I've got a dual boot setup of Vista on C: and XP on D:, one drive. After doing an XP recovery with Norton Ghost, my XP partition wouldn't boot. It complained of a missing ntldr, so I figured I'd do a system repair with my XP CD. I allowed setup to load and it gave me a list of my drives, C: & D:. Unfortunately, it had been a while since I had done this and I thought that I would simply highlight the D: partition and select a "repair" option, but there was no such option. All I could do is install, delete, or reformat, so I rebooted. I guess by allowing the setup process to go that far my boot configuration data was overwritten. Now I've lost my dual boot menu and can't load Vista either. What's the damage here? Is there any way to "undo" the setup process I inwittingly initiated and return my boot menu/configuration to the way it was before? Thanks a million in advance, Shant
Update: I think the damage is worse than I thought. I tried to navigate to my C: drive through the Vista boot disk and it flat out can't read anything that's on that drive. It tells me I need to format it. That drive had everything on it. It was partitioned into 3 sections, C: with Vista on it, D: with XP, & E: with hundreds of gigs of backup data. Those partitions are no longer visible, nor any of the data on them. Also, there is a new drive with drive letter X: labeled "Boot", probably created by the XP setup. How on Earth did this happen!? I never initiated the XP setup! Why did it erase my partition info? Is there any way to get those partitions to read as they were before? If I'm able to dodge this bullet, I damn well may start going to church again...please help!
Chances are the data is still there since it is in another partition,what likely happened is the partition tables have become corrupted or you may find the partitions are hidden especially when using ghost,first off do not run chkdsk,there are linux OS's that you can use to recover data,however if the tables can't be read your best bet would be Acronis partition manager to see if it can read & repair as it is a live cd but is trial only,apart from that there isn't much else i can advise on
Actually I created the partitions using Acronis. I'll have to pick up a new disk though, as I obviously can't do anything within Windows now. So you're saying if I run Acronis as a boot disk, I might be able to...what, repair the partitions? Can Acronis do that from outside Windows?
It may be able too or at least may be able to recover the partitions,i use partition magic 8,tho it's old & symantec have'nt updated it in a while occasionally it works,however in your case i would put the drive in as a slave or an external housing & run partition managers or use a linux live cd,searching these forums you should come across recommendations on using a linux live cd,as they too can be used to recover data tho it won't recover partitions EDIT: If i was in your shoes this is what i'd ,however there is no guarantee it will work run partition manager as live,see if it can read the hdd & locate any partitions,by rights the data partition should still be intact,if it can't see it check to make sure it hasn't been hidden,the partition manager should have a function to unhide it, tho it should still show up in the graph window but will label it HIDDEN,ok if it can see the data by rights you should be able to install that drive into an external to recover the data.The other scenario is the first two partitions are stuffed in which case you may be able to delete them & create one big one with any luck the last partition will become ok,tho it's a long shot,either way be prepared to have lost all data,I've been there done that which is why i now keep dual backups for everything,in other words the main data plus two extra's on externals The other issue you may have is the what i call the yellow flag basicly the manager displays the drive in yellow outline,if that's happened you've lost your data
You're a star mate. I'm gonna have to try your suggestions as I am unwilling to say goodbye to all that data. Not worried about the operating systems, I'm worried about that 3rd partition, as it has over a year's worth of files I'd been accruing. And it also has my operating systems backed up with ghost, so if I can access that 3rd partition, I can recover everything. The absolutely disgusting part is I had a brand new drive unused, installed, & just sitting there which is where I should've been saving my backup data instead of that 3rd partition but I wanted to save that drive for my music samples down the road...how could I be so stupid. Someone else has reccomended I do a fixboot, from the Vista boot disc. I doubt that will fix anything, but can I hurt things any worse by trying?
Yeah, that fixboot was no good because it tells me the c: drive has a non-recognized file system. It goes straight to this new X: volume that the XP setup disc created. Tell me, is this X: volume (about 30MB) a new partition created onto my C: drive? Or is it possible it's operating out of ram? If it's yet another partition created on that C: drive, that's really not good... Any Known ways to get rid of that X: partition? Would doing so help our situation?
Update 2: I decided to disconnect the bad drive and connect a brand new drive which is now the only drive on the system. I began to install Windows XP so that I could get back into windows and then run some partition utilities on the bad drive. Unfortunately, after the installation reaches its first restart, I get an error message "error loading windows". Apparently that X: drive is the culprit and it's still there. Even when I disconnect all the hard drives that X: drive is still there, and I believe it contains boot info that's throwing the system off, preventing me from booting anything. Problem is I can't find any way to get rid of it. I try formatting it, it tells me it's a 'right protected disk'. I try to delete it with the Ghost utilities disc, it tells me that my current windows system is on drive X: and deleting it may mess up my system. So the question now becomes, where on the system is this partition if it's not on any of the hard drives? Is it in the ram? And, most importantly, how the to I get rid of it??
Update 3: Got Vista up and running on the new drive, had to replace my ram with an older stick. When setup is finished updating, I'll put the newer ram back. So strange... Now it's just a matter of seeing what these partition utilities can do. I'll start with Acronis, then Partition Magic 8. If anyone else has a personal favorite utility for partition recovery please let me know.
