Ubuntu :: Repair MBR Without Mess Up The Windows And Recovery Partitions
May 11, 2011
This post is a follow up to this one: [URL] My computer is an IBM R52 running Windows Professional (previously dual-booting with Ubuntu 10.10, but that's gone now, and I don't dare reinstall it until the HDD partitions and mbr are properly working again). I think that the shred command mentioned there simply messed up my MBR, and maybe my partition table. Here's the partitions on my HDD:
Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7e93bd30
[Code]...
My question is, is it safe to use something like SuperGrub to repair the MBR? I really don't want to mess up the Windows and recovery partitions. I've done plenty of research on this, but am not confident until someone says that it works in my case.
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Jul 20, 2011
I have forget the root password of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Please tell me how to recover it from the other linux account of the same version. I also want to know that after setting the new password did I have to repair the grub or grub will be as usual.
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Apr 25, 2010
So I have been messing around with the new 10.04 and I managed to screw it up. When I started to log off, I closed the lid to my laptop so it would hibernate, but instead the screen went black and I could only see the cursor. It stayed like that for several minutes so I shut it down manually. When I booted it up again, it froze on the splash/loading screen and I haven't been able to boot it since. I've tried to boot in recovery mode, but I think my campus internet interferes with the downloading of the necessary files from the internet. Is there any way to boot a recovery mode from the install disc? Or am I SOL?
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Apr 28, 2011
I have several CDs of diagnostic and recovery software (most of which are dated) but never seem to have them around when i could use them the most. Then it hit me: use a flash drive. i usually carry two flash drives around with me, so i loaded one 4GB with diagnostic/repair tools from PortableApps.So far I have CCleaner, John the Ripper, Recuva, an antivirus, and SIW (System Info. for Windows). I still have plenty of space left and was wondering what you all's favorites were, or what i might add. I'm looking to have somewhat of a suite, something for any occasion (within reason, of course.)I think everything right now i have is PC-based. i just want a suite of tools in case anyone has a non-hardware issue.
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Jun 17, 2011
OK as a recent Windows to Ubuntu convert I made a stupid mistake and now would now like to recover my OS, particularly my files.I had happily been running Ubuntu 10.10 but then used Synaptic to remove Python 2.6 (I was having trouble running Python 2.5 with both installed), I selected to remove Python and all it's dependencies (a bad move as I realise now, as it was quite a dependency list in the end!).
I was left with a semi functional desktop, some things worked but many things were broken / unavailable, neither Synaptic or even Terminal would work to situation.I tried rebooting in the forlorn hope that I would get some recovery options, but it would not boot, boot starts, gets to grub (top left flashing cursor), then that disappears and I am presented with a black screen and nothing then happens. If I then do a hard power down the screen very briefly shows some text (something like enter password) as it shuts down.
Subsequent boot ups just do the same thing. If I boot with an installation disk and move forward to the partition step the original partition is shown as in tact.So, my main question is, is there a way of recovering my OS without the use of low level disk recovery utils (which may be a bit painful and long winded). e.g. what happens if I install 'over the top' of my original installation, will my file system be in tact
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Oct 14, 2014
I have added to Debian Wheezy testing repositories. After a restart there is no desktop anymore just the wallpaper picture is visible but no desktop pop-ups.
When I want to install the desktop through recovery mode, I get an error message that it "can't fetch...repos". How I can repair /etc/apt/sources.list through recovery mode?
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Jan 20, 2011
I need to know how to get fix my windows xp system without messing with Ubuntu. I can get inti Ubuntu but on windows it says NTLDR is missing dose anyone know what I can do because I still use windows once in awhile so it needs to work.
