HELP cant load Vista

jakey21

New Member
Hello, I just recently purchased a HP laptop with centrino 2 P8400 processor. Now I can not connect to my college's VPN client because Cisco does not support 64 bit OS. So i figured i could install ubuntu and use the linux client download. So I installed ubuntu and it didnt read my wireless so i booted back to vista and deleted the partition set up in vista native partion manager. Before I shut my computer down i forgot to install easy bcd and have it reinstall vista boot loader. So now when i boot my computer it says grub blah blah and cant load anything. I figured that if i pressed F8 or something it will give me the option to do a start up recovery but it will not let me use any of the F buttons. So my question is how do i get Vista to reload normally, without having to do a full system recovery. I have to much important info on that and cant back it up because to get to back up manager i have to use the recovery cds so that leaves the cd.dvd burner full. Any suggestions will greatly be appreciated. I just downloaded the vista x64 bit recovery disc from neosmart files and havent tried that yet. If i reinstall ubuntu will that let me select another operating system when i reload or will it let me select Vista then when that loads give me the grub error? Sorry for the length.

also i forgot to add that i tried to do a system restore from previous point and that didnt help
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Centrino 2 P8400
    Memory
    4GB
Are you able to do a complete original factory restoration?
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    E6850
    Motherboard
    EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 680i
    Memory
    4 x OCZ Platinum 1GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB
    Sound Card
    SB X-Fi X Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 23" 5MS
    Screen Resolution
    2048 x 1152
    Hard Drives
    2 x Barracuda 7200.10 320GB RAID 0 / 1 x 500GB Maxtor
    PSU
    Seasonic 600W M12
    Case
    CM Centurion 5
    Cooling
    air
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
The trouble with a "complete original factory restoration" is that you will lose all your saved documents etc.

There are several different ways you could go...

The most simple way:
You could remove the hard disk and connect it to another Windows computer using a USB adapter. There you can copy all your docs from it onto another hard disk or DVDs. Then it will be OK to do a full restore to the original factory state, and then copy your docs back. With this method, you will need to reinstall your programs.

--------------

There are other repair plans you could use instead, if you want to avoid having to start from scratch with a fresh Vista OS, so you can keep your installed programs and settings in Vista -- by only fixing Vista's bootup. This should be possible but it's a bit more complicated to sort out.

The Ubuntu installer has a few options, such as installing its Grub bootlaoder into the MBR or into the Linux partition. Therefore I can't be sure what the current situation is. So I have to write methods which cover all the possible changes made by installing Linux.

Alternative plans all have the same goals:
- if the Linux installer replaced the MBR boot code with Grub's code, restore the standard MBR code which always boots whichever partition is set Active in the partition table.
- if the Linux installer changed which partition is set Active, change it back to Vista's partition being the active one.
- if the Linux installer overwrote some of Vista's startup code on Vista's partition, restore Vista's code there.

EasyBCD can do all those things (except maybe switching which partition is set Active, which you could do just before running EasyBCD). Trouble is you can only run EasyBCD in Vista or XP booted from the hard disk.

Alternatively the Repair feature on the standard bootable Vista DVD can also fix those things. As this is a laptop you don't have a standard Vista DVD but I think the recovery disk you downloaded from neosmart includes Vista's boot repair thing.

-----------------

Before running EasyBCD, or the recovery disk's repair program, I would first check which partition is set active. Those repairers always write Vista's startup files onto the Active partition, and you want to be sure that will be Vista's partition.

You can do it by using the partition manager program on the Ubuntu live CD, without having to reinstall Linux onto the HD. It calls it "setting a partition's Boot Flag on" which means exactly the same as "setting it Active" which is what Windows calls it.

Setting a partition's Boot Flag on automatically removes the boot flag from every other partition, because only one partition on each hard disk can be the Active one (i.e. the partition which will get booted by the MBR).

----------------

"If i reinstall ubuntu will that let me select another operating system when i reload "

That would probably work. It's an alternative to using the Vista boot repair on the recovery CD from neosmart, if you'd rather use EasyBCD.

You could install Ubuntu the same way you did before. When you reboot, Grub's boot menu should let you boot a choice of Linux or Vista (if not you can tweak Grub's settings while in Linux). In Vista, you could run EasyBCD to fix Vista's boot. EasyBCD includes a command for "Write MBR" which is probably the main thing which needs fixing.

IF the Ubuntu and Grub installer also changed which partition is set active (I'm not sure whether it does that) you will need to set it back to Vista's partition as described above, just before running EasyBCD.

By the way, after EasyBCD has switched it back to using Vista's boot loader instead of Grub, EasyBCD can optionally add Linux to Vista's boot menu (so the dual booting is being done by Vista instead of by Linux). If you intend to delete Linux you will only want Vista on the new boot menu of course.

--------------

There's just one more problem:
With some brands of laptop, instead of the usual MBR code written by Vista it uses a special MBR code. That's how it enables the feature where you can press a certain Function key at startup to run the recovery program in the hidden recovery partition.
Probably Grub overwrote that.
After you fix the MBR (by using the downloaded recovery disk or EasyBCD) you will have Vista's standard code there, so you won't be able to press the Function key to start the recovery partition's program, if you ever need to in the future. I don't know how to work around that, except with special recovery CDs made for your laptop.

IF your kind of laptop does use an unusual MBR code like that, maybe you can get a copy of it to write onto your HD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
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