Won't be active on MS anymore... (need computer help)

[Stein]

Well, first of all I'm going to Washington next wednesday, so I'll only be on MS a little bit. Second of all, I screwed up my primary boot partition so I can't get into windows any more...

I tried CHKDSK /R twice in the recovery console, still didn't work. Then I tried CHKDSK /F from my dad's computer (yes, I did the correct drive), and it still doesn't work. Its not BIOS, its not the stupid little jumper.

When it tries to post, it just says "Error reading disk, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart"

Right now I'm in a linux live CD that I used to resize my C: partition. Stupid linux broke my windows

.

9672346901283460189 (chris), can I use GParted (I'm in MEPIS which is debian/ubuntu based) to try to repair the partition?

edit: Yes I can, and I did (man that was fast). I'm going to try Windows again.

update: Nope, still gave me the same error as before. I think I was wrong before, but I still can't remember the exact error. Maybe it was "the disk can not be read, press ctrl+alt+del to restart" or something kinda like that.

I backed up what I needed (luckily most of my work is already on my slave drive

) and I think I'll just reformat if I can't get this solved. Otherwise, I'm going to go to bed early.

 

[Chris]

What's the layout of your primary drive? What partitions do you have on it, and what systems are running on those partitions?

If you installed linux with the GRUB boot loader it overwrote the windows bootloader. And you need to tell GRUB how to boot windows. Then you just have an entry in GRUB to boot windows. You could even set it as the default if you wanted.

I think there is some way to restore the windows MBR from a linux bootCD, but I have no idea how because I don't use windows. I have never cared.

Also, how come you don't have a backup of your MBR... tisk tisk

I also recommend getting a USB to SATA/IDE adapter, that way if you can't boot your disk you can at least plug it into anothert system via USB and have your files...

And are you sure it isn't the disk's fault? failed disk, or something?

 

[Stein]

Well it happened as I moved the partition, and all of the files are still there (I backed up my firefox bookmarks through linux for example).

Also, Linux is not installed. It's running completely off of a CD and RAM (a live CD). It doesn't need a boot loader.

I backed up (I think I got everything important) and I'm almost ready to format over it. I installed Vista on a second partition, but I don't think my motherboard can find it to boot off of... (after it says "press any key to boot from CD" it usually boots from the HDD, but its not). What did I forget to do?

I probably have to do something to the bootloader, correct?

 

[Chris]

what do you mean by "as I moved the partition"?

And from your first post it sounded like you had linux installed on some partition on the main boot drive...

BIOS is stupid 1980's technology and will not find an operating system, it will only boot from the first 512bytes of a hard drive... aka the MBR. So if you don't have anything for the BIOS to boot in the MBR it can't boot. The Vista or XP CD should have a tool to install the windows boot loader to the MBR. Or if you do recovery install it should automatically happen.

And in the future, backup the MBR

 

[Stein]

Well, I already ran chkdsk /r twice from the XP cd, chkdsk /f once from my dad's computer (in windows), and GParted "Check." I figured that would have fixed it... I bet that when I installed vista on the second partition, it removed my MBR.

I "moved" the partition after I shrunk it, both using GParted. When it was done, GParted reminded me to run CHKDSK /F twice, but since I was never able to get that far into Windows, CHKDSK /R was the best I could do.

I figured that when I installed Vista, it would automatically make a new boot loader that would just load from the second (vista) partition, and then I could go back and edit it to make it give me the option of booting from partition one or partition two (xp or vista).

 

[Chris]

Oh, so how did you do it from your dad's computer?

With your hard drive as a slave? Because windows doesn't boot from drives that are slaves. You need to do the chkdsk thing from a windows recovery CD. You could also try copying the MBR from a working windows computer.

 

[Stein]

The recovery CD doesn't have chkdsk /f, which runs automatically (usually) when windows tries to boot and can't (because of a changed partition). I put my harddrive in my dad's computer as a slave and ran chkdsk /f on it from there (chkdsk /f is only available from within windows, the recovery console has a cut down version of chkdsk). Chkdsk doesn't have to be run on a master drive or on the OS drive.

