Trying to get back to my Windows install

[MintyRefresh1]

I have an HP Pavilion with Windows 7 on it.

I reset it to factory settings last week, because it had some quirks after loaning it to someone for a year.

It retained an extra partition that I didn't worry about until yesterday, when I was in the middle of doing something and had to power down, so I chose to "hibernate" the computer to come back to it to finish the document.

When I tried to wake it up, I got a black screen that said this:

"error: no such device: f1187e7a-176d-4c92-a877-4b8333fd8ccf.
error: unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue> _"

And now it's the prettiest doorstop on the block. I did some searches on what this could be, and it appears to be something related to Linux or Ubuntu with a lot of jargon about sudo this and terminal that, of which I am completely ignorant.

I have tried to apply the windows 7 boot repair disk trick, the reinstall the windows from scratch trick, the restoring it to a better day other than yesterday trick, and it just keeps going back for more grub. It's the hungriest Rip Van Winkle of computers and I need for it to wake up. I need to figure out how to shut windows down. Clicking the power button doesn't do it. The OS isn't recognized and "factory reset" is not one of the options. P.S. I know very little about computers in general, so though I appear to know some Windows jargon that's just me, pretending to know something about Windows.

The person who borrowed it insists they never added any Linux to it. It doesn't matter who put it there, but it's there. And now I would like to learn, in the simplest and least jargon-y way, to restore it to its former glory. Can anyone point me toward the yellow brick road that leads to the Wizard who can fly me back to Kansas or at least help me fly my computer again?

[kato181]

How do you know that LM is installed on the laptop, if your friend who you lent it to say's that he has never installed LM on it?
Boot into a live session usb and in terminal copy & paste the following commands and post the results back in between the code display brackets </>

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Code: Select all

sudo parted --list

[SMG]

When I tried to wake it up, I got a black screen that said this:

"error: no such device: f1187e7a-176d-4c92-a877-4b8333fd8ccf.
error: unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue> _"

Welcome to the forum, MintyRefresh1.

I found this video How to Fix error: unknown filesystem grub rescue in Windows 7/8.1/10 which seems to be the same problem you have. It includes step-by-step instructions on how to get back to Windows.

The steps include:

• When you get the grub rescue> prompt, type ls and press enter. That will bring up a list of the different partitions.
• You will then need to figure out which partition in the list is the one with the Linux-based distro installed. Let us know if you have questions about what the video explains to do to find this.
• Once you get a message saying Filesystem is then you know which partition has the Linux-based distro on it.
• You would then set the boot to that partition per the instructions on the video.
• Then set the prefix to that partition per the instructions on the video.
• Type insmod normal and press Enter.
• Type normal and press Enter.
• The boot menu should now show and hopefully, you will see your Windows 7 install in the list.

At that point in the video, the person boots in Ubuntu and then shuts down and then boots into Windows. Once you get the boot menu, you should be able to boot into Windows 7 and not have to go into the Linux-based distro. However, you will want to check before hibernating again because it sounds like Windows hibernation is not working properly.

[MintyRefresh1]

Well I have bigger problems now. I tried to install an .iso from another computer last Tuesday evening, to get to the regedit because another google search led me on that path. (BTW, google search led me here in the first place). The .iso did work to get to the registry however, failing to know what to do at that point all I could manage to do was get it to shut down, which was the problem in the first place (the broken hibernation situation). When I booted back up hoping to be able to carry out the instructions here, it now boots up to an .iso for that other laptop's .iso. Of course none of the drivers match, and I would just restore to factory settings if it had any, but it's still not seeing the original windows partition.

But I know it's there.

I have an iMircro SATA enclosure and using another laptop (I have so many, not because I know much about them but they break so I just buy a new one, then use the old ones for "rescue" operations) so I pulled out the hard drive, and sure enough the original windows with its drivers are there. There is NOTHING I can find on the hard drive that even remotely points to any kind of linux.

However, maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. I'm going to eventually try to restore it using another .iso that might actually be the one for the linux-affected unit. I am hoping if I do that successfully, all pieces of the linux should be gone. If not, I will be wiping the drive and re-installing windows and suppose I will have to buy a new registry key if I can get one.

Thanks for your help, and if linux doesn't go away after whatever I do to it to further jack it up, I will be back

[Reddog1]

Windows will not see a Linux ext4 partition. Windows only knows Windows--however, Linux will see a Windows partition, because Linux isn't stupid. If you are looking for a Linux partition with a Windows machine ya ain't gonna find it. At this point, do you have a working computer, one that you can download an iso with? If yes, look for Foxclone, and download it, then, using Rufus with Windows, burn the iso to a usb stick to make it bootable. Boot your broken machine with Foxclone, open the partitioner (Gparted) and look at your partitions and tell us what you see. I suggest Foxclone because it is small and fast.

