Member Avatar for Mr. Bill Klepto

I have a Dell Inspiron 531 that was dual-booted with Windows Vista in my main partition and Ubuntu in a secondary volume. I was using the Grub Loader as my boot device. I was trying to extend my main partition and accidentally formatted the volume that I was shrinking which was the volume containing the Ubuntu and the Grub Loader. I have about 150 gigs of videos, music, games, and apps on the Windows partition and don't want to lose them.

So I didn't think anything of it and turned it off. Now I can't boot into Windows and I don't really want to use Ubuntu anymore. I tried reinstalling Grub off of the Ubuntu installation disk however the disk refuses to load. I tried upgrading Vista from the former Vista in hopes of getting the Windows boot device installed. However, it says I have to be in Windows in order to upgrade it and I can't get into windows without the boot.


Any help would be greatfully appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

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Plain explanation and practical next steps.

Most likely what happened is that the Linux partition contained GRUB's stage files and you formatted that partition; the MBR still points to GRUB but GRUB can no longer find its files, so the machine drops to a boot error even though the Windows partition and data are probably intact. Because was able to get a friend’s GRUB to chainload Windows, the priority now is to secure the data before attempting repairs.

If you can boot Windows (even via that temporary GRUB), immediately copy your important files to an external drive or make a full image of the Windows partition (use a disk-imaging tool or a simple file copy if that’s easier). Do not run further partitioning or formatting operations until you have a safe backup.

To restore the Windows Vista bootloader (use the Vista DVD or a Vista repair disc):

  1. Boot from the DVD, choose Repair your computer and try Startup Repair first (run it twice).
  2. If that fails, open Command Prompt from the recovery options and run these commands:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

If the BCD is stubborn, export and rename the old BCD and rebuild it (from the recovery command prompt):

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
attrib C:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
ren C:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd

If you can already boot into Vista, you can also recreate boot files from inside Windows with bcdboot C:\Windows (run as Administrator). If the Vista DVD won’t boot, check BIOS boot order, try another burned disc or a USB repair stick, or use a Linux live CD just to copy data first.

Final cautions: after repair, confirm the Windows bootloader works before removing any GRUB remnants. If anything looks unfamiliar (dynamic disks, RAID, OEM recovery partitions), or the BCD commands fail, stop and get help to avoid overwriting data. ’s pointer to use the Windows recovery media was on target — the recovery environment is the right place to fix this.

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Member Avatar for jbennet

start the windows cd. There is an option for recovery mode where you can reinstall the bootloader.

On xp you hit R, login then type fixboot, dont know about vista.

Member Avatar for Mr. Bill Klepto

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't try it to see if it works instead I just got a copy of Ubuntu from a friend and used the GRUB loader from that to boot into windows like I've been doing.

Member Avatar for jbennet

okay

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