How to clone Windows XP back to your HD?

[Carl]

This has nothing to do with Microsoft's licensing, it' a technical
limitation of the Windows operating system.  What happens with Windows
is that the USB stack is initialized well after the Windows session
manager has started, so in essence Windows can't boot off a USB drive
because Windows has to initialize the stack before it can use it, a
catch 22 kind of situation.  If you search the internet you will find
information on how some have hacked the stack drivers to make them boot
devices which in turn allows the ntldr boot manager to load the stack
before the session manager is started.  This is unsupported by
Microsoft, they have never bothered rewriting the boot up routine to
have ntldr load the stack so Windows can't boot off a USB drive.

John

BTW, shame on Microsoft for not bothering to rewri

 

[Tim Meddick]

Carl,
BTW - Did you read my reply on how to stop the unwanted "Ubuntu" entry on the
startup-menu?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Carl]

Carl,
        BTW - Did you read my reply on how to stop the unwanted "Ubuntu" entry on the
startup-menu?

==

Cheers,    Tim Meddick,    Peckham, London.    

Yes, I did Tim, I just have bee so terribly busy at work that I have
not had time to do it. I will do so this weekend and report back.

I cannot tell you how pleased I am at solving this problem. All
thanks to your patience and good advice.

Carl

 

[Carl]

Hi Tim -

I followed your instructions, restarted the Netbook and it booted
directly to the Windows log-in screen.

Ubuntu is 100% gone.

Thanks very much.

Carl

 

[Tim Meddick]

I am just very glad to know it!

and... thankyou for re-posting that your problem was resolved.

So many don't bother, and it can be mildly frustrating.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.






Hi Tim -

I followed your instructions, restarted the Netbook and it booted
directly to the Windows log-in screen.

Ubuntu is 100% gone.

Thanks very much.

Carl

 

[Carl]

Here, for anyone coming upon this thread and following it to the end,
is a summary of the above exchanges.

This might help someone step by step to resolve their GRUB issues.

Carl H.

If anyone sees any errors in this sequence, please note them and i
will correct this.

**************

I have a Samsung NC10 Netbook running Windows XP Home, SP3.

I set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu, so I could give Ubuntu a try.

After deciding that I did not want to keep Ubuntu, I did a search for
how to
remove the Ubuntu partition and found "How to use Disk Management
to configure basic disks in Windows XP" on the Microsoft site and
followed the
instructions there. When I then tried to boot my Netbook, I got this:

GRUB loading.
error: no such partition
grub rescue>

I Googled the GRUB problem, found lots of hits, but none seemed
particularly
promising so I posted a request for help on
microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers.

The answer I received noted that the problem sounded simple enough:
it was caused by Ubuntu having re-written the Master Boot Record
(MBR), and that Windows
most likely still existed as it was on its own partition on my
Netbook.

I was advised to download <XP_Recovery_Console_on_USB.zip>, here
http://www.4shared.com/file/t3MX2P8z/XP_Recovery_Console_on_USB.html

I did so and followed these instructions for how to set up a bootable
USB thumb drive
with the XP Recovery Console on it.

The following instructions will create a fast booting Windows XP
Recovery Console on a USB Flash Drive (UFD). It will boot straight
to the RC (no setup screen). Everything needed is included in this
package. The files are Service Pack 3, this is the final version
of the XP RC.

1. Insert your USB Flash Drive (UFD).

2. Run "hpusbfw.exe" - HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool 2.0.6.0
   (The newer version of the HP Tool, 2.1.8.0, will NOT work)
   - Choose your UFD under "Device"
   - For "File system" choose "FAT"
   - Enter a name under "Volume label" (Maximum 11 characters)
   - Leave un-checked "Quick Format" and "Create a DOS startup disk"
   - Click "Start"

3. Run "TinyHexer.exe". From the top menu, click on
   'File-->Disk-->Open drive" and select your UFD. Make sure you
   select the correct device!

4. From the top menu, click on 'Edit-->Find/Replace'. Tick the boxes
   "Find text" and "Ignore case". Enter "NTLDR" then click "Find"
   then "Replace". Enter "CMLDR" and tick the box "Is text" then
   click "Replace all". Click "Close".

5. From the top menu, click on 'File-->Save as' then browse to your
   UFD. Enter "USBLDR" then "Save". Close "Tiny Hexer".

6. Open the folder "UFD" and copy everything in it to your UFD.
   Your UFD should look like this:
   cmdcons
   boot.ini
   cmldr
   ntdetect.com
   ntldr
   usbldr

7. Defