Serious Problem

[Husse]

This is not the default behaviour and if it happens you must have done something when you installed (or a computer error occured)
Vista is a bit different from earlier Windows, it has a different boot loader
As you are completely new to Linux I realise that you are scared, but I'll try to take it step by step
Open Computer (under Places in the menu or on the desktop)
> Filesystem > /boot > /grub
Look at the file menu.lst (double click like you are used to)
You should have some sections for Mint like this

title Linux Mint 6, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
root (hd0,8)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=/dev/sda9 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

and you should also have a section for Vista like this

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

As Vista was there first you almost certainly have Vista on the first partition which is shown above
There may be one more entry for Vista if you have some kind of recovery solution
If you find this entry take a look at the top of the file, you will find something like

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## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

The number after timeout is the number of seconds the grub menu is shown - maybe it has been set as zero
In either case you need to edit the file - add the Vista entry or change the timeout
Close the file
Copy this into a terminal (right click to paste in the terminal)

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gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

You need to give your (own) password that you set when you installed
You now have menu.lst open for editing - make the changes, save and close the file
Hopefully you should now be able to boot Vista as well
I don't know what happened but I can assure you it is very unusual for something like this to happen and normally you don't have to edit important configuration files by hand

[Husse]

Ouch
You have Linux in sda1 as well as sda6 - I don't know what happened to sda3 and 4
It is still possible to get your files back but in no way simple
I think I'll call in some help - and don't use sda1....

[Husse]

Ok - but if you don't have a backup it might be tough - you'll have to retrieve data that has been written over (at least) once
It is possible....

[miket]

Hi !

Oh great. Well, I may not know anything about Linux, but I'm decently literate with computers, so as long as instructions are provided, I should be able to do it without problems. Again, thanks for your help.

This isn't looking good I have to admit, but perhaps we may be able to talk you through a rescue if you can provide a little more information.

Pop open a terminal in Mint and run the following commands then paste the results back to here for us to look at:

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sudo blkid

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df -k

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dpkg -l | grep -i ntfsprogs

The last one may return nothing, if so just let me know.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Mike.

[Husse]

What I see is contradictory....
And I fear it's not simple to fix, but hang on a while and see if AvanceIT (or Fred) can come to the rescue shortly
If not - use the recovery DVD
And apologies for the inconvenience, something has gong really wrong
I have some ideas but I don't think they are the right ones for your situation

[Katzedecimal]

I'm wondering what laptop it is. Nearly all of the hosed Vista/Linux installs I've read about (not just Mint but most other Linux distributions as well) have been on laptops. I'm thinking back to a post someone made here a while back (can try to find it if desired) about discovering that some OEMs were using a BIOS that had been deliberately set to hose up the system if anything other than MS Vista was installed on it - anything, including WinXP. Yes, it was a deliberate move on MS's part to try to force Vista compliance. I'm wondering if your laptop is one of those victims, because the symptoms you're describing sound similar to what others have experienced. Or I could be just paranoid

[Katzedecimal]

It's true, what they say, 'you can't make this crap up':

http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ios#p93632

Whether this is your problem or not, I don't know. However, two friends of mine had some trouble dual-booting Linux with Vista on their Toshiba Satellites. They ended up buying new fresh hard drives to put the Linux onto, and took out the Vista drives (but then, there was nothing on their Vista drives that they required for work or anything, nothing that their Linux distributions didn't provide anyways.) My Best Beloved has Vista cohabiting peacefully with Linux Mint on his Acer Aspire 5315 laptop.

[Husse]

Why did I not think of that - but you write that it goes directly into Mint
It is Toshiba that has this crap - the MBR is rewritten to the Vista one - the work around is to use the Vista bootloader to start Linux and put grub in the PBR (where P stands for Partition)
But I don't think it's that....

