(urgent help required)can't boot to windows

hi i’m using lenovo r61,pre-installed with windows vista,the partition are c,d,e and linux partition,.i installed opensuse in the linux partition,but after installing opensuse i could only boot to opensuse and when i click windows option in grub,it loops back to grub…

and the worst part i can’t access the c,d,e drives in places option of opensuse…please help me out,i have some very important stuff in d,e drives ,which i need quickly…

PLEASE HELP ME OUT WITH THIS,

Open a terminal and type: su
then your root password.

Now do:

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

post it here

also do:

fdisk -l

post it here too

Let’s get it booting first, then we’ll deal with read write access from linux

when i typed

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

the output was

linux-nyw9:/home/sridarshan # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Jul  8 22:43:15 IST 2009
default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,7)/boot/message
##YaST - activate





###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1
    root (hd0,7)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600BEVS-08RST2_WD-WXC508680018-part8 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600BEVS-08RST2_WD-WXC508680018-part7 splash=silent showopts vga=0x367
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default





###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1





###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.1
    root (hd0,7)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600BEVS-08RST2_WD-WXC508680018-part8 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x367
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default

and when i typed

fdisk -l[/DISK]
the output was

linux-nyw9:/home/sridarshan # 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: 0x97be5b6a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6376 51210944+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 6376 19457 105076881+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 6376 12752 51211408+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 12752 18152 43377660 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 18153 18414 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 18415 19067 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 19068 19457 3132643+ 83 Linux




thanx for taking interest in my topic ,please reply soon

I guess from what you posted that you need to change (0,0) in Windows part to (0,1).

P.S. If that will not work then your bst bet would be to recover the mbr with dd (backup is in the boot partition and is called backup_mbr).

To recover you do as root dd if=/boot/backup_mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 (this is to play safe and ONLY recover Vista’s bootloader).
After that try to fix the grub bootloader with the DVD (if you have one) and install grub to /boot partition and not the mbr.

changing (hd,0) to (hd,1) didn’t work:'(

please in codes give me the detail to fix mbr and restore grub,please

The windows entry should be like this

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1

i gave the command

dd if=/boot/backup_mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 

as told by BenderBendingRodriguez to restore the windows mbr,but after that when i rebooted i got an error message saying “no operating system found”

so i installed ubuntu on opensuse partition ,but now c drive is not detected by the computer,please ,what should i do?

You seem to be rushing into things. C drive is windows talk and complete nonsense because it means nothing.

Heavens knows what you have done. Can you boot Ubuntu?

ya ,i can boot to ubuntu,but it doesn’t detect c drive as i said,

Boot Ubuntu.

Open a terminal and do

sudo fdisk -l

post result

the output is


sridarshan@sridarshan-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for sridarshan: 

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x97be5b6a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        6376    51210944+   7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2            6376       19457   105076881+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5            6376       12752    51211408+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6           12752       18152    43377660    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7           18153       18276      995998+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8           18277       19457     9486351   83  Linux

Your windows partitions are still there.

So in the grub menu, is there an option to boot windows, but it doesn’t work?

Now you are using Ubuntu you might be better going there for advice. But be patient.

For now, you should be able to access the files in windows by mounting sda1, (I am not sure what you have on sda5 and sda6)

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

ya exactly ,there is option in grub for windows but when it’s not working

i dint do anything with sda5 and sda6,it get’s detected ,but not sda1
and when i

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

[/QUOTE]

i got this o/p

sridarshan@sridarshan-laptop:~$ sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
[sudo] password for sridarshan: 
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?

Really, I suggest you go to Ubuntu.

try

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

that too didn’t work

It would be better for You to boot in Windows and perform a diskcheck.

He can’t.
He could try super grub disk to see if that will boot his installed windows sys. If not I suspect he may have to fix the MBR with the XP cd

hey problem solved,i used vista recovery disk…it did not detect windows installation,but startup repair helped

anyways thanx for the effort guys

If you are having trouble dual booting, Caf’s suggestion of SuperGrub Disk is a good one - it’s certainly helped me out on a few ocassions.