By rights you won't need partition magic 8,Acronis part manager should do the job (there are no freebie managers that come close too them),for now just see what partitons if any are there,i suspect the X partition is a creation of the install of xp on the hdd,it's a good chance that's where the issue is in not seeing the other partitions,if acronis lets you scan for recoverable partitions do it,however because it's a trial it may not let you recover them,but a least you'll know they're there My guess is the X partition has upset the mapping of the drive & is why recognizing it is an issue,the real problem begins when if deleting the X partition whether or not the data partition becomes seeable or not,i've been in a similar situation a few years ago when an install turned to custard,luckily i was able to delete the first partitions & remake one big one which allowed my data partition to become accessible,however your situ is different to mine in that a created install partition was made in the middle & on top of an already made partition EDIT: Having two hdd's with backups is better than only one hdd & adding a ghost image to dvd is a safe guard also,since your starting from scratch i'd recommend a backup image of the fresh install with minimal 3rd party software,that way you'll have a clean slate to start from if you need to revert Since your into imaging like me you'll find this site below more than helpful if you run into issues,in fact they may be able to help with your issue http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl EDIT 2: Something isn't making sense you loaded the xp cd so all there was is the graphical screen but coz there was no repair function you rebooted,this would not cause a partition to be made,it can't I've done this myself & nothing at that stage is written to the hdd it's all loaded to ram,it sounds like install was hit then the comp shutdown leaving what i assume is a 30mb virtual ram partition on the hdd, i'm just think'n aloud at the mo
One thing about windows xp, when you restore it (from ghost or true image etc), there are times when the drive letters will get changed around. The error you receive "missing ntldr" is a sign that windows xp is looking for that file in the wrong partition. (boot.ini or drive letter problem). To fix this problem you need the free "paragon rescue kit 9.0" it's a bootcd that can fix these boot problems. It's good to have this utility for future use it has save me numerous times. For partition recovery of a corrupt system files, a chkdsk or scandisk is the easiest and safest fix. More powerful tools are available from the free "testdisk" that has a "photorec" addon that can recover data from a corrupted drive. If you can get your partitions to show backup, you can use the vista installation dvd to repair the vista bootloader, and get vista to bootup. Then you can use the rescue kit to fix your xp to boot.
Update: I've totally given up on trying to salvage the partitions on that drive. The partitions are still there and I've in fact been able to recover all the data, but as for fixing the drive to get it to its previous state, nothing but nothing worked. It's OK, as long as I've got the data I'm happy. What I'm going to do now is re-format the bad drive, and then put all this recovered data onto it. Then I'll repartition the drive I'm currently using just like the bad drive was partitioned, and hopefully I can just ghost the operating systems to the new drive and all will be as it was. It has been so long since I setup the dual boot I totally forgot how I did it, and looking at instructions online is daunting to say the least. I don't want to go through that again, hopefully restoring a ghost image of a pre-existing dual boot system will work. ScorpNZ - I've since found out that the X: drive is harmless, it's not written to the hard drive but rather ram. But you were absolutely right, simply loading up the XP setup and restarting before anything was ever written should NOT have had such an impact. It makes no sense but I promise you the installation process was never initiated. I never made it past the screen that displayed my current partitions. This will remain a mystery to me, but one I frankly don't care to ponder ever again.
If you have the original vista/xp on a ghost backup, you should be able to restore it back the way it was. Just make sure to restore the MBR, that will have all the necessary info needed to boot vista. If xp doesn't boot when restored, use the free paragon rescue kit 9.0, that can fix xp boot problems.
I have Vista and XP on ghost backups, seperately. I've decided rather than to restore the old Vista, I'm gonna keep my current Vista installation as I've got it running the way I like. So, I'm gonna restore the XP backup and keep the current Vista. Can I take the MBR off that backup and write over the current Vista mbr? Should I do that before or after I restore the XP backup? What other files do I need to copy off the old Vista backup to the new one to make the dual boot work?
Ghost has a browser & recovery thing to get any files you need off created images,personally you'd be better off putting xp on a 2nd drive.
This site has some guides on how to repair a dual boot. It might give you some more ideas. http://www.vistabootpro.org/index.php/site/information/docs_and_guides/
Well, just thought I'd let you all know that, utilizing Ghost v14.0 & VistaBootPro, everything is working again. Better than before in fact, as my Vista OS wasn't working right before all this happened. Now it runs like a dream. And I have to stress something which is a pet peeve of mine: everyone should be using Ghost or similar backup/restore program. If you go through your computer life without using Ghost or something like it, you are really missing out. Not only does it save your a$$ in situations like this, but it also completely irradicates the threat of catching a virus. No antivirus software running in the background means you have resources freed up. I haven't used an antivirus program in years and my system is clean as a whistle. If you've ever found yourself on these forums worried about your system or your data, get Ghost, an extra hard drive, and make life easy on yourself. I'd just like to extend a final thank you to everyone here who helped me with this, especially my friend from New Zealand, scorpNZ. There's no better man than he who goes out of his way to help a stranger. It's nice to know that people have your back in case of times like this. Shant D.
sif,sif cheers for the accolades "man" now you've made me all emo like ya say ghost or acronis along with a partition manipulation manager ya can't go wrong I'll have to try a dual boot with windows on two partitions to see if ghost 12 can do it,by the way you can get a release candidate of windows 7 to try out for free until it goes retail,i'm gonna install it into a vpc to see what it's like then will try a dual boot http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
