Linux Messed Up My Mbr

[mike_rad]

SuSe was the distro that did it, but just a bit of background info beforehand. October last year I downloaded two distros, SuSe and Ubuntu, to try out on my new laptop which I planned to get in Delhi. I then proceeded to Goa where my plan was to learn Linux while spending a few months by the beach. The laptop had Windows 7 Home Basic on it and I wanted a dual boot system. So I started with Ubuntu (after booting from the live cd with both). Everything went smoothly for some time until it came up with an "installation aborted" error. Started the whole thing over again but same problem. So the only thing to do was to reboot into Win 7. During the boot process it gave a message saying there were errors on C drive and it would check the disk. That went as normal and the boot into Win 7 completed.

So I thought, that didn't work so I'll now try Suse. Some days later I did just that and after about 40 mins got a similar error message. This time when I tried to reboot back into Win 7 I got a black screen saying "no operating system found". The MBR was kaput. Luckily I had made some recovery disks so was able to reinstall it, though it took some hours.

I don't want to have to go through all this again but at the same time would really like to have a dual boot system. And now I have the time and the proper connection to try out another distro. Any suggestions?

[proximity]

Learn how to fix the MBR, five minute job.

[Crushdepth]

Ubuntu installs as a dual boot with Windows with no drama or messing about.

[User3]

From Ehow:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html

Sometimes you can corrupt Windows' MBR (Master Boot Record) unintentionally, through installation of another operating system for instance, and you need to repair it before Windows can boot again.

The error message that you usually get is "Operating System not found". Under Win 95, 98 and ME, you could have used a standard MS-DOS utility called FDISK in the Command Prompt console.

However, FDISK is not distributed with Win NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. So you either have to resort to finding an alternative utility called MbrFix.exe and run it from floppy, optical or USB drive or follow

these direction from the installation DVD to repair your MBR. While these directions are specific to Win 7, you maybe able to use the knowledge gained to apply to your particular Win install.

Google it.

I've used Ubuntu and have had no problems with it dual-booting nor had it screwing up a dual boot system. Again, Google is your friend as there is a wealth of info on various ways to set

up dual-boot systems.

[SoFarAndNear]

I think you should check your laptops HD with an analysis tool if the installation of ubuntu and Suse always fail with and similar error...Normally the ubuntu installer will install the mbr as a single step after the partitioning and the installation. So during the main installation the installer won't touch the MBR of your harddrives.

Edited December 30, 2010 by SoFarAndNear

[dharmabm]

Learn how to fix the MBR, five minute job.

might actually help to tell how, seeing as how it's so simple.

anyway, i have no experience with win7, but with XP you can boot from the cd, choose recovery mode, and run fixmbr from the command prompt. i imagine it is similar for win7, but can't look up the details right now as i am in khaoyai and my battery is running out. be aware though that installing linux ALWAYS overwrites you windoze MBR, although it usually detects your win installation and adds it to its own bootloader. you should probably do enough research to know about these few glitches before you install linux, although now you know the worst one (unless you happen to overwrite your windoze partition, in which case you are beyond help) ;>} this particular problem is very common, and as mentioned, very easy to fix without reinstallation. oh, and windoze will always run a disk scan after you install linux also, as it detects changes in your drive structure, but this is normal and should not be a problem. as to why you cannot get an install to finish, make sure you allow the installer to format your empty partition (NOT your windoze one, of course). otherwise you would have to provide more detail about how you are doing the installation for further assistance. let us know though, and i am sure one of us can help.

k

[keeniau96]

Two major stages in the repair.

First, recover the Win installation (fix the MBR) using the installation hard disk, then select the recover/restore option. Should work; if not you have to reinstall Windows.

Second, use the install from within Windows option for Ubuntu, Wubi. Download it here, read the instructions on that page:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer

Read the Wubi Guide instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

[Derifo]

Two major stages in the repair.

First, recover the Win installation (fix the MBR) using the installation hard disk, then select the recover/restore option. Should work; if not you have to reinstall Windows.

Second, use the install from within Windows option for Ubuntu, Wubi. Download it here, read the instructions on that page:

http://www.ubuntu.co...ndows-installer

Read the Wubi Guide instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

I've been installing and running Ubuntu since the days of Dapper Drake without issues. Recently I encountered the same problems the OP described in his post. I reinstalled windows several times and kept burning new installation discs ( CDs actually ). I got similar result from all my install discs from the Dapper days beside one. The Ubuntu Ultimate DVD, which led me to burn the 10:04 unto a DVD disc, and to my surprise, it went on smoothly. I problem was actually my DVD drive.

I'll implore you to try a DVD disc, and see if that will help your situation.

All the best.

[mike_rad]

Well, thanks for the replies. My gut feeling is that Windows maybe had something to do with it as this was in the early days of Win 7. Anyway, I'll download the latest Ubuntu and try again and see what happens (first I have to back up all my files).

[Gumballl]

Long ago when I dealt with dual-booting Windows and Linux, I felt like it was similar to playing Russian Roulette.

Fast forwarding to the 21st century... now there's no need to setup a dual-boot system. Consider setting up a virtual machine using VMware Player. Heck, you could install both SuSe and Ubuntu, and run them both simultaneously while running Windows.

P.S. Actually, VMware Server would probably be needed to run multiple "guest" OSes at the same time.

Edited January 3, 2011 by Gumballl

[dharmabm]

Long ago when I dealt with dual-booting Windows and Linux, I felt like it was similar to playing Russian Roulette.

Fast forwarding to the 21st century... now there's no need to setup a dual-boot system. Consider setting up a virtual machine using VMware Player. Heck, you could install both SuSe and Ubuntu, and run them both simultaneously while running Windows.

P.S. Actually, VMware Server would probably be needed to run multiple "guest" OSes at the same time.

virtualbox is an excellent open source alternative to VMWare

k

[volk666]

MBR has nothing to do with Windows installation per se and you need Windows recovery disks only if you specifically want to restore MBR as it was written by windows during windows install. I don't know why would one *need* that Windows MBR, it's a bitch to configure and any Linux install overwrites it anyway.

Basically MBR is just the first few bytes on a disk that point to hard disk partitions where various operating systems are located, nothing more.

Next time don't worry about it, you can't lose Windows because of the broken MBR, they are physically in different places on the disk, just install whatever Linux distro you have in the free space on your hard drive and then tweak the bootloader/MBR from that distro. Chances are it would discover and add your Windows installation automatically, if not, google for specific instructions on how to boot Windows from that particular bootloader.

The point is - you can't damage Windows by simply messing with MBR and it's a lot easier to fix MBR from Linux. Backing up is, of course, a good idea regardless, but don't panic if you get "operating system not found" message, it doesn't mean that operating system doesn't exist anymore, it's still there, quietly and helplessly waiting to be found.

BUT, if you start messing with disk partitions then you can really screw it up, be careful there, do not touch the partition that shows up as "Drive C" in Windows.

[Chicog]

If install Ubuntu it should detect the existing Windows installation and reinsert it into Grub. Just use the Grub defaults.

[mike_rad]

Long ago when I dealt with dual-booting Windows and Linux, I felt like it was similar to playing Russian Roulette.

Fast forwarding to the 21st century... now there's no need to setup a dual-boot system. Consider setting up a virtual machine using VMware Player. Heck, you could install both SuSe and Ubuntu, and run them both simultaneously while running Windows.

Well thanks for that but I wanted dual boot so I can set Linux as the default os and (eventually) only boot into Windows if need be.