Recovering Windows after Linux install
Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 12:05 pm
So I had convinced my friend to try Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon on his netbook instead of Windows. He wanted Windows wiped out and the only thing he wanted to leave was the Windows Vista x64 recovery partition in case he wanted to restore factory defaults.
All was well but now he wants to sell the computer and he wants to use the recovery partition to reinstall the factory defaults. He has no factory recovery discs and no cd drive because it's a netbook.
GRUB does show the Vista recovery partition. When it's run from the GRUB menu it starts fine but has errors during the process because unless it's started from the Windows bootloader it can't see drive letters the way Windows needs to.
So I imaged my own Vista x64 installation disc onto my usb flash drive (I made sure it was bootable) and proceeded to try to boot from it on the netbook to run the Startup Repair tool so that it would restore the Windows bootloader and wipe out GRUB.
Well, I can't get it to boot from the flash drive now.
F12 to the boot menu, select USB FLASH DRIVE, Enter. Starts GRUB.
Restart. Change BIOS boot sequence. Starts GRUB.
It jumps to GRUB no matter what I do, and I HAVE NOT altered the bios, other than boot sequence.
It's very frustrating because it's not the flash drive, it works perfectly on any other computer- and I've booted to the flash on the netbook before about 200 times.
Now I'm getting desperate. Any suggestions? Mint is running fine.
All was well but now he wants to sell the computer and he wants to use the recovery partition to reinstall the factory defaults. He has no factory recovery discs and no cd drive because it's a netbook.
GRUB does show the Vista recovery partition. When it's run from the GRUB menu it starts fine but has errors during the process because unless it's started from the Windows bootloader it can't see drive letters the way Windows needs to.
So I imaged my own Vista x64 installation disc onto my usb flash drive (I made sure it was bootable) and proceeded to try to boot from it on the netbook to run the Startup Repair tool so that it would restore the Windows bootloader and wipe out GRUB.
Well, I can't get it to boot from the flash drive now.
F12 to the boot menu, select USB FLASH DRIVE, Enter. Starts GRUB.
Restart. Change BIOS boot sequence. Starts GRUB.
It jumps to GRUB no matter what I do, and I HAVE NOT altered the bios, other than boot sequence.
It's very frustrating because it's not the flash drive, it works perfectly on any other computer- and I've booted to the flash on the netbook before about 200 times.
Now I'm getting desperate. Any suggestions? Mint is running fine.