Linux install apparently destroyed my Windows MBR or Boot partition (Win7 on a separate hard drive)
by AnneF from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5C9E1)
There are 3 hard drives, with Win7 Pro 64-bit on 500GB Disk0
(sda1) Fat32 labeled "Filesystem, EFI"
(sda2) labeled "MS reserved"...
(...are the only places I see where the Win7 boot information could be - I assume the FAT32 partition contains the Boot Info)
(C) (sda3) NTFS labeled "C-System"
(D) (sda4) NTFS Labeled "D-NTFS-Data"
----------------------------
I couldn't find out what I needed to know about Linux without actually installing it {on 500GB Disk1 sdb (ext4), partitioned as sdb1 (/boot) (sdb5 (/) FileSystemRoot, sdb6 (/Swap), sdb7 (/home). (Rufus).
However, the Ubuntu 20.04 Linux install apparently destroyed/overwrote my Windows MBR and/or Windows7 Boot Loader, so that now I cannot boot into Windows 7. I'm desperate because all my work software is on the window disk drive.
I have Acronis True Image files of Partition C (Win7 System), as well as backups of Partition D (my data) and I have tried to restore the C partition (including track 0) by booting from CD and restoring an image. This did not work, I suppose because the problem is not in Partition C, but in the two preceding (but hidden if I remember correctly) first two partitions. When I tried to boot from CD and "Repair" the Win7 install (I don't remember seeing anything that would allow me to "restore" the MBR or Boot Loader), that did not work either.
I tried to re-install Windows7, but apparently the CD I have won't do a clean install.
I do have an old Windows XP CD that IS an install CD - is the boot info the same in both Win7 & XP?
I read what's on the forum that pertained to this problem. Nice to know I'm not the only one this has happened to, but I didn't understand the suggestions well enough to implement them.
I had been concerned that Windows would not play nice with Linux - I had no idea that installing Linux would kill Windows like this.
Can any of you help me with steps 1,2,3 etc., in plain English, that I need to do to be able to boot into Windows again? I'm dead in the water and wouldn't be writing this if I couldn't get into Linux. However, I have work that I cannot do in Linux at this time, and also the Firefox that Linux installed is so old that profile-data- transfer doesn't even exist in it, plus after a few uses, Firefox lost formatting and often won't render pages correctly enough to use. I tried to find a Linux Firefox v80 that I could install to this distro, but found I have to "wait till Ubuntu updates it".
I'm just about ready to cry right now. I hope one of you brilliant help-givers can help me get back into Windows7. Thank you for being so generous with your time to provide this forum to help boneheads like me. --AnneF
.
(sda1) Fat32 labeled "Filesystem, EFI"
(sda2) labeled "MS reserved"...
(...are the only places I see where the Win7 boot information could be - I assume the FAT32 partition contains the Boot Info)
(C) (sda3) NTFS labeled "C-System"
(D) (sda4) NTFS Labeled "D-NTFS-Data"
----------------------------
I couldn't find out what I needed to know about Linux without actually installing it {on 500GB Disk1 sdb (ext4), partitioned as sdb1 (/boot) (sdb5 (/) FileSystemRoot, sdb6 (/Swap), sdb7 (/home). (Rufus).
However, the Ubuntu 20.04 Linux install apparently destroyed/overwrote my Windows MBR and/or Windows7 Boot Loader, so that now I cannot boot into Windows 7. I'm desperate because all my work software is on the window disk drive.
I have Acronis True Image files of Partition C (Win7 System), as well as backups of Partition D (my data) and I have tried to restore the C partition (including track 0) by booting from CD and restoring an image. This did not work, I suppose because the problem is not in Partition C, but in the two preceding (but hidden if I remember correctly) first two partitions. When I tried to boot from CD and "Repair" the Win7 install (I don't remember seeing anything that would allow me to "restore" the MBR or Boot Loader), that did not work either.
I tried to re-install Windows7, but apparently the CD I have won't do a clean install.
I do have an old Windows XP CD that IS an install CD - is the boot info the same in both Win7 & XP?
I read what's on the forum that pertained to this problem. Nice to know I'm not the only one this has happened to, but I didn't understand the suggestions well enough to implement them.
I had been concerned that Windows would not play nice with Linux - I had no idea that installing Linux would kill Windows like this.
Can any of you help me with steps 1,2,3 etc., in plain English, that I need to do to be able to boot into Windows again? I'm dead in the water and wouldn't be writing this if I couldn't get into Linux. However, I have work that I cannot do in Linux at this time, and also the Firefox that Linux installed is so old that profile-data- transfer doesn't even exist in it, plus after a few uses, Firefox lost formatting and often won't render pages correctly enough to use. I tried to find a Linux Firefox v80 that I could install to this distro, but found I have to "wait till Ubuntu updates it".
I'm just about ready to cry right now. I hope one of you brilliant help-givers can help me get back into Windows7. Thank you for being so generous with your time to provide this forum to help boneheads like me. --AnneF
.