Basically, since chkdsk has failed over and over again to fix the partition enough for windows to boot, I need to manually repair the MBR (I'm still not 100% sure what this is... is it boot.ini?). If that actually requires much work, I think I'll just install Vista Ultimate over my XP partition and call it a day.

 

[Chris]

The recovery CD doesn't have chkdsk /f, which runs automatically (usually) when windows tries to boot and can't (because of a changed partition). I put my harddrive in my dad's computer as a slave and ran chkdsk /f on it from there (chkdsk /f is only available from within windows, the recovery console has a cut down version of chkdsk). Chkdsk doesn't have to be run on a master drive or on the OS drive.

How come a recovery disk doesn't have the program to recover the MBR??!? WTF? That's pretty stupid.

Well beyond trying to copy the MBR from another computer, I'm out of ideas. I'm not a windows guru. But if you need help with linux or mac... I'm all over it.

 

[Stein]

oh god, don't get me started on mac...

I mean sure, its Unix based, but that's about the only good thing I can find with it

.

How do you feel about Solaris? The workstations at my mom's work (based out of CMMC in Lewiston) run on it. I'm not sure if its a full version of it or stripped down, because the computers only have to do one thing.

I'll probably stick with Debian, or more specifically Ubunutu, based though. They seem to be the most widely used and have the most hardware (driver) support.

If you really want to talk linux, I need to find/build a good HTPC/Media center OS for computer in Washington. Other than Windows MCE and Vista Premium/Ultimate, what are your suggestions? My top priorities are:

speed, it won't be running on RAID or a quad core, so I want something light;

visuals, maybe something that I can load 1080p pictures on and it will show a cool slideshow in the background of the GUI;

GUI, I want my 5 year old cousins to be able to, say, navigate to the music player and play some songs with ease. I don't want to have to use command-line at all after setup;

and finally, hardware compatibility. I want to be able to plug-and-play most accessories (like card readers, IR remotes, etc).

Oh, and WINE will most likely be used for some light gaming.

 

[Chris]

oh god, don't get me started on mac...I mean sure, its Unix based, but that's about the only good thing I can find with it

.

How do you feel about Solaris? The workstations at my mom's work (based out of CMMC in Lewiston) run on it. I'm not sure if its a full version of it or stripped down, because the computers only have to do one thing.

I haven't really used Solaris. But IMO it is a bit pointless to use it on a desktop. It is a great server platform, especially running on Sun systems. Because it is optimized to run on the Sun machines with SPARK CPUs.

I never said I liked the Mac OS. It is based on BSD actually. So being a linux person some of the BSD stuff gets on my nerves. And the GUI is annoying. (but then I find any GUI annoying as I barely use one). But I'm good at working on macs and making them work, both hardware and software. Right now on my desk I have 2 iBook G4's both broken, both completely taken apart. I have one booting right now. Next it is on to the stack of 6 iBook G3's, after fixing the graphics card issue I should have at least 5 working ones....

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

Sounds like you toasted your MBR trying to resize.

If you really want to talk linux, I need to find/build a good HTPC/Media center OS for computer in Washington. Other than Windows MCE and Vista Premium/Ultimate, what are your suggestions? My top priorities are:

speed, it won't be running on RAID or a quad core, so I want something light;

visuals, maybe something that I can load 1080p pictures on and it will show a cool slideshow in the background of the GUI;

GUI, I want my 5 year old cousins to be able to, say, navigate to the music player and play some songs with ease. I don't want to have to use command-line at all after setup;

and finally, hardware compatibility. I want to be able to plug-and-play most accessories (like card readers, IR remotes, etc).

Oh, and WINE will most likely be used for some light gaming.

For HTPC, XBMC is the only answer, (or boxee/other derivatives), works on all platforms. If you want to record TV shows, do it in windows as plug and play and mythtv are not synonimus.

 

[Chris]

HTPC... one of the few voids in my linux knowledge. At least in the sense you want an HTPC... I use command line for pretty much everything besides web browsing. I can't stand GUIs...