[MintyRefresh1]

I am completely unfamiliar with Foxclone and Rufus but I do have three laptops that still work. I will download Foxclone and try to understand what Rufus is or how to make a bootable stick. I think the system BIOS is configured to go CD first, then hard drive, and there are a couple of other choices after that (none of them which say to boot to a stick). Sorry I'm pretty ignorant about all of this.

On top of other issues, the broken laptop now says the activation key doesn't match. I'm assuming it's because it's running off another computer's .iso that is matched to that registry key. Is this permanent, I mean did I completely hose it by installing a different computer's registry?

I'll be back in a while to report the progress, thanks.

[MintyRefresh1]

Back here for a dumb question. Rufus just says download it and hit the .exe file. I have no idea what to enter into the RUFUS screen. The computer I downloaded it to is NOT the computer that is broken. Do I somehow plug it into the broken computer BEFORE setting something in the RUFUS screen? And then, what goes into the RUFUS screen , tell it to boot something from an .iso on another computer or another stick?

Yes, I am completely ignorant about computers.

[MintyRefresh1]

"I found this video How to Fix error: unknown filesystem grub rescue in Windows 7/8.1/10 which seems to be the same problem you have."

I found that video too. It identified hd0 as the one with the linux partition. However, after completing all of the steps in the video, it still said the filesystem was not there after I got to the "insmod normal" entry where it started all over again at the grub rescue> . The tutorial he made a link for to help others who still couldn't get it, also did not provide any relief.

That was before I came here.

I also tried to fix the hibernation issue when I could get to a command prompt but didn't know what command controls it, all the way out in left field of DOS.

[Reddog1]

Rufus is a Windows utility which converts an *.iso file to a bootable usb pen drive. If you are completely computer iliterate, I would recommend that you download and install Balena Etcher for Windows, instead. It has a very user-friendly graphical interface. Install it, open it and point it to the location of the downloaded foxclone.iso file and then choose the usb thumb drive that you have plugged into the usb port so that it can write the *.iso to the thumb drive and make it bootable. It will do the rest (so will Rufus, but it isn't as intuitive). Once the thumb drive has been completed, set your broken computer's bios to boot from the usb before the hard disk, plug in the usb thumb drive, and reboot. Foxclone will take a while to load (it is a live Linux system on the thumb drive). Once you are at the Foxclone desktop you can see what has happened to your partitioning on the hard drive with GParted. I really believe that you have an ext4 partition on the drive, but it would be helpful to know if the boot is MBR (master boot record) or UEFI. If I had to take a wild guess it would be that Windows is UEFI and the Linux install (if there really is one) is MBR (also called Legacy). The fix could be as simple as changing from 'Legacy' in bios to 'UEFI'. But all that hinges on your partitioning. Your error showed that the boot loader was unable to find the partition that it was supposed to be booting from. The confusing part is you were always booting Windows and NOT Linux, so we need to figure out why your system was attempting to boot from grub, which is a Linux boot loader that can point to Windows, but it is not the actual Windows boot loader. It is unfortunate that you made attempts to repair the boot before finding out what actually happened. Just sayin'.
At any rate, this is completely recoverable, but it might require that you re-install Linux, which I'm sure you don't actually want to do. However, if you haven't used Linux, it might actually surprise you as to how much better it is than Windows (for most things). Bottom line, we can make this broken machine work, provided there isn't a problem with the hardware.

[cretsiah]

@MintyRefresh1 I'll be honest in saying I have some concerns about your current problem and whether or not you can fully recover it...

- that you know very little about computers
- kinda wished you had come here or found better help before messing with the windows registry.
- windows 7 repair disk option ( clicky version ) doesnt usually work in this situation ( command prompt usually works better ).....
- hibernation / sleep mode never trusted it on any system, regardless of O.S.

we can try but no guarantees of success.... if you want to try from scratch....

first step would be telling us the EXACT model of the HP pavillion you have (this will likely tell us if you can even use rufus or ventoy to start with )

second step would be to find out if the hard drive still has a copy of your original windows 7 on it.

third step would be to determine whether your hp pavillion has MBR or GPT partition tables (generally the easiest way to tell this, is if their is a fat32 partition sometimes also listed as efi boot )

[Pierre]

we do need you to do this bit.. first off:
if you can .. boot with an LinuxMint Live Media . .

Boot into a live session usb and in terminal copy & paste the following commands and post the results back in between the code display brackets </>

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Code: Select all

sudo parted --list

if you can't download an LinuxMint ISO & write that to an usb stick,
then came back here, for further advise.

[MintyRefresh1]

"first step would be telling us the EXACT model of the HP pavillion you have (this will likely tell us if you can even use rufus or ventoy to start with )"

It is an HP Pavilion dv4-4141

"second step would be to find out if the hard drive still has a copy of your original windows 7 on it."

My guess is no, because when I looked in the System32 files using the SATA enclosure, the drivers appear to be dated 2010 (which is approximately when I got the Toshiba that I made an .iso for). I was in a hurry to try to retrieve a legal document that I put in a folder there, which is why I got the laptop back from the friend who I loaned it to last year -- to have a laptop dedicated solely for "important papers". I thought restoring it to factory condition would remove all of the leftover stuff my friend put in it. C'est la vie.

