Vista won't boot after installing Ubuntu

[ujjwal]

My friend has an HP nx6320 laptop which was preloaded with Windows Vista business. HP doesn't supply any rescue/installation disks, but expects the users to create one using their software. This unfortunately my friend didn't do.

Well he asked me to install ubuntu on his laptop, so for that I resized the C: partition using GParted, and created an extended partition in which I installed ubuntu. The rescue partition and OS_TOOLs partition are still untouched.

But now, Vista refuses to boot. Under normal modes, it hangs at the boot animation, and in any of the safe modes, it won't load past the crcdisk.sys file. So there is no way to do system restore or startup repair or anything. I will try to get hold of the HP rescue disk somehow, but until then, I would like to try to fix the problem without having to reinstall everything. Also if anyone knows how to create the HP disk manually from linux, do let me know.

Any help much appreciated!

[buletov]

Get a hold of any Vista installation disk and boot from it. You have an option in there to fix the boot information.

[ujjwal]

Err.. well I only have a Vista Beta DVD right now, will that work? But as far as I could understand, the problem is not with the bootloader as I can get all the vista boot options.

[Barney T. Administrators]

Have you tried to change the Grub menu file to reflect that Vista is present? Then all should be ok...

At the Ubuntu desktop edit the GRUB menu.lst file. GRUB is the boot loader for

Ubuntu. Right now, GRUB doesn't know where to look and find Vista. A small edit of the menu.lst file will fix this.

Select Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal from the Ubuntu desktop. At the ~$ prompt, type this:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_bak

This will create a backup of the original menu.lst file -- a file we are now about to change.

Again at the ~$ prompt, type this:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Near the top of this file, you will see a command line that looks like this:

timeout 3

I suggest changing that '3' to a '7' (seconds). This gives you a little more time to go into GRUB's boot menu, when

you want to choose which OS you would like to boot.

Near the bottom of this file, you will find a line that looks like this:

## ## End Default Options ##

And immediately below that, you will see 'title' command lines for the various Ubuntu kernel options you currently have available. We are going to now add a new, small 'title' section.

Immediately below that ## End Default Options ## line, add the following text:

title Windows Vista Beta

root (hd0,1)

makeactive

chainloader +1

Reboot

That is all you should need to do!

[ujjwal]

But I already have a Vista entry in GRUB.. its just that Vista won't start properly, i.e. hangs during boot.

[gtho]

I am pretty sure you can go back to the PC's default by using a keyboard short cut after post. You will lose all document, program etc loaded on c:\ though

HP always have a small EISA config hidden partition with an image of the Lappy's factory setup I believe

[ujjwal]

Yes, the key for that is F11, but tapping it during bootup just results in beeps. I guess with the partition layout changed, it cannot recognise the rescue partition. Also, I would like to avoid doing a complete rescue, if possible.

[gtho]

ok, that just s**ks.

No idea then, sorry

[ujjwal]

Thanks for the help anyway :)

I'm beginning to dislike HP immensely. There is a windows serial on the back of the laptop. Can I somehow use that serial with another vista installer?

[simsie]

Yes, it msut be an OEM disc though (as that serial is OEM)

[shortyg31]

Sorry to hear you having trouble with vista ,

I never could understand why people bother with linux anymore its so cheap and allways will be in mess of alpha , beta , final and back to beta stages for 20 years to come , and with each new build everything breaks and your stuck all day just trying to install programs that look like crap and dont work well at all.

Just my 2cents

I use windows because its fast and does the job almost perfect.

if you must install a linux distro its best to put it on a old ass pc with very outdated hardware so its likely to have drivers then you may just may be able to surf the net or play some music.

sad linux has been around for so many years and is still so far behind and will never make it mainstream market with no standard kernel.

All im saying is stick with windows it works , or install linux but dont do it on a pc you care about

[joshritger]

I dont see what the problem with linux is, I have been using it for about 9 months now and have had no problems. It really isn't all that glitchy like everyone seems to think. Drivers may be a little hard to figure out at first, but once you figure them out it works just as good, if not better than windows does.

I am running ubuntu on a athlon x64 3000+ with a gig of ram.

