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#16
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 20, 3:59*pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote:
I did say in my initial reply - the Admin password is *usually* NOT set to anything - therefo just press [ENTER] when asked for the Administrator password - instead of trying to enter one. You are nearly there! == Cheers, * *Tim Meddick, * *Peckham, London. * *:-) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * --------system32 Thank you once again, Tim. I booted again, and at the press ENTER? prompt, I entered 1, and at the request for an Administrator password, I hit Enter. I am now looking at the C:\WIDOWS prompt. I should have mentioned somewhere in this thread, that my computer experience has been, until last year when my wife gave me the Netook, entirely with Macintosh. I am retired, now working as an independent contractor, and my colleagues, all seniors, look to me for computer help at work, a Windows environment. This led to my wife's getting me the Netbook and my setting out to learning Widows. This is my first shot at serious troubleshooting in Windows. So, I read all your instructions again then entered FIXMBR. It produced dire warnings, "If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue." I continued, got "The new master boot record has been successfully written. Shut down, rebooted, and once again got: GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue Followed these instructions from you: If there is still a problem, repeat the above procedure to start Recovery Console again, then type in the command : FIXBOOT C: then press [ENTER] then again type EXIT then [ENTER] to reboot. If the XP partition is still intact, then usually just following the first part of this procedure should recover the MBR so that XP can be booted to again. Received this: The file system on the startup partition is NTFS FIXBOOT IS writing a new boot sector New boot sector was successfully written Exited & restarted holding down the f2 key to return the boot order to IDE HDD : Samsung at the top. And found myself once again back at: GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue Is there anything else that can be attempted in an effort to resolve this problem??? |
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#17
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
Carl, I am so sorry to hear of your continued problems.
However, I am truly heartened by your tenacity in getting the USB Recovery Console fully working for yourself. One thing - because you logged on to C:\WINDOWS you know your XP partition is still there, along with all your personal data! The next thing I would have advised, would be to start-up your PC with a Win98 floppy boot-disk. I would then have instructed you to type the command FDISK - which would list any partitions that still exist on the boot device. If the XP partition still existed you could make it bootable. But, as we are talking about a Netbook, this won't be possible. BTW - You are getting "GRUB loading" because the boot-sector (a small hidden section at the start of each partition) has been taken over by a Linux loading program written on to it, in place of the Windows boot-sector loading "program" which searches for NTLDR on C:\ The only thing I can then advise is to again, start up the PC with the bootable USB drive, then type *both* commands - one after another - without [re]booting in-between. FIXMBR C: FIXBOOT C: ....then reboot. This has worked for me in the past. And, if still no joy, reverse the order of the commands. I do feel quite confident that we will get there in the end... == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) "Carl" wrote in message ... On Apr 20, 3:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote: I did say in my initial reply - the Admin password is *usually* NOT set to anything - therefo just press [ENTER] when asked for the Administrator password - instead of trying to enter one. You are nearly there! == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) --------system32 Thank you once again, Tim. I booted again, and at the press ENTER? prompt, I entered 1, and at the request for an Administrator password, I hit Enter. I am now looking at the C:\WIDOWS prompt. I should have mentioned somewhere in this thread, that my computer experience has been, until last year when my wife gave me the Netook, entirely with Macintosh. I am retired, now working as an independent contractor, and my colleagues, all seniors, look to me for computer help at work, a Windows environment. This led to my wife's getting me the Netbook and my setting out to learning Widows. This is my first shot at serious troubleshooting in Windows. So, I read all your instructions again then entered FIXMBR. It produced dire warnings, "If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue." I continued, got "The new master boot record has been successfully written. Shut down, rebooted, and once again got: GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue Followed these instructions from you: If there is still a problem, repeat the above procedure to start Recovery Console again, then type in the command : FIXBOOT C: then press [ENTER] then again type EXIT then [ENTER] to reboot. If the XP partition is still intact, then usually just following the first part of this procedure should recover the MBR so that XP can be booted to again. Received this: The file system on the startup partition is NTFS FIXBOOT IS writing a new boot sector New boot sector was successfully written Exited & restarted holding down the f2 key to return the boot order to IDE HDD : Samsung at the top. And found myself once again back at: GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue Is there anything else that can be attempted in an effort to resolve this problem??? |
