Royally screwed up when trying to install Ubuntu

B

brucebochy

n00b
Joined
Jan 15, 2005
Messages
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I kind of blindly rushed through the steps in Partition Magic when trying to create a new partition for Ubuntu and now I can't boot into windows (which is now on drive E:/...). I think I may have screwed things up even more when I went into the Windows recovery console and use the "fixmbr" command, but I'm not sure.

I thought maybe I could boot into Ubuntu or Knoppix live cd and try to recover the data from my windows installation that way (which is my only concern right now), but I'm unable to even run a live CD.

I also tried going into the windows set up to perhaps try doing a "repair install" of windows, but it shows my partition as "os2 / inactive".

At this point I don't really know what to do. Any help in fixing this, or at least recovering my data would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
If you can't run a live CD, than you have either a hardware issue, or something configured wrong in the BIOS.

On a future note, if you want to play around with Linux, a VM is a much better and safer route.
 
From my own personal experience, every single time I've used partitioning tools such as Partition Magic, I've had to format, rebuild my partitions with Windows OS (or FDisk pre-XP), and reinstall. I'm talking, every-single-time.

With a virtual machine, you wouldn't have had this issue. Your method you used was very old school.
 
You stated that you couldn't even use a liveCD to boot the computer. Did you:
  1. Make sure that the BIOS is set to boot CD/DVD first?
  2. Boot the liveCD in a different machine to check if it was a bad burn?
  3. Use any other bootable discs (like your XP disc) to test the drive?
  4. Use any of the alternative boot options on the disc (like a "non-graphical" or "2" mode)?

If the CD booted in the other computer but the rest of the options failed, then it's likely you have a hardware problem on your hands now from a disconnected drive to a bad PSU.

Just a minor suggestion: junk your Partition Magic software and take a look at PartedMagic for any future disk partitioning (it's free to download and well-maintained). Partition Magic was great partitioning software several years back, but it's not been updated for some time (even though it's still being sold which should be a crime itself) and can wreak havoc on some NTFS partitions created by Vista and some other nasty things.
 
Damn Bob, you're stealing my material with those comments about Partition Magic. ;)

I would agree, of course, and point out the Ubuntu installer can handle the necessary partitioning to give itself some room on a drive - I wonder why so many people don't get that. Perhaps Ubuntu needs to make it VERY CLEAR at the beginning of the installation and not 5 or 6 steps into the process. I would think partitioning the drive/making space for Ubuntu is infinitely more important than setting the damned time zone info or the keyboard language and the other steps before it gets to the actual partitioning, but that's just me I guess.

Parted Magic should allow the OP to revert the partition type of his Windows partition back to a proper Windows one (NTFS) and then using the OS CD (he didn't state it's XP or Vista or whatever) to get to the Recovery Console (not a Repair installation, that's the difference here). Once you get to the Recovery Console, log into the Admin account if you created an Admin password - if you didn't just press Enter when prompted for the Admin password - and run these commands in this sequence:

fixmbr (then press Enter, press Y for Yes, press Enter again)

fixboot (then press Enter, press Y for Yes, press Enter again)

exit

That'll reboot and if you pop the CD out it should bring Windows back to a bootable state. Now, as for the system drive letter being changed, can't do much about that (it's possible to alter it but I'm not going to get into all that right now). Might be a good idea to consider a reinstallation of Windows if you have issues with any of this, but getting your files back is always a consideration as well. If you end up needing to do some data recovery, TestDisk is a great tool, and like Parted Magic it's free as well and regularly updated.

Good luck, regardless...
 
If you want to use proprietary disk-management software, Acronis Disk Director Suite and Acronis True Image are far, far better options than Partition Magic. I've been using Acronis for a while (for both Windows and Linux partitions) and never had a problem.
 
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