Destroyed BCD with Linux Mint

[TommyW126]

Hi!

I installed Linux Mint on my external HDD. Worked fine. Booted Linux when external HDD was plugged in, Win7 when not. Unfortunately at one point Linux Mint updated its kernel headers and I suppose it made an update to Grub with this. => no boot to Win7 although all data was still there.
I tried a Win7 recovery cd image via USB-Stick (no cd drive available) => no windows found.
I tried bootrec, bootsect, but that did not help ("element not found").
There was a drive E: with 100mb which held a /boot folder.
C: (with win7 on it) did not.
I tried diskpart for activating partitions etc.
Nothing worked.
Someone suggested "sudo update-grub" in linux mint (still worked if plugged in). That one found windows and it looked like it was making an entry for it (beneath diverse linux mint options).
Next restart brought only a grub-console, but no boot options. => no linux either now.
I restartet using USB-Win7 recovery. Now the 100mb partition is gone (I suppose thats ok, since I sat it to hidden+boot in gparted), all the drive letters are wildly assigned in diskpart and I do not know what to do now.

Thx for any help, Tommy

 

[Maguscreed]

Linux has obviously grabbed complete control over your boot process. If you are going to fix this I have a feeling you'll have more luck on the linux forums than here.

Though I personally only deal with linux when I have too. It's possible some people here are different.

 

[TommyW126]

Yeah, I also posted there. But I do not suppose them to know how to repair the Win7 boot (wanna remove Linux, does not support my printer - and now it does not do anything anymore either)

 

[brianzion]

hi there
look at this thread i posted in and go to POST 11 this may help you ok. http://www.sevenforums.com/virtuali...eep-grub-boot-loader-over-taking-windows.html

you need to repair the MBR (Master Boot Record) with a rescue disc have a look at brinks tutorial to save me typing it all in
How to Boot to the System Recovery Options in Windows 7 (method 2)
:ar:http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

HOW TO MANUALY REPAIR WINDOWS BOOT LOADER PROBLEMS
:ar:http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/how-to-manually-repair-windows-7-boot-loader-problems/



How to Boot to the Advanced Boot Options in Windows 7
:ar:http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html


UNPLUG THE DRIVE WITH LINUX ON

 

[TommyW126]

The first link maybe would have helped, but now I can only boot the Win7 recovery CD. No Linux, no Win7.
Second link: Recovery CD does not find Win7, so no automatic recovery is available.
bootrec /fixboot gives "element not found". scanos option finds the partition holding Win7 (actually D. But repairbcd option gives "element not found"
Third link: there is no boot manager anymore. Just "grub>". Console! No Grub-Menu.

 

[brianzion]

my MBR in windows was destroyed when i was running kubuntu on another drive i used the repair disc and it fixed mine ok. and i was able to boot in to windows 7. my advice to every one installing linux when running windows 7 is DONT RUN IT WITH WUBI ON THE SAME DISC KEEP IT ON A SEPARATE DRIVE AWAY FROM WINDOWS. SO YOU CAN BOOT MANUALLY.

 

[brianzion]

i think in your case you are going to need the windows 7 instillation disc or the one you make when you get the machine.

 

[brianzion]

have a look at this program MBRWizard 3.0.46 beta / 1.53 :ar: Download MBRWizard 3.0.46 beta / 1.53 Free - A Master Boot Record management tool - Softpedia

Dual Boot
Last but not least, MBRWizard provides functionality to help solve most issues caused by experimenting with Linux or dual boot scenarios, as well as providing assistance with repairing MBR partition entries after recovering a disk image or virus strike.

homepage :ar: MBRWizard! - The MBR Management Utility

 

[TommyW126]

No, I do not want a complete Win7 reinstall. The data is still on the drive, although it is E: now. Thus it must be possible somehow to tell the machine to boot that? Because I do not have a CD-Drive. The (legal) Win7-image is on the HDD anyway, and so there is no way to bring it to an usb-stick again. (Did that for Win7 install from Win XP, but formatted the stick after installing).

Edit: wrote this before last post by you

 

[brianzion]

i did not mean a re-install on the installation disc you can recover windows in a repair with it. brinks tutorials explain all this.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html

 

[brianzion]

if you could get into the elevated cmd promt you could repair the MBR using a repair disc

Type "Bootcfg /?" (minus the quotes) in the Start/Run line to see the commands available that way. Note that the /Rebuild command isn't available from inside Windows; you can only run that from within the Recovery Console. (That makes sense because you only need to totally rebuild the boot information when Windows won't start normally.)
A /List command is also available only from within Recovery Console. It simply lists the entries already in the boot list, which can be useful for checking or as a learning tool.

 

[pparks1]

My suggestion to everybody who wants to play around with Linux and see what it is all about, USE VIRTUALIZATION software.

I've lost count of the number of times that I've seen a Windows user who wants to play with Linux, who puts it onto their machine as a dual boot, and ultimately finds out just how different it is, and then quickly decides it's not for them and wants it removed. And the problem is always that Grub is the bootloader now. You don't run into these issues when you run in a virtual machine.

For somebody like me, who supports Windows and Linux, I want a dual boot on my laptop. And I'm 100% happy with having Grub as my bootloader. It's never caused me an issue, and I won't be deciding that I don't want Linux on my laptop anymore.

I don't want this to sound harsh...but please consider running a virtual machine when you want to try Linux and don't immediately jump to dual booting. I know lots of people scoff at virtualization because they cannot do the fancy whiz-bang compiz graphics stuff in a virtual environment. But I'll be honest, if you are new to Linux....you likely aren't going to stick around long enough to get the fancy graphical stuff going anyway. Just sayin

 

[brianzion]

this is what you want in the snapshot

Startup Repair: frequently asked questions :ar: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Startup-Repair-frequently-asked-questions

Start your computer from a Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive :ar: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/...indows-7-installation-disc-or-USB-flash-drive


http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

 

[TommyW126]

Thank you. I already got this CD. It is what I meant with Recovery-CD from USB (since there is no cd-drive in the machine I had to put it onto USB). I already tried the "Startup-Repair", but it did not help. It said that there was an error in the partition table, and it was corrected. Did not help, though. Then I tried the command prompt with bootsect, diskpart and bootrec with the corresponding options from the tutorial. But with /fixboot it always says "element not found".

Edit: "bootcfg /query" (the list command you mentioned above) responds
"ERROR: Cannot open BOOT.INI file."

 

[brianzion]

have you a live cd with ubuntu on by any chance? and know a friend with a external cd/dvd drive you can borrow? so you can boot from the disc live into ubuntu?

 

[TommyW126]

No. But I got another USB-Stick and I will try to get Linux Mint onto it, because I still have the Image on an external HDD and I know it works out of the box with WLAN etc.

 

[brianzion]

because if you can get into windows with linux you possibly will be able to repair it

 

[TommyW126]

Ok, got a working Linux Mint Live USB-Stick. What should I do now?

 

[brianzion]

boot from the stick and see if you can see the drive that has windows 7 on to start off

 

[TommyW126]

Yes, I can see all drives which were there before with just Win7 on the system. They are all mounted. Except the 100MB hidden partition Win 7 creates during installation, but I can see even that with GParted.