Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Yet another Ubuntu Windows7 problem

Asked by john pilkington

1st: I am new to Ubuntu and Linux.
2nd: I have worked and played in windows since it was windows 3.1
3rd: I decided to take a look at Linux based OS a few days ago
4th: I have made one of the major FUps and allowed Ubuntu to install itself alongside Windows 7.

Ubuntu placed itself on a USB hard drive I have connected to my PC... This is not the problem this is just history. Of course this caused the apparently usual GRUB problem, so after looking around on here and becoming confused beyond belief by all the different answers and lines of code and over explenitve articals, I decided to take matters into my own hands and re-install Ubuntu on the HDD, giving it a couple of small (relitivly) partitions to play with.

And that is where the problem realy started (still history). Unfortunatly in my frustration I inadvertantly gave Unbuntu a Primary partition. No prizes for guesing what happened next. Gone is the rest of the HDD, leaving just the bit of the drive that Ubuntu "owned". Still I thought I should be able to relocate the rest of the drive using the tools available in Ubuntu, find the recovery partition for windows, stick the recovery disk in and away we go bish, bash, bosh; windows back on board then have another go at Ubuntu using what I had learned in the process to make the right decitions. --Wrong!

Windows restore wont work, I had located the partition that the recovery info sits on, but I don't know how to access it using Ubuntu, and now after running the windows startup recovery for the last 90 minutes it has fried GRUB. By the time I get a response to this I should have sorted GRUB out using the helpful information available here. (Here endeth the history).

Now my question: assuming I am able to repair GRUB can anyone point me in the right direction to installing the Windows Recovery partition and its contents back onto my HDD and getting Windows 7 back for me, (which I quite like- but lets not get involved in any socio-economic discussions about the ways of big bad Microsoft), so that I can then re-install Ubuntu alongside it and I can then work out for myself what all the fuss is about. Please, please, please, pretty please with sugar and everything.

Here's hoping someone out there can help. Cheers John.

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Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#1

Running the Windows installer will _always_ overwrite the grub bootloader on the first drive with the Windows MBR. It likes to think that it's the only operating system on the planet. ;-)

You can't "reinstall" the Windows recovery partition. Only the OEM has the tools to do that. However, if the recovery partition still exists (it will be a hidden partition of a few GB's in size) then you can usually boot into it from the BIOS. It is normally booted with a special key press while the machine is going through post. F12 is not uncommon, but you should look at the manual for the machine to get the right information.

If by chance you really have fried the hidden recovery partition you can contact the OEM manufacturer and ask them for the installation disks for your machine. They will charge you for them.

There's not problems with putting Ubuntu on a primary partition, however If you boot Windows then it may not be able to see a second primary partition even if you install the drivers for ext2/4 etc. I'm not sure where they are up to with that silliness. Ubuntu itself will work quite happily with multiple primary partions, however you are limited to 4 partions in total (primary and logical) then convention the the Ubiquity installer will follow is to make and extended partition with however many partitions that it needs (Normally 2 - the / (root) partition and the swap partition). If you understand what you are doing it's normally better to specify partitions manually. You can look at and manipulate partitions easily from the Ubuntu LiveCD - just boot the CD, select "try Ubuntu" and then run Gparted once you have a desktop up and running.

Chris

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john pilkington (john-pilkington) said : 		#2

Chris, thanks for the advice, when I pluck up the courage to try again I will bear what you said in mind.
I have sorted the problem with W7, and Ubuntu was a star in the solution which involved coping the Recovery files from the "hidden" partition on to a USB HDD thus allowing me with the help of MS command line to reinstall the meglomaniac W7.

Although your contribution didn't actually sort the problem I was having it will hopefully stop it from happening next time... I hope, cos its been one begger of a day.

Thanks... case closed.