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Apr 3, 2011
Brand new HP Compaq Presario CQ56, want to dual-boot 7 & Ubuntu. Too many partitions I think:
HD0 - 298.09 GB
System
199 MB NTFS
C:
279.36 GB NTFS
RECOVERY D:
18.43 GB NTFS
HP TOOLS
103 MB FAT32
Want to add Ubuntu + Swap in the 90 or so GB range, fairly new to partitioning. Trying to create recovery disks using system tools is over 16 Gb, for that kind of expense I may as well just order recovery disks OEM if (When) Windows falls apart.
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Feb 9, 2011
I am installing Ubuntu on the same hard drive as Windows 7. The partitions of Windows 7 have already occupied the left part of the hard drive. From left to right, the Windows partitions are one partition for Windows booting, one for Windows OS and software installation, and one for data which is planned to mount on Ubuntu. I was wondering how to arrange the order of partitions of root, home and swap, i.e. which is on the left just besides one Windows partition, which is in the middle and which is on the far right?
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Jan 1, 2010
Whenever I select Windows 7 under GRUB, it just hangs at a flashing underscore windows 7 is installed under my first primary partition, what should the GRUB section look like for it? I can't check what mine looked like because this happened:I started up the windows 7 recover (another option under GRUB, on hd(0,3). 7 is on hd(0,1)) and it worked. I decided that i wanted to try something else before i restore my windows 7 partition to its factory state, so i exit the recovery thing. Next thing I know, my Ubuntu partition is completely gone, along with my grub.cfg files -.-
Partitions are like this in this order:
sda1: Windows 7 (can't boot into)
sda8: ubuntu (gets erased)
sda5: partition i'm going to use soon for another distro
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oh, and by default, there was like 20 MB of free space in front of my windows partition (idk why asus did that) and when i shrunk my first partition (the windows one) it moved it all to the left -.- do you think something when wrong while doing that?
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Apr 27, 2010
I have a used PC that came pre-installed with suse 11.2.Unfortunately, I do not have the install disk to use in case of whatever.I already know that when configuring a dual boot with Windows and Linux, it is recommended to install Windows first.I do not have that luxury now as 11.2 is installed and GRUB is the boot loader.Question is, if I boot the Windows 98 install disk on boot, how to not mess up GRUB and still add Windows 98 to GRUB menu?
One hard drive only here. 98gb free.It seems that W98 install will overwrite GRUB in this situation - causing problems. Maybe not, I don't really know for sure.I just need to install windows 98 on the same hard drive and if possible, have suse and w98 visible on boot in GRUB.
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Jul 8, 2010
I had an dualboot problem, after updating ubuntu to 10.04 my windows vista option in the grub of ubuntu was gone.Now I have installed windows 7.And the grub does not appear again, there is no grub at all.Now sombody told me I could fix or repair the boot record in windows 7.Does somone know how I can repair the grub in which I can choose between windows 7 and Ubuntu?
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Mar 21, 2011
I had previously installed windows xp. Then I installed ubuntu and dual booting was fine. Now my windows is corrupted. I need to either repair or reinstall it, and I think my mbr will be affected. I will test all this on vmware first.
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Aug 18, 2010
What I'm looking to do is to use Linux to help me remove malware and etc. from any Windows based computer. We are currently using 32-bit Dell computers with Windows XP SP3. New computer orders are 64-bit Windows 7. Previously, I have used Ghost to create images, but it is getting harder to have all the different images saved and other criterias. My plan is to create an USB Linux boot with the Windows software to remove malware, trojans and all the others. I currently have an 8Gb USB flash drive to use for this project. I was looking at Puppy Linux, but I think there is something messing whether it be with puppy or me. I am not limiting myself to just this project. This just happens to be one selected and approved by my bosses. Since we are using both platforms in this school district -- Macs and PCs. Eventually, I should be able to use my laptop with at least a dual boot environment.
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Aug 17, 2009
How to Repair My Windows XP Installation Error.
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Nov 10, 2010
i know i asked earlier but i got my usb to be mounted on a different fedora distro. how do i now find my documents or repair it? also how do i add in a repair line if possible?
