My Vista 64U is bootable, so can I write a new mbr without booting to the install cd? I have ubuntu on a secondary drive, and I can't remove the drive because somehow it messes with the boot loader. I'd like to just write new boot info to my C: so I can remove the other drive. Bootrec.exe does not seem to be installed, nor fdisk.exe. Is there some kind of admin pack that has those tools in it?
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my vista is bootable, can i fix the mbr anyway?
- Thread starter jmille34
- Start date
I'm not sure about the Linux side of things, but see if these help anyway.
VistaBootPRO
Used EasyBCD
For Vista's built-in boot program, try bcdedit /? from an elevated command prompt.
VistaBootPRO
Used EasyBCD
For Vista's built-in boot program, try bcdedit /? from an elevated command prompt.
if Linney's suggestions do not work...
then you need to:
1.) remove the LINUX Drive...
2.) boot into VISTA with the CD...
3.) FIX the BOOT Partition with VISTA... it should be one of the first options when you boot...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
then you need to:
1.) remove the LINUX Drive...
2.) boot into VISTA with the CD...
3.) FIX the BOOT Partition with VISTA... it should be one of the first options when you boot...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
- Thread starter
- #4
I left my vista dvd at work. I can't believe there isn't an exe already on the c: to do this. I tried the neosmart link above, but it didn't work. It detected the non standard mbr, but it couldn't fix it. Bcdedit doesn't seem to have any mbr options. This seems like such a basic thing, I'm really kind of astounded that I have to use a boot disk. Oh well, no biggie, just making sure I wasn't missing something.
Any clues here?
315224 - How to Remove the Linux LILO Boot Manager
314458 - How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP
Have a look at Vista's Startup Repair, if you have to take out the whole bootloader and bootmanager.
Getting rid of Vista
315224 - How to Remove the Linux LILO Boot Manager
314458 - How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP
Have a look at Vista's Startup Repair, if you have to take out the whole bootloader and bootmanager.
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EX
Getting rid of Vista
- Thread starter
- #6
Well, I fixed it the one way that I was almost 100% sure would work: I got on msdn and downloaded the 3.7gig iso for vista x64, boot to that, got to the command prompt, and did bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot, and bootrec /rebuildbcd.. I'm not sure which one does the trick, probably one of the first two, but either way, it took Grub completely out of my startup, and I was able to unplug the second drive. Thanks for digging up those links, though, it still seems like there should be a way to do it from within Vista, but maybe not.
A bit of trivia for anyone who cares: Adaptec does not have drivers for Vista x64 for their ubiquitous AHA2940 UW SCSI PCI controller card. As a result, the secondary drive that has linux on it would never ever power down and could not be controlled by ACPI. I'm not 100% sure that it would have worked even with a driver, but I think it did work correctly when I was running XP x64. I only use Linux on this machine every once and a while just to mess around, so I don't need that 10k scsi drive heating up my chassis the rest of the time, ESPECIALLY since it won't power down automatically. But the stinkin' linux Grub boot manager installed onto the MBR on my sata drive with Windows, but when grub runs, it reads config files from the scsi drive, so grub would fail if I unplug the scsi drive. As a result, I couldn't get Vista to boot either. So my 10k scsi drive was only running a boot loader, which seems.... excessive
Anyway, thanks again for all the links.. except the 4th one in the post above this.. why would I want to get rid of vista?
I actually really really like Vista. I seem to be one of the few, but I always hated XP, and I love Vista, especially x64.. runs games and everything, smooth as silk.
A bit of trivia for anyone who cares: Adaptec does not have drivers for Vista x64 for their ubiquitous AHA2940 UW SCSI PCI controller card. As a result, the secondary drive that has linux on it would never ever power down and could not be controlled by ACPI. I'm not 100% sure that it would have worked even with a driver, but I think it did work correctly when I was running XP x64. I only use Linux on this machine every once and a while just to mess around, so I don't need that 10k scsi drive heating up my chassis the rest of the time, ESPECIALLY since it won't power down automatically. But the stinkin' linux Grub boot manager installed onto the MBR on my sata drive with Windows, but when grub runs, it reads config files from the scsi drive, so grub would fail if I unplug the scsi drive. As a result, I couldn't get Vista to boot either. So my 10k scsi drive was only running a boot loader, which seems.... excessive
Anyway, thanks again for all the links.. except the 4th one in the post above this.. why would I want to get rid of vista?
I actually really really like Vista. I seem to be one of the few, but I always hated XP, and I love Vista, especially x64.. runs games and everything, smooth as silk.Glad you got it finally...
though I have to disagree about GRUB... only the drive information (what is where) was kept in the LINUX partition on that SCSI drive, and the BOOT loader itself was on your SATA drive... so when that information was missing GRUB does not know what to do, ergo it balked completely... that is why I keep my LINUX boot partition on a seperate drive, and either boot through a floppy (or USB stick) or by switching boot drives in the BIOS...
if you had a driver for that 'ancient' AHA2940, for XP 64, it should have worked for VISTA aswell... I had a similar problem with another IO device at work and the XP 64 driver did work for me...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
though I have to disagree about GRUB... only the drive information (what is where) was kept in the LINUX partition on that SCSI drive, and the BOOT loader itself was on your SATA drive... so when that information was missing GRUB does not know what to do, ergo it balked completely... that is why I keep my LINUX boot partition on a seperate drive, and either boot through a floppy (or USB stick) or by switching boot drives in the BIOS...
if you had a driver for that 'ancient' AHA2940, for XP 64, it should have worked for VISTA aswell... I had a similar problem with another IO device at work and the XP 64 driver did work for me...
Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
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