Ok, I'll try to make this short because this is the second time I've written it (last time the browser crashed and I lost everything, grr!!!).
Situation 1: Working computer: HP dv5-1160us with windows vista and recovery partition.
Situation 2: working computer: Installed windows 7 between Vista and Recovery. Partitions: sda1: vista sda2: 7 sda3: recovery
Situation 3: Half-working computer (can boot fedora): Deleted partitions 1 and 3, moved partition 2 to the left and expanded, installed Fedora 12. Partitions: sda2: 7 sda1: /boot sda3: fedora
Situation 3: Half-working computer (can boot fedora): Relabeled partitions and reinstalled fedora. Partitions: sda1: 7 sda2: /boot sda3: fedora
I'm trying to fix the boot sector on Windows 7. After doing research (should have done it before, I curse myself for not researching), I found out that 7 installs its boot entry on Vista's boot sector and doesn't even write one of its own.
Here's the big issue: I've tried going into the Windows 7 install cd, running repair my computer and doing things from there, but the issue is it doesn't see my operating system (doesn't list it when you first select "repair my computer"). I've gone in manually to repair the bootloader by hand. I've used two sets of instructions, one of which I found on neosmart.net (google search neosmart Recovering Vista bootloader from DVD and you'll find it) which is the most comprehensive. It has me do the following commands:
del C:\boot\bcd (didn't work, there is no c:\boot. I had to mkdir c:\boot then move on)
bcdedit /createstore C:\boot\bcd.tmp (worked)
bcdedit.exe /store c:\boot\bcd.tmp /create {bootmgr} /d "Windows Boot Manager" (worked)
bcdedit.exe /import c:\boot\bcd.tmp (error: partition contains unrecognized file system. Please install drivers for hard drive then try again)
And that's as far as I've gotten. I've tried bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force, which says it worked, but then following it with a bootrec.exe /rebuild bcd lists windows 7, I hit accept, and it gives me the unrecognized file system error.
I'm at a loss here. I managed to make an image of that partition with linux to back up my data. Here's what I was thinking:
Option A: I reformat and reinstall, then copy the boot sector, put it into my image, then restore that image to the partition. Issues: I'm not sure how to add it to a .img.gz image I made with dd of a full partition.
Option B: I repair the boot sector on my Windows 7 partition. Issues: I don't know how or I would have done it already
Option last-resort-oh-god-please-no: I reformat and reinstall, back up my data, and eat the loss of all my programs. Issues: I like my programs and I don't know where to get them all again...Plus I don't want to have to re-purchase them all.
So there's my issue, sorry about the novel, but I'm trying to be specific and give you all the info you need to know. I'm also going to tag on the results of an fdisk -l from my linux so you all can see hopefully where the troubles lie.
[scott@Mike ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for scott:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x38c0dbaf
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 19122 153597433+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 19123 19148 204800 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 19148 38913 158766407+ 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/dm-0: 157.3 GB, 157257039872 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19118 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/dm-1: 5318 MB, 5318377472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 646 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