"third step would be to determine whether your hp pavillion has MBR or GPT partition tables (generally the easiest way to tell this, is if their is a fat32 partition sometimes also listed as efi boot )"

I don't know the answer to that.

[MintyRefresh1]

we do need you to do this bit.. first off:
if you can .. boot with an LinuxMint Live Media . .

Boot into a live session usb and in terminal copy & paste the following commands and post the results back in between the code display brackets </>

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Code: Select all

sudo parted --list

if you can't download an LinuxMint ISO & write that to an usb stick,
then came back here, for further advise.

Is there a link for the media? I'm googling and finding this forum again but no immediate obvious link anywhere.

[SMG]

Is there a link for the media? I'm googling and finding this forum again but no immediate obvious link anywhere.

It's on the Linux Mint homepage.

[MintyRefresh1]

Is there a link for the media? I'm googling and finding this forum again but no immediate obvious link anywhere.

It's on the Linux Mint homepage.

I have two working systems both with Windows 7, neither of them has something called "USB Image Writer" so ... do I need to start downloading everything Linux related in order to follow these steps?

[MintyRefresh1]

Is there a link for the media? I'm googling and finding this forum again but no immediate obvious link anywhere.

It's on the Linux Mint homepage.

I have two working systems both with Windows 7, neither of them has something called "USB Image Writer" so ... do I need to start downloading everything Linux related in order to follow these steps?

Never mind, I am downloading "Etcher" ... which is probably a mistake, but can't do any worse than I'm already doing.

[SMG]

Never mind, I am downloading "Etcher" ... which is probably a mistake, but can't do any worse than I'm already doing.

I believe that is what Reddog1 recommended using earlier in this topic.

[MintyRefresh1]

Never mind, I am downloading "Etcher" ... which is probably a mistake, but can't do any worse than I'm already doing.

I believe that is what Reddog1 recommended using earlier in this topic.

OK after reviewing reddog's instructions, I am currently "flashing" the foxclone .iso onto another usb stick.

[MintyRefresh1]

Rufus is a Windows utility which converts an *.iso file to a bootable usb pen drive. If you are completely computer iliterate, I would recommend that you download and install Balena Etcher for Windows, instead. It has a very user-friendly graphical interface. Install it, open it and point it to the location of the downloaded foxclone.iso file and then choose the usb thumb drive that you have plugged into the usb port so that it can write the *.iso to the thumb drive and make it bootable. It will do the rest (so will Rufus, but it isn't as intuitive). Once the thumb drive has been completed, set your broken computer's bios to boot from the usb before the hard disk, plug in the usb thumb drive, and reboot. Foxclone will take a while to load (it is a live Linux system on the thumb drive). Once you are at the Foxclone desktop you can see what has happened to your partitioning on the hard drive with GParted. I really believe that you have an ext4 partition on the drive, but it would be helpful to know if the boot is MBR (master boot record) or UEFI. If I had to take a wild guess it would be that Windows is UEFI and the Linux install (if there really is one) is MBR (also called Legacy). The fix could be as simple as changing from 'Legacy' in bios to 'UEFI'. But all that hinges on your partitioning. Your error showed that the boot loader was unable to find the partition that it was supposed to be booting from. The confusing part is you were always booting Windows and NOT Linux, so we need to figure out why your system was attempting to boot from grub, which is a Linux boot loader that can point to Windows, but it is not the actual Windows boot loader. It is unfortunate that you made attempts to repair the boot before finding out what actually happened. Just sayin'.
At any rate, this is completely recoverable, but it might require that you re-install Linux, which I'm sure you don't actually want to do. However, if you haven't used Linux, it might actually surprise you as to how much better it is than Windows (for most things). Bottom line, we can make this broken machine work, provided there isn't a problem with the hardware.

The hardware is intact. I think the only problem now is the missing software that matches the activation key that I entered upon the purchase of the machine. Also, I think all the original drivers are gone because the drivers specific to this unit seems to be overwritten by a different .iso that was using other drivers. The fact that I can even run it at all with that other .iso is a mystery to me, but for now i have the Foxclone screen on the broken unit and trying to figure out where "terminal" is so I can show the results of the terminal commands as instructed.

[MintyRefresh1]

we do need you to do this bit.. first off:
if you can .. boot with an LinuxMint Live Media . .

Boot into a live session usb and in terminal copy & paste the following commands and post the results back in between the code display brackets </>

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Code: Select all

sudo parted --list

if you can't download an LinuxMint ISO & write that to an usb stick,
then came back here, for further advise.

Is there a link for the media? I'm googling and finding this forum again but no immediate obvious link anywhere.

OK I have a "terminal" which says it's ubuntu@ubuntu on the top of the screen. I tried to enter "inxi -Fxz" and it says "bash: inxi: command not found.