At first, I had the opposite problem. It started out when I started up the computer and instead of being greeted by the openSUSE boot loader, it was immediately the Windows startup. Somehow Windows had decided not to respect the space. Or something.
So I tried fixing it, first with Super Grub Disc (which is rather confusing to try to use effectively), then with an openSUSE Live USB (YaST). (Now I’m trying to get Parted Live on my USB stick, but I’m having trouble with how to use syslinux. I think I’ll figure it out though.) I’m not sure how it happened, but now the boot loader is back, but Windows 7 does not boot from it. The error is as follows:
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
It seems I have either misplaced or removed BOOTMGR? Uh-oh.
chris@linux-nf92:~> sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/win7
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
Using HPFS results in the same error. I thought it would be one of these two, as YaST Expert Partitioner lists the following information:
Device:
Device: /dev/sda1
Size: 100.01 GB
Device Path: pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-1:0:0:0-part1
Device ID 1: ata-ST3160815AS_5RA0FRKY-part1
Device ID 2: scsi-SATA_ST3160815AS_5RA0FRKY-part1
Used By:
FS Id: 0x07 HPFS/NTFS
File System:
File System:
Mount Point: /windows/C *
Mount By: ID
UUID:
Label:
Encrypted: No
If necessary I can send you a file to try copying across, it can work sometimes, depending what you did.
see if you can get read/write to windows or else boot a live cd, that will give it to you.
If you used an install cd for opensuse you can boot into it and it should have a repair option. This will either allow opensuse to do an auto repair or you can selectively modify the boot .
Okay, now that the holidays are over it’s time to get back to work.
Got a new error:
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/win7
root's password:
Unexpected clusters per mft record (-1).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
Okay, so now I remember: ntfs-3g is what I would use before to mount the partition (when I was using openSUSE and wanted to access my Windows files). Now it doesn’t seem to work though. Looks like there’s an error having to do with clusters… and the MFT, which seems to stand for master file table.
Then I tried testdisk:
TestDisk 6.11, Data Recovery Utility, April 2009
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Disk /dev/sda - 160 GB / 149 GiB - CHS 19457 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 13055 32 31 209728574
Boot sector
Status: OK
Backup boot sector
Status: OK
Sectors are not identical.
A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.
GRUB is fine (or seems fine, as I can boot openSUSE just fine), it’s the matter of /dev/sda1 (Windows 7) not booting. It’s something wrong with that partition. (Boot sector? VBR? MBR?)
I think the issue I’m having is the pretty similar to the one that this person had:
My problem seems worse, though, as the backup didn’t seem to work. Or something.
Tried to rebuild the boot sector:
Disk /dev/sda - 160 GB / 149 GiB - CHS 19457 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 13055 32 31 209728574
filesystem size 209728574 204813049
sectors_per_cluster 8 8
mft_lcn 786432 786432
mftmirr_lcn 19535999 19535999
clusters_per_mft_record -10 -10
clusters_per_index_record 1 1
Extrapolated boot sector and current boot sector are different.
So I’m going to avoid the “write boot” option right now. They’re not supposed to be different, are they? Or are they supposed to be, if the current one is messed up? What should I do now?
What you do depends, what is on the partition. Is it possible to access it from a windows OS? If you boot Parted Magic - will it mount it and let you read it?
Okay, booted up Parted Magic, and it says sda1 is mounted now, but it doesn’t show any files. Says it’s a 97.66 GB partition (in the Mount-gtk window), but in PCManFM (oh nice, LXDE uses this) it says 0 visible items (0 hidden), 981.2 MB free space (Total: 1059.1 MB).
(Man, Parted Magic is awesome.)
EDIT: Okay… this actually made me laugh. I just rebooted after using Parted Magic… and now Windows boots, but not openSUSE. Oh geez. XD
EDIT(2): Oh, and I should mention. Rather than the boot loader of openSUSE, it was the plain GRUB menu that didn’t boot openSUSE.
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009106b
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13056 104864287 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 13057 14491 11526637+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 14492 19059 36692460 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 19060 19457 3196934+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 487 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000d5a58
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 487 3911796 6 FAT16
Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf87b4c9a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 60801 488384001 7 HPFS/NTFS
On an unrelated note, it’s good to see Chrome for Linux is finally working well enough to be chosen over Firefox – more compact, yes, but finally stable enough, apparently.
Now… the pretty openSUSE boot menu is back (yay!), and openSUSE successfully boots… But now when I select Windows instead, I get the “BOOTMGR is missing” error again.
Aw, and I thought my problems were now over. Well, I know Windows isn’t broken (I was able to log in and access my files fine a little while ago, before reinstalling GRUB), something is just broken or missing somewhere.
It’s the Windows 7 RC from this past summer. The DVD is currently… missing, along with many other discs I had, and a few other things… I think I may have left it at my dorm (at the school I no longer attend). I’ll be finding out from my former RA soon (once interim period begins) whether it’s there or not. If it is, it’s only an hour away, so.
Fortunately, I still have my Windows 7 RC product key, so if I don’t end up finding my DVDs (all their data besides some Linux discs I have on my external anyway), I can always find the RC ISO and burn it again…
Wait, would that have the recovery tool on it? Or does only the final release?
(EDIT: Oh, and yes, sdb was the pen drive that Parted Magic was on, and sdc was the external USB hard drive.)