I don't really consider this a piece of junk, it may not run vista decent, but i can get the same desktop effects on linux that everyone brags about in vista. I also dual boot xp pro x64. I went about dual booting it the safe way though, I used two completely seperate hard drives and I choose which disk to boot from in the bios. The only drivers that I had trouble with were the drivers for my wifi card and my gfx card. Gfx worked out of the box but didn't support the fancy stuff like desktop effects and games so I installed the new drivers and it worked great. The wifi is another story, I could never get that to work, that is in ubuntu 7.04 which I am still using. The new version 7.10 seems to have some of those wifi bugs worked out because mine worked out of the box on an older pc with the same wifi card.

All in all my 2 cents is that linux may not be for everyone, but with a little work linux is just as stable and just as user friendly as windows is. I also notice a nice performance boost over windows even with alot of desktop effects enabled. In windows I had to modify stuff to get it to run this good. Oh and not all windows versions were a cake walk either, does anyone remember how much of a bear it was to find drivers for xp pro x64 when it first came out. Linux is a cake walk compared to how that was.

Josh

[brandnewfantx]

Could Call HP, and they will send you out new discs. Just have to be prepared to be annoyed about all the questions...

[+BudMan MVC]

an what version of Gparted did you use? Its a known issue with resize of vista partiton depending on the version of ntfsresize, etc..

I have to wonder why you just did not use the native resize of the system partition that vista supports??

To fix the vista booting, your going to need a vista cd/dvd -- running the repair does not need any number. So a retail version will work fine to repair with, etc.

As to booting the recovery partition -- there was just a thread about someone doing that.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=604334

HP recovery partition, but no recovery utility?

Say he just used a bootloader to boot the recovery partition, etc.

[ujjwal]

BudMan, thanks for the help. I am going through the thread, I'll try to boot into the recovery partition. I used the gparted version which came with Ubuntu 7.04.. I was not aware of any issue with vista :( Also would any version of Vista do, or would I need Vista business. I think my chances of finding Vista business are pretty slim.

shortyg31, actually all of my personal systems dual-boot windows and linux. Just to satisfy your curiosity, the reason my friend needed to install linux was because several projects and some college work of his depended on it. Anyway, he didn't like Ubuntu much but is loving OpenSUSE :)

[rajputwarrior]

  brandnewfantx said:

Could Call HP, and they will send you out new discs. Just have to be prepared to be annoyed about all the questions...

Is it wrong that I feel dumer everytime I talk to them? And make sure you tell up fat you created the disks but when youbteiex to use them they wouldn't work ie they wont boot or elstls they are going to charge you!

[ujjwal]

Alright thanks for the advise rajputwarrior :)

[+BudMan MVC]

"I was not aware of any issue with vista"

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=379628

ntfsresize: resizing a Vista NTFS partition leads to corrupted partition

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=380226

NTFS (partition) not recreated correctly after resize:incorrect start sector

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=379835

Windows Vista fails to boot after resizing in d-i

etc..

In the future when needing to resize vista, I would suggest you just use the native feature to do it. Not saying the current versions of ntfsresize can not do it -- but it would be better to use native stuff when at all possible, etc.

[skydog_2004]

  ujjwal said:

BudMan, thanks for the help. I am going through the thread, I'll try to boot into the recovery partition. I used the gparted version which came with Ubuntu 7.04.. I was not aware of any issue with vista :( Also would any version of Vista do, or would I need Vista business. I think my chances of finding Vista business are pretty slim.

shortyg31, actually all of my personal systems dual-boot windows and linux. Just to satisfy your curiosity, the reason my friend needed to install linux was because several projects and some college work of his depended on it. Anyway, he didn't like Ubuntu much but is loving OpenSUSE :)

I just did the same thing, more or less, resized a vista partition and loaded ubuntu gutsy gibbon(7.10). I tracked a solution down that work great for me and did not require drastic "recovery disk" measures. Just boot into your linux distro and install the ntfsprogs package. Then run ntfsfix on your vista partition. It will reset the journal and enable a fs check next time vista boots. I actually found this info on howtoforge here is link to thread :http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9873

good luck