will not boot into windows at all and will not save install or boot ubuntu without boot disc

Asked by kray locklear

I tried to install 11.04 and it won't load without boot disc. I then restarted my PC and at first it says does not recognize "then it the mac address of my hard drive. Then it states something about grub rescue. I've tried to install and reinstall 11.04 again and again and it won't run without having the boot disc in and windows won't run at all and guess who didn't make a recovery disc. This guy that's who. Anyway any help is appreciated and right now I do not have the money to go out and get a new windows OS right now. Thats about all the details I can remember. Thanks.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

Can you boot to the installed OS if you have the CD /USB insearted?

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kray locklear (kraylocklear) said :
#2

I can boot ubuntu only if I have the cd installed, microsoft will not boot or even try to boot.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#3

Microsoft is a COMPANY and cannot boot. Windows is the OS which boots. With the cD in the drive does the Live CD OS boot or does the installed OS boot?

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Tom (tom6) said :
#4

Hi :)

Please can you boot-up using the Ubuntu Cd using the "Try it" option? When you get to the desktop try to use it's Firefox to navigate to this thread. Also go up to the top taskbar and click on

Applications - Accessories - Terminal

to get to a command-line or use this guide to find another way of getting to a command-line
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal#Starting%20a%20Terminal

Please use the mouse's right-click menu to copy&paste

sudo fdisk -l

onto the command-line. Or type it in but notice that the "-l" is a lower-case "-L". The sudo command will ask for your normal user-password Not you SuperUser/Root/Administration password and it wont show stars as you type but it does register every keystroke.

If you could use the mouse to select the output and copy&paste the output into this thread then that would show us which partitions have been set-up on your hard-drive so that we can see what to do to recover.
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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kray locklear (kraylocklear) said :
#5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1   *           1       21867   175645486+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdf2           21867       60802   312740865    5  Extended
/dev/sdf5           59764       60802     8337408   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf6           59275       59763     3927040   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf7           35328       58785   188421120   83  Linux
/dev/sdf8           58785       59274     3929088   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf9           34839       35327     3927040   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf10          34349       34838     3929088   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf11          33860       34349     3923968   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf12          33371       33859     3926016   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf13          21867       32881    88469504   83  Linux
/dev/sdf14          32881       33370     3928064   82  Linux swap / Solaris

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kray locklear (kraylocklear) said :
#6

ok yeah, what I meant to say was windows does not boot. Ubuntu bootsd from the live cd I guess. Installed OS will not boot.

________________________________
From: actionparsnip <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Question #154873]: will not boot into windows at all and will not save install or boot ubuntu without boot disc

Your question #154873 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/154873

    Status: Needs information => Answered

actionparsnip proposed the following answer:
Microsoft is a COMPANY and cannot boot. Windows is the OS which boots.
With the cD in the drive does the Live CD OS boot or does the installed
OS boot?

--
If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
know that it is solved:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/154873/+confirm?answer_id=2

If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
following page to enter your feedback:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/154873

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Tom (tom6) said :
#7

Hi :)

Ok, i think the 1st thing is to get Windows working again. We can install the GRand Unified Boot-loader (Grub2) for Ubuntu using this guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD
We are already at step 4 so the next step for your machine is

sudo mount /dev/sdf7 /mnt

sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdf

I am not sure why the 11.04 install went wrong but installing grub2 should find the Windows you have but it will probably put it right t the bottom of the boot menu
Regards from
Tom :)

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Tom (tom6) said :
#8

Hi again :)
If you do try installing Ubuntu 11.04 again then when you get to the partitioning section choose the bottom option, it should be called something like "Manual" or "Advanced" or something else like that. Scroll down to the sdf drive and edit or "Change" sdf7. The drop-down that says "do not use this partition" should be changed to "ext3" and it's "Mount Point" should be changed to
/
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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Tom (tom6) said :
#9

Hi :)
Sorry i have to go off for about 10hours. Please let us know how things go
Regards from
Tom :)

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kray locklear (kraylocklear) said :
#10

Ok windows still not up but I have not tried to reinstall ubuntu yet I will let you know how it goes, thanks for everything .

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

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Tom (tom6) said :
#11

Hi :)

I would try fixing Grub by reinstalling just Grub first. If that doesn't work then a re-install of Ubuntu might work.

I would usually try a different distro since Ubuntu has not been working. If you have access to another machine then SliTaz is good because it's only 30Mb compared to Ubuntu's approximately 10 times that size. So, sliTaz is faster to download and faster to make a boot-Cd (LiveCd)
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz

At least the fdisk command showed us that you still have the Windows partition so your stuff should be fairly safe there. If you are able to borrow an external hard-drive then it would be great for us to back-up your data and settings, perhaps more before tidying up all the swap partitions and stuff.

Regards from
Tom :)

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kray locklear (kraylocklear) said :
#12

Got it working after staying up all night. I noticed my ext drive was spinning during installation. I disconnected it and it worked.....I'll write the details when I get home.

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

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Tom (tom6) said :
#13

WoooHooo :))
Congrats :)

Enjoy the day !
Regards from
Tom :)

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