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Jan 15, 2009
Would it be possible to use a Linux Distribution on a USB to repair a windows registry problem, or to use Linux to change some files in the Restore files? If so can anyone recommend a version? I have a laptop running windows Xp that has no cd drive, keyboard, or mouse function due to a registry error. I have a good restore point with the correct registry entries that I could change if it would be possible to boot from a USB version of Linux.
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Mar 30, 2010
I was follooing this instructions to repair windows system32 in this tutorial found in a previus tread, my laptop is Dell xps 2010 I had Ubuntu Live cd running with Internet,mouse and keyboard, The NTFS and NTFSProgs exist in System/ administration /synatip Package Manager,but i can mount the filesystem properly due the device name etc,thing i missing some code in terminal application.Partition table entries are not in disk order.Regard the repair of windows media center edition (windows system32 corrupted...).
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Mar 8, 2011
I initially had a dual boot where I could decide to either boot into Windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.04. It work seamlessly. At some point, however, when I booted into Windows, it just seem to only load it "half" in the sense that the desktop just turned black (but when ctrl-alt-del was hit I did receive a screen with the different options).
I suspected there was a problem with grub and proceeded to restore the Windows bootloader by booting into the Windows CD and repairing the computer by entering the commands:
After restarting I suddenly do not have the option to boot into Ubuntu (where did it go?) and booting automatically into Windows the original problem persists.
Any idea what happened here and how I can restore things?
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May 1, 2011
I have 10.10 installed within my Windows Xp.All was fine.Then,I upgraded to 11.04.Boot screen etc is fine .Log in is automatic in Classic.Unity & Compiz not supported.Now,again everything is fine except that my xp partitions are not recognised and hence I can not mount them and access them.
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Jan 23, 2010
I just used the repair tool (automatic) after doing a clean install of Suse and my Windows directory has disappeared altogether. Any chance of getting it back?
Here's the readout:
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6eb5ef98
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 31481 252864504 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 * 31482 60482 232950532+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb3 60483 60802 2560000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5 31482 31743 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 31744 34354 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 34355 60482 209873128+ 83 Linux
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Nov 25, 2010
I have a sony vaio netbook and installed ubuntu on it some months ago After some weeks windows 7 crashed and stopped booting I tried to recover it but still no success. When i bought it it had one partition only (plus the first one for windows recovery) When I installed ubuntu I partitioned my hard drive at my pleasure as you can see in attached image When I try to recover windows 7 it says it "can't find the windows partition or it's too small" Since 80 gb is not too small, i bet it can't recognized the partition anymore. Can anybody suggest a way to let it recognize my sda2 ? Does it have to have the "C:" label or "Windows something"? (I can only name it C without colons) Does it have to formatted FAT in a particular way ?
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May 18, 2010
I've just installed Ubuntu 10.04 alongside Win XP. I can boot into both fine. However, I no longer see the Win XP boot menu that allowed me to go into the Windows Recovery Console if I needed it. Previously with Ubuntu 8 & 9 this was briefly available after selecting the Win XP option from the grub menu, but not any more. How do I get it back?
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Apr 30, 2011
I updated to 11.04 recently, no problem. Chose to merge the old and new Grub files together. Rebooted to finalize everything, and my Grub menu had lots of doubling up of options, the old kernel, as well as two options of Windows XP (the old option that I'd put on Grub, and what I suspect was 11.04's recognition of another partition, as it was titled "Windows XP ... (on dev/sda2)")Then I fired up Grub Customizer, re-read and double checked everything, and removed all the doubling instances. All good. Shut down for the evening.
