How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?
in [Windows XP New Users]
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From: Carl on 27 Apr 2010 14:54 On Apr 24, 9:50 am, Carl <carlhamm...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Apr 21, 2:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" <timmedd...(a)gawab.com> 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
From: Tim Meddick on 27 Apr 2010 16:25 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" <carlhammel1(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:0461e6b1-9f07-42a2-b5e1-da8daaf4969c(a)r1g2000yqb.googlegroups.com... On Apr 24, 9:50 am, Carl <carlhamm...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Apr 21, 2:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" <timmedd...(a)gawab.com> 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
From: John John - MVP on 27 Apr 2010 17:25 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
From: Tim Meddick on 27 Apr 2010 17:49 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" <audetweld(a)nbnot.nb.ca> wrote in message news:eZfv0Al5KHA.3184(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... > > < clipped > > You didn't do it right,...... > > < clipped >
From: Twayne on 28 Apr 2010 13:17
In news:0461e6b1-9f07-42a2-b5e1-da8daaf4969c(a)r1g2000yqb.googlegroups.com, Carl <carlhammel1(a)gmail.com> typed: > On Apr 24, 9:50 am, Carl <carlhamm...(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> On Apr 21, 2:59 pm, "Tim Meddick" <timmedd...(a)gawab.com> >> 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` |