[Husse]

In the beginning of this topic you posted

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 37779 303459786 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 37780 38913 9108855 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 37780 37781 16033+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 37782 38858 8650971 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 38859 38913 441756 82 Linux swap / Solaris

This should mean that sda3 and 4 excluded you only have Linux on the computer
However a bit further down you posted

daniel@Phoenix ~ $ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for daniel:
/dev/sda5: TYPE="swap" UUID="b2f2e565-dfaf-4f02-a71d-b8b013863811"
/dev/sda6: UUID="424221c7-a36f-489a-9b7b-cf087199b8c4" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda7: TYPE="swap" UUID="3ac705f1-6951-4d9c-874f-c17a7e8da3cb"

Now suddenly sda1 is excluded - it should be there. That's why I said it's contradictory
Find out which partition you use - boot Mint and open gparted (Partition Editor from the menu) - you need sudo for that
Which partition you use is clearly marked as
/,/dev/.static/dev
If it is sda1 you're probably "smoked" because that was most likely the Windows partition
If you're on sda6 you have a chance - you might be able to open sda1
Open "Computer" (in Places in the menu or on the desktop) and hopefully you see it
Mint reads and writes to ntfs by default so if it is ntfs not ext3 as indicated you should be able to see what's there
I frankly don't understand why there are two swap partitions and seemingly two ext3 partitions (unless you created two during the install)

[Fred]

dmanchipman,

I wish I had good news for you but I don't. It appears that you have installed Linux over Windows, at least once. Maybe the first time was an aborted install. If this is the case, Windows is definitely gone. Much of your data is gone with it. In order to get anything off the partition would require specialized hardware and software designed to discriminate by signal strength from the disk and reorganize the data. It just isn't practical unless you have lots of money and the time to send the drive off to a shop that specializes in doing stuff like that.

I know, not what you wanted to hear, but I suspect that is the truth of the matter and your bottom line.

There is a silver nugget here however. You have learned how not to install. The next time, make sure you defrag your Windows partition at least once before you start. Don't use the installer to shrink you Vista partition. Use the latest stable version of Gparted to shrink the Vista partition and pre-make your Linux partitions. Then when you make your install use the manual partitioning option in the installer and assign the partitions you have pre-made. Also, never shrink a Windows install to less than the maximum size you expect it to become plus 20%.

If you expect to try again, it would be wise to go ahead and setup your partitions with Gparted now before you reinstall Vista. Install Vista into the first partition you have made for that purpose.

Sorry for the trouble you have had. Sometimes life has some harsh lessons. If this is the worst of the lot, count yourself a very lucky man.

Fred

[kindofabuzz]

Well since it sounds like you lost your windows partition why not just start doing your work on Mint? Just take your loss and say goodbye to window forever. Welcome to the freedom which is Linux! =)

[Husse]

kindofabuzz That is probably the last thing the guy wants to hear now - he has lost his data.....

[Fred]

Husse,

I searched for a better answer, I really did, but it just wasn't there.

Fred

[Husse]

Husse,
I searched for a better answer, I really did, but it just wasn't there.
Fred

I have no doubt about that - you are da man when it comes to things like this, seriously

[tinca]

dmanchipman,

I have no idea if this will help or not, but it will do you no harm to have a look at it and give it a go.

Sometime ago I had a hard drive that I had messed up, and it had a lot of data on it that I really did need to save. Go onto the web and look for a livecd image called "Hirens Boot Disk". Download it and burn to a CD. I had fitted a new hard drive and installed WindowsXP Pro. I looked at the burned disk while I was in Windows, but you can boot from it so it should be somewhat similar. I found two directories, one of which was Windows. In this directory was something I remember as "Active Undelete". This found all of the files including many that had been deleted the previous year on the old hard drive, I copied them all back onto my new hard drive into a temporary directory and went from there.

P.S. this same program also managed to find all of the files on a USB pendrive that could not be read in either Linux or Windows. A very handy disk to have.

Best regards Keith

[Husse]

Well you are welcome to Mint and I hope it will serve you well
But

Then again, reformatting twice in a week isn't exactly the healthiest thing for the harddrive.

this is a misunderstanding - you can do it ten times a day if you like - it's no different from other writing to the disk
The only thing that might be a little bit worn out is the actuator but that is so much on the margin so it does not matter

[miket]

Hi again !

[quote="dmanchipman"]

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daniel@Phoenix ~ $ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for daniel: 
/dev/sda5: TYPE="swap" UUID="b2f2e565-dfaf-4f02-a71d-b8b013863811" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="424221c7-a36f-489a-9b7b-cf087199b8c4" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sda7: TYPE="swap" UUID="3ac705f1-6951-4d9c-874f-c17a7e8da3cb" 

It's a little worrying that blkid hasn't listed /dev/sda1 ??

This would suggest some sort of corruption ?
In Mint, Open a Terminal and type:

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sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda1

If it is really an NTFS partition it may be able to repair it, if not then I think the partition table has got messed up
during the double partition resizing you did in which case it's restore from recovery DVD time !

Let me know how you get on.

Mike.