Booted up the PC this afternoon and my Grub menu looks thus (adjusted with artistic license, just so you get the picture):Windows XPUbuntu 11.04 (recovery mode)MemtestMemtestDell Utility PartitionWindows XP (on dev/sda2)I've lost the option to choose regular Ubuntu.I've gone into recovery mode, tried the "Update Grub" option, rebooted, but nothing changes.Now, there's a terminal login on Recovery Mode. I am effectively an Absolute Beginner when it comes to the terminal - I know a couple of commands, am eager to learn more when I have the time, but really couldn't tell you what the hell I'm doing. The last thing I want to do is make this worse by fumbling through code. This isn't Zork.If anybody would be kind enough to provide the terminal commands to change the Grub menu to add regular partitions, I'd be very grateful. If there's a different fix, equally good. If anybody's got any comments, diagnoses, verbal abuse, heap it on. I'm here to learn.
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Jan 2, 2010
how to install windows 7 basic recovery when ubuntu is installed as the os
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Jan 5, 2011
I have a dual boot setup with Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Lately Windows 7 has been causing me all kinds of grief and I decided that it would be better to just restore it back to factory settings. I have a Windows 7 recovery partition (hidden) that I can see from Ubuntu, however Grub2 does not detect it. It only has two identical Windows entries that take me into Windows (though in /boot/grub/grub.cfg they point to hd0,msdos1 and hd0,msdos2 respectively).
I have searched far and wide on the Internet on how to gain access to this recovery partition to no avail. I even found a link from Lenovo's website that details how to do this in the old version of Grub, though it doesn't work in Grub2.
Here are the most useful links that I have found thus far, both fall short unfortunately. [URL]
I have already backed up all my data, so I can nuke the whole disk if that's what it takes, but I don't actually have a Windows Recovery CD, only the hidden partition which I can't seem to boot into.
I also saw some posts where people were having trouble disabling the recovery partitions from appearing in the Grub menu, their answers often consisted of people telling them that it's not possible to disable the recovery partition from appearing without hiding the main Windows Install, oh the irony!
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Mar 8, 2011
What exactly I did here to aid in attempting to recover my Windows system. My laptop was dual Wubi-boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu, and after encountering issues booting into my Wubi Ubuntu, I went in to recover important files to do a reinstall. Using an Ubuntu livecd, I created a directory called "win" (sudo mkdir /win) and then mounted my Windows 7 partition (sudo mount /dev/sda1 /win) to that folder name. However, after encountering some issues there, I made the mistake of removing the "win" folder without unmounting the Windows 7 partition using "rm -rf /win". After that, my Windows system appears to be missing. Can anyone tell me what exactly I did? Did I delete the partition?
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May 5, 2010
The other day one of my hard drives on my windows system decided to stop working. Not entirely sure what happened, but it seemed that it just erased its partition header, although I wasn't able to recover it.
Anyway, I successfully got an image of the drive using GNU_ddrescue (yay!), and I'm currently salvaging what CAN be salvaged with foremost.
way to get EVERYTHING off of the drive? I mean, it seems that it's all intact (since foremost is finding so much stuff).
I've tried mounting the partition, but it's not working. (I'd post the output from the terminal, but the forum thinks there is/are URL(s) in it....)
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Oct 17, 2010
Im dual booting vista and ubuntu 10.10 when i start up i get the option to boot linux OR i can boot window recovery (loader) which works or i can choose windows xp which doesnt even work and im not sure why its there since i dont have xo installed and i never have on this pc. it doesnt say anything about vista anywhere.
My question is...is this a problem? it seems to work fine but i dont want to have problems later on.
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Dec 26, 2010
On my Samsung netbook, I have successfully got a pretty speedy dual-boot of Windows 7 Starter and Ubuntu 10.10
I set up Burg, to well, replace Grub2 in favour of a more attractive interface and so far so good. I know that I can hide the older Ubuntu kernels/recovery slots by pressing the 'F'key. However, the Windows recovery partition still shows up. So it looks like this:
Ubuntu - Windows 7 - Windows Recovery (vista)
Basically, how can I hide the Windows Recovery partition? If I ever do need to use it, I can access it alternatively by pressing F4 at boot.
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