#18
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 21, 2:59*pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote:
Carl, I am so sorry to hear of your continued problems. However, I am truly heartened by your tenacity in getting the USB Recovery Console fully working for yourself. One thing - because you logged on to C:\WINDOWS you know your XP partition is still there, along with all your personal data! The next thing I would have advised, would be to start-up your PC with a Win98 floppy boot-disk. *I would then have instructed you to type the command FDISK - which would list any partitions that still exist on the boot device. *If the XP partition still existed you could make it bootable. But, *as we are talking about a Netbook, this won't be possible. BTW - You are getting "GRUB loading" because the boot-sector (a small hidden section at the start of each partition) has been taken over by a Linux loading program written on to it, in place of the Windows boot-sector loading "program" which searches for NTLDR on C:\ The only thing I can then advise is to again, start up the PC with the bootable USB drive, then type *both* commands - one after another - without [re]booting in-between. FIXMBR C: FIXBOOT C: ...then reboot. *This has worked for me in the past. *And, if still no joy, reverse the order of the commands. I do feel quite confident that we will get there in the end... == Cheers, * *Tim Meddick, * *Peckham, London. * *:-) Tim - Many thanks for your patience and perservance on this problem. I am away from my Netbook, visiting family in South Carolina for a few days, but will follow your instructins when I return home, early next week. I'll report on the results. Carl. |
#19
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
I look forward to it.
== Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) "Carl" wrote in message ... clipped I'll report on the results. Carl. |
#20
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 24, 9:50*am, Carl wrote:
On Apr 21, 2:59*pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote: Carl, I am so sorry to hear of your continued problems. However, I am truly heartened by your tenacity in getting the USB Recovery Console fully working for yourself. One thing - because you logged on to C:\WINDOWS you know your XP partition is still there, along with all your personal data! The next thing I would have advised, would be to start-up your PC with a Win98 floppy boot-disk. *I would then have instructed you to type the command FDISK - which would list any partitions that still exist on the boot device. *If the XP partition still existed you could make it bootable. But, *as we are talking about a Netbook, this won't be possible. BTW - You are getting "GRUB loading" because the boot-sector (a small hidden section at the start of each partition) has been taken over by a Linux loading program written on to it, in place of the Windows boot-sector loading "program" which searches for NTLDR on C:\ The only thing I can then advise is to again, start up the PC with the bootable USB drive, then type *both* commands - one after another - without [re]booting in-between. FIXMBR C: FIXBOOT C: ...then reboot. *This has worked for me in the past. *And, if still no joy, reverse the order of the commands. I do feel quite confident that we will get there in the end... == Cheers, * *Tim Meddick, * *Peckham, London. * *:-) Tim - Many thanks for your patience and perservance on this problem. I am away from my Netbook, visiting family in South Carolina for a few days, but will follow your instructins when I return home, early next week. I'll report on the results. Carl. Hi Tim - Back home. Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive. At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt and I entered FIXBOOT C: It returned, roughly; Target partition is C: Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition? Entered Y It returned, File system is NTFS, FIXBOOT writing a new bootsector, then, Successfully written. At the prompt, I typed Exit and the netbook restarted and since the flash drive was still in, it booted up from it. I shut down by holding down the on/off button and when it restarted, I was back to RUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I then reversed the order of the commands: FIXBOOT C first, FIXMBR second. Again, FIXBOOT successfully wrote a new bootsector and FIXMBR did not return any message. Typed EXIT, held down the f2 key, reordered the boot order putting the Samsung IDE HDD first, and exited saving that configuration. Again got GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I wrote in this much detail as the thought occurred that perhaps I was doing something wrong AFTER running the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands. Am I? As usual, many thanks. Carl |
#21
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
No, you did it correctly. I don't understand it... Admittedly, I am a little "hazy" on which command does what, but having executed both and in both and reverse order, *one* or other of the commands should have : FIXBOOT Re-written the bootsector - the beginning sector (sector 0) of a partition. FIXMBR Re-written the Master Boot Record (MBR) - the beginning sector of a hard-drive (sector 0) which contains the partition table and the loading code of the active O.S. ....so would have thought that this last command would have over-written the LINUX "Grub" loading code!!!??? If we were dealing with a PC and not a NetBook - I would have suggested starting with an M$-DOS bootdisk (floppy) and executing the program FDISK.EXE (same argument with using a PEbuild boot cd) With which you could have inspected the layout of partitions and made WINDOWS the *active* partition. The equivalent in the Recovery Console is the command : DISKPART Unfortunately, you can't make partitions "active" with this - only ADD or DELETE them. Typing : DISKPART will probably only confirm what I believe has happened here. 1. You deleted the UBUNTU partition. 2. The WINDOWS partition still exists intact. 3. The MBR written with the "Grub" loading-code stubbornly refuses to be repaired with the FIXMBR / FIXBOOT commands. BTW - I think I remember now the order I used the commands : FIXMBR FIXBOOT C: However, the DISKPART command may reveal some useful information. If you do use it, copy the resultant partition information down and post it here. == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) "Carl" wrote in message ... On Apr 24, 9:50 am, Carl wrote: On Apr 21, 2:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote: Carl, I am so sorry to hear of your continued problems. However, I am truly heartened by your tenacity in getting the USB Recovery Console fully working for yourself. One thing - because you logged on to C:\WINDOWS you know your XP partition is still there, along with all your personal data! The next thing I would have advised, would be to start-up your PC with a Win98 floppy boot-disk. I would then have instructed you to type the command FDISK - which would list any partitions that still exist on the boot device. If the XP partition still existed you could make it bootable. But, as we are talking about a Netbook, this won't be possible. BTW - You are getting "GRUB loading" because the boot-sector (a small hidden section at the start of each partition) has been taken over by a Linux loading program written on to it, in place of the Windows boot-sector loading "program" which searches for NTLDR on C:\ The only thing I can then advise is to again, start up the PC with the bootable USB drive, then type *both* commands - one after another - without [re]booting in-between. FIXMBR C: FIXBOOT C: ...then reboot. This has worked for me in the past. And, if still no joy, reverse the order of the commands. I do feel quite confident that we will get there in the end... == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) Tim - Many thanks for your patience and perservance on this problem. I am away from my Netbook, visiting family in South Carolina for a few days, but will follow your instructins when I return home, early next week. I'll report on the results. Carl. Hi Tim - Back home. Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive. At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt and I entered FIXBOOT C: It returned, roughly; Target partition is C: Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition? Entered Y It returned, File system is NTFS, FIXBOOT writing a new bootsector, then, Successfully written. At the prompt, I typed Exit and the netbook restarted and since the flash drive was still in, it booted up from it. I shut down by holding down the on/off button and when it restarted, I was back to RUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I then reversed the order of the commands: FIXBOOT C first, FIXMBR second. Again, FIXBOOT successfully wrote a new bootsector and FIXMBR did not return any message. Typed EXIT, held down the f2 key, reordered the boot order putting the Samsung IDE HDD first, and exited saving that configuration. Again got GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I wrote in this much detail as the thought occurred that perhaps I was doing something wrong AFTER running the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands. Am I? As usual, many thanks. Carl |
#22
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
Carl wrote:
Hi Tim - Back home. Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive. At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt You didn't do it right, FIXMBR uses the device name rather than the drive letter, for example: fixmbr \device\harddisk0 Note the double "dd" in the device name (hard+disk) To get a list of devices use the MAP command. If the syntax is correct you will get a warning message and you will be prompted to confirm the action. If you answer Y (yes) to confirm the action you will receive a message stating that a new master boot record was successfully written. If the syntax is incorrect you will be returned to the prompt without any message of any kind. You can also run the FIXMBR command without specifying any device and the MBR will be written to the boot device, here again you will receive a warning message and be asked to confirm the action. Fixmbr will surely dislodge the GRUB loader from the MBR, you just have to use the proper syntax. John |
#23
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
Sorry Carl (& John), I guess I did get that wrong.
I didn't realise that one would not get an error message if the syntax was out. However, if you read right through the tread - I first stated to issue the commands separately and did give the correct syntax (initially) : FIXMBR then, and / or : FIXBOOT C: ....and reading the replies, I believe he has done just that! == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) "John John - MVP" wrote in message ... clipped You didn't do it right,...... clipped |
#24
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
In , Carl typed: On Apr 24, 9:50 am, Carl wrote: On Apr 21, 2:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote: Carl, I am so sorry to hear of your continued problems. However, I am truly heartened by your tenacity in getting the USB Recovery Console fully working for yourself. One thing - because you logged on to C:\WINDOWS you know your XP partition is still there, along with all your personal data! The next thing I would have advised, would be to start-up your PC with a Win98 floppy boot-disk. I would then have instructed you to type the command FDISK - which would list any partitions that still exist on the boot device. If the XP partition still existed you could make it bootable. But, as we are talking about a Netbook, this won't be possible. BTW - You are getting "GRUB loading" because the boot-sector (a small hidden section at the start of each partition) has been taken over by a Linux loading program written on to it, in place of the Windows boot-sector loading "program" which searches for NTLDR on C:\ The only thing I can then advise is to again, start up the PC with the bootable USB drive, then type *both* commands - one after another - without [re]booting in-between. FIXMBR C: FIXBOOT C: ...then reboot. This has worked for me in the past. And, if still no joy, reverse the order of the commands. I do feel quite confident that we will get there in the end... == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) Tim - Many thanks for your patience and perservance on this problem. I am away from my Netbook, visiting family in South Carolina for a few days, but will follow your instructins when I return home, early next week. I'll report on the results. Carl. Hi Tim - Back home. Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive. At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt and I entered FIXBOOT C: It returned, roughly; Target partition is C: Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition? Entered Y It returned, File system is NTFS, FIXBOOT writing a new bootsector, then, Successfully written. At the prompt, I typed Exit and the netbook restarted and since the flash drive was still in, it booted up from it. I shut down by holding down the on/off button and when it restarted, I was back to RUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I then reversed the order of the commands: FIXBOOT C first, FIXMBR second. Again, FIXBOOT successfully wrote a new bootsector and FIXMBR did not return any message. Typed EXIT, held down the f2 key, reordered the boot order putting the Samsung IDE HDD first, and exited saving that configuration. Again got GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I wrote in this much detail as the thought occurred that perhaps I was doing something wrong AFTER running the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands. Am I? As usual, many thanks. Carl Carl, I haven't been following this thread, but here's my 2 ¢ anyway: You probably need to be doing those things from a bootable CD. Otherwise, fixMBR etc is going to write an entry for the current operating system which seems to be Ubuntu? . Same with fixboot/bootfix (I can never remember which it is). If you wanted it to be writing them for XP, and XP were the operating system you booted into on the hard drive, then the separate boot CD wouldn't be necessary. So, read up on fixmbr and fixboot, get a bootable CD/DVD, and go from there to be certain. Load windows from your bootable CD/DVD, use the Command Console and run fixmbr and fixboot that way. Otherwise they won't be writing data for XP and it'll fail. I think there are ways to tell fixmbr et al what to write, but I don't know what they are. Your research might uncover that when you read up on them. HTH, Twayne` |
#25
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PS How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
PS re the Subject line: You do not "clone" XP to a drive. A "clone" IS a
hard drive that contains the operating system. What you do is replace a bad drive with a "cloned" drive, and in theory it will start right up. Your problem could be in your understanding of what you're trying to achieve. Whatever it is, it is not "cloning ... back to your HD". HTH, Twayne` In , Carl typed: On Apr 24, 9:50 am, Carl wrote: On Apr 21, 2:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote: Carl, I am so sorry to hear of your continued problems. However, I am truly heartened by your tenacity in getting the USB Recovery Console fully working for yourself. One thing - because you logged on to C:\WINDOWS you know your XP partition is still there, along with all your personal data! The next thing I would have advised, would be to start-up your PC with a Win98 floppy boot-disk. I would then have instructed you to type the command FDISK - which would list any partitions that still exist on the boot device. If the XP partition still existed you could make it bootable. But, as we are talking about a Netbook, this won't be possible. BTW - You are getting "GRUB loading" because the boot-sector (a small hidden section at the start of each partition) has been taken over by a Linux loading program written on to it, in place of the Windows boot-sector loading "program" which searches for NTLDR on C:\ The only thing I can then advise is to again, start up the PC with the bootable USB drive, then type *both* commands - one after another - without [re]booting in-between. FIXMBR C: FIXBOOT C: ...then reboot. This has worked for me in the past. And, if still no joy, reverse the order of the commands. I do feel quite confident that we will get there in the end... == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) Tim - Many thanks for your patience and perservance on this problem. I am away from my Netbook, visiting family in South Carolina for a few days, but will follow your instructins when I return home, early next week. I'll report on the results. Carl. Hi Tim - Back home. Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive. At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt and I entered FIXBOOT C: It returned, roughly; Target partition is C: Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition? Entered Y It returned, File system is NTFS, FIXBOOT writing a new bootsector, then, Successfully written. At the prompt, I typed Exit and the netbook restarted and since the flash drive was still in, it booted up from it. I shut down by holding down the on/off button and when it restarted, I was back to RUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I then reversed the order of the commands: FIXBOOT C first, FIXMBR second. Again, FIXBOOT successfully wrote a new bootsector and FIXMBR did not return any message. Typed EXIT, held down the f2 key, reordered the boot order putting the Samsung IDE HDD first, and exited saving that configuration. Again got GRUB loading. error: no such partition grub rescue I wrote in this much detail as the thought occurred that perhaps I was doing something wrong AFTER running the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands. Am I? As usual, many thanks. Carl |
#26
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 27, 4:25*pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote:
No, you did it correctly. I don't understand it... Admittedly, I am a little "hazy" on which command does what, but having executed both and in both and reverse order, *one* or other of the commands should have : FIXBOOT Re-written the bootsector - the beginning sector (sector 0) of a partition. |
#27
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 27, 4:25*pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote:
No, you did it correctly. I don't understand it... Admittedly, I am a little "hazy" on which command does what, but having executed both and in both and reverse order, *one* or other of the commands should have : FIXBOOT Re-written the bootsector - the beginning sector (sector 0) of a partition. |
#28
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 27, 4:25*pm, "Tim Meddick" wrote:
No, you did it correctly. I don't understand it... Admittedly, I am a little "hazy" on which command does what, but having executed both and in both and reverse order, *one* or other of the commands should have : FIXBOOT Re-written the bootsector - the beginning sector (sector 0) of a partition. |
#29
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How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
On Apr 27, 5:25*pm, John John - MVP wrote:
Carl wrote: Hi Tim - Back home. *Started the netbook with the Windows Recovery flash drive.. At the prompt typed FIXMBR C; and hit Enter No text appeared, it simply brought me back to the prompt You didn't do it right, FIXMBR uses the device name rather than the drive letter, for example: fixmbr \device\harddisk0 Note the double "dd" in the device name (hard+disk) To get a list of devices use the MAP command. If the syntax is correct you will get a warning message and you will be prompted to confirm the action. *If you answer Y (yes) to confirm the action you will receive a message stating that a new master boot record was successfully written. *If the syntax is incorrect you will be returned to the prompt without any message of any kind. You can also run the FIXMBR command without specifying any device and the MBR will be written to the boot device, here again you will receive a warning message and be asked to confirm the action. Fixmbr will surely dislodge the GRUB loader from the MBR, you just have to use the proper syntax. John Hi John - Thank you for weighing in. The MAP command returned this: ? NTFS 6150MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1 C: NTFS 68653MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2 E: NTFS 39621MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3 D: FAT16 963MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1 What's the next step, gentlemen? Many thanks, once again, for your time and patience. Carl |
#30
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PS How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
Twayne, The OP has a NetBook - no cd\dvd drive - no floppy. (or I would have suggested using a Bart's PE cd....) He has gone to some trouble to get Recovery Console on a USB drive and can boot and load RC from that. I would have thought - and here's the problem - that the RC command - FIXMBR - should have over-written, and got rid of, the grub loader.... But it refuses to budge! == Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-) "Twayne" wrote in message ... clipped You probably need to be doing those things from a bootable CD....... clipped |
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