Windows/Linux help required

Owenmclove

I dual boot Windows 7 and Fedora. Not had any issues with it until recently when Win 7 wouldn't boot - the startup repair tool was no help either.

Fedora will still boot and I've been able to mount the Windows partition - so I can still get at my data. I just wondered if any Windows/Linux experts out there could help me out with some advice on any utilities that might analyse/fix the problem?

debitcardmayhem

Any messages when you try to boot windows?

Owenmclove

Not really, it alternates between offering up Safe Mode and offering up the startup repair. Startup repair definitely doesn't work.... but it's been a while since I tried and I'm not sure if I actually tried Safe mode.

BRB trying safe mode!

Owenmclove

Well that didn't work, back to square one!

debitcardmayhem

Owenmclove wrote: »

Well that didn't work, back to square one!

Not much help to us to help you really , how did it not work ?
Since you can get as far as Safe Mode then try enabling boot logging , then go to fedora and look at the log file created ntbtlog.txt or try starting with Disable Automatic Restart at System Failure you should hopefully get a blue screen.

John_Gray

Maybe have a look at (the free version of) EasyBCD? I've found it useful for multi-booting, if somewhat difficult to understand.

Owenmclove

Thanks for the help guys. I'll try these tonight - I was too tired to do it last night really, hence my being unhelpful whilst looking for help!

Mr_Toad

It's possible that the dual boot with Linux is a red herring. You might be having exactly the same problem if it was a Windows only installation.

Have you done anything recently or installed any new software or updates?

What do you use for the dual boot, Windows boot manager, grub or something else?

S0litaire

Only thing I can think of is that the Partition ID has changed somehow for your "boot" or "Windows" partitions

When the boot-loader starts it's looking for an ID to boot from which does not exist so it falls back to a default options to boot into repair or safemode.

I had a problem a bit like this a few weeks ago.

When resizing partitions somehow I f00ked my Win7 "Boot" partition without touching it (it's a 300Mb partition that windows uses to boot)

I got stuck in a safemode or repair mode loop. Repair disks could not find anything wrong (or even a windows install!), EasyBCD could not find a bootable window install either. Even windows own instructions could not get things back.

The Windows and Boot partitions were still there and accessable via a Ubuntu Live CD.

In the end it was easier and quicker to backup the windows partition using Ubuntu and reinstall windows!

Owenmclove

@Mr_Toad - aye I thought it might be red herring. I honestly can't think of anything I'd installed or changed. Possibly general system updates but that's about it if I recall correctly.

@S0litaire - Sounds exactly like my problem (only I haven't edited partitions). Daunted by the thought of a re-install! At least I can mount the windows partition to get at the info.

S0litaire

Hope you find a fix without reinstalling.

Saying that It's good to give Windows a clean out every so often ^_~ lol