish]

Hi.

Recently I decided that I wanted to dual boot Ubuntu. Partitionated my secondary harddrive for linux. Went through the process until I got to the installation point, where my dog ran over my power cable and the installation messed up. Now I have an incomplete installation of Ubuntu along with my Windows 7 installation, and my boatloader has changed to GRUB.

The problem is, that I want to delete the partition with the unfinished ubuntu installation, but doing so will delete GRUB aswell, leaving me with no bootloader.

I googled a bit, and found that I need to restore the original bootloader using my Windows 7 installation disc before deleting the partition.

I do not have the CD.


Is there any solution?

Thanks

 

[osholt]

Hi I think you can fix this problem by opening an elevated command prompt in Windows 7 and typing "bcdboot %WinDir% /l en-US" without the quotes (assuming You are happy with your boot loader in English, if not try what ever your Native language's short code is instead of en-US).

Hopefully this will allow you to get the Windows boot loader back and remove the unwanted partition safely.

For more info on bcdboot please take a look at BCDboot Command-Line Options.

Oli

 

[Jonathan_King]

You can create a CD, actually: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

 

[Undeadish]

Hi, thanks for your replies.

So I can either use the elevated command prompt or create a system repair disc.
Should I fix the bootloader before I delete the partitions or the other way around?

Thanks.

 

[Jonathan_King]

I suggest doing a startup repair first. That's the easiest method.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[gregrocker]

As long as WIn7 is marked Active, Startup Repair will repair or write the MBR back onto it when run up to 3 times with reboots.

However it is best to wipe the GRUB off of the HD first as it can interfere. Use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to Wipe (GRUB) Partition with at least one set of zeros.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

 

[Saltgrass]

The bootsect.exe command should restore the Win 7 boot.

Put the Install DVD in the drive and then type the following in an administrative command window. The drive letter should be that of your DVD drive.

D:\boot\bootsect /nt60 all

See this Microsoft site..

 

[Undeadish]

Hi everyone, thanks for your posts, it's greatly appreciated!

The multiple answers (which I really appreciate) has made me a bit confused...

I am going to do this, is it the right way?

1) I burned a repair disc. I'm going to stick it in and boot from that.
2) Go to the administrative command prompt and put in either "E:\boot\bootsect /nt60 all" or "bcdboot %WinDir% /l da-DK"
3) Now I am no longer using the GRUB bootloader, and am capable of booting using the default Windows bootloader.
4) Delete the partition with failed the Ubuntu installation on.
5) Create a new partition on my secondary drive.
6) Download | Ubuntu - use this to install ubuntu to the partition on the secondary drive (looks like installing it this way will not install GRUB)
7) Done


Is this correct?

Thanks for your time, you're really helping out a windows noob here!

 

[osholt]

Yes, that should work fine.

Just make sure to make a backup of your system just incase something goes horribly wrong (it's happened to me before!) but the chances of something going horribly wrong aren't that high.

It may be worth mentioning that there is an automated repair my PC option on the recovery disk which may (or may not, I'm not sure in this case) fix the boot loader for you, it's worth running anyway to see if it finds anything and fixes it.

It's the first one on the list of recovery options when you boot into the disk.

If you want to install Ubuntu uninvasively you may want to consider using Wubi.

Oli

 

[Undeadish]

Hi, thank you for your post.

I am going to do the steps I mentioned and then use Wubi.

Thanks

 

[osholt]

Hi, thank you for your post.

I am going to do the steps I mentioned and then use Wubi.

Thanks

You're welcome, post back when you're done.

Oli

 

[Undeadish]

Process completed and working. Thanks everybody who replied.

 

[osholt]

Process completed and working. Thanks everybody who replied.

I'm glad it worked well.

I give the following explanation to all new members so if you already know the following I apologise in advance. It explains how to mark threads as solved etc.

To the top right of this post you will see 3 icons. An orange (+), a set of scales and a red and white warning triangle.

The orange (+) or blue (-) denotes whether a user is on or offline (orange = on, blue = off).

The scales are used to give rep points; click this button if someone has helped you significantly or solved your queries (only give this to posts that you think really deserve it).

The red and white warning triangle is used to denote either an abusive post OR to mark a thread as solved (just put solved in the box that comes up and the admins or moderators will mark it solved).

I'll mark this thread solved this time.

Oli