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

HTPC... one of the few voids in my linux knowledge. At least in the sense you want an HTPC... I use command line for pretty much everything besides web browsing. I can't stand GUIs...

Good news for you, there isn't much to know about it. XBMC is the go to program like I said above, started out on the origional xbox, they ported it over to win/mac/lin. Plays all formats ever, works well, expecially with a good skin. Better to use a CPU to decode HD than GPU as GPU is still finicky, especially if you deal with multiple formats/encode types.

As for TV recording, the linux program Mythtv has a terrible user interface, pain in the butt to get working, awful web interface, awkward to playback anything that is not recorded tv shows. I have no clue how usable myth would be using CLI.

On the win side you have media center, sagetv, BeyondTV, GB-PVR, Media Portal. Sage and Beyond are payfor, but fantastic. GB-PVR and media portal were free last time I checked, but too much fuss setting up for my taste. TV tuner cards are fun but a pain to set up, forget about trying to record HD tv.

 

[Stein]

Sounds like you toasted your MBR trying to resize.


For HTPC, XBMC is the only answer, (or boxee/other derivatives), works on all platforms. If you want to record TV shows, do it in windows as plug and play and mythtv are not synonimus.

I already repaired both my MBR (fixmbr) and my boot.ini (bootcfg /rebuild). I honestly have run out of ideas...

I bet the only thing left to do is reformat

.

Is XBMC an application or is it an entire OS? What distros does it work on?

whatever, I'll google anyway

edit: Wow, it looks amazing. I think the way I'll have it set up is this:

Primary OS: XBMC "live" on a small partition

Secondary OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

Tertiary OS: Ubunutu variant for full-linux-ness, incase XBMC live isn't the full OS (like if its just media, no web browsing or word processing, etc)

If XBMC Live is a full OS, I'll have XP as a third OS.

I think I remember there being a way to set up the MBR so that it will boot to one OS unless you tell it to do another, but I'm not 100% sure how to do this.

 

[Chris]

have you tried copying the mbr from another system and putting it on your system? Good chance it won't work... but it is one last fairly easy thing to do.

 

[Stein]

I could, but I'm the only computer running XP SP2 (all the other computers are vista or XP SP3).

I'm going to try FIXMBR again followed by FIXBOOT.

I'll be back soon!

edit: it fixed something... I now get an error again (so the system is trying to boot off the HDD and failing, as opposed to failing at trying to boot off the HDD). Before, I wasn't getting an error. It would just sit there (after trying to boot off of CD, which has priority over HDD booting)

The error is something like "There was an error reading the disk"

I'll restart to see the error again.

 

[Stein]

The error is

"A Disk read error occurred

Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart"

 

[Chris]

Sounds like something is wrong with the disk.... and it wouldn't hurt trying the mbr off an sp3 system. It is just 512k to back up... not like it takes forever or much storage.

I copy MBRs around linux systems all the time. It seems to work about half the time...

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

I already repaired both my MBR (fixmbr) and my boot.ini (bootcfg /rebuild). I honestly have run out of ideas...I bet the only thing left to do is reformat

.

Is XBMC an application or is it an entire OS? What distros does it work on?

whatever, I'll google anyway

edit: Wow, it looks amazing. I think the way I'll have it set up is this:

Primary OS: XBMC "live" on a small partition

Secondary OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

Tertiary OS: Ubunutu variant for full-linux-ness, incase XBMC live isn't the full OS (like if its just media, no web browsing or word processing, etc)

If XBMC Live is a full OS, I'll have XP as a third OS.

I think I remember there being a way to set up the MBR so that it will boot to one OS unless you tell it to do another, but I'm not 100% sure how to do this.

XBMC is a program, above I noted that it works on all platforms. Windows, Mac, and linux. Just download the program, slap on a good skin, point it at your media, and have fun.

As for your problem, I'd just say screw it and reformat. Windows likes reformats every once and a while, and the time you invest trying to solve your problem vs the time you invest reformating it may make more sense. Then again I suggest reformatting far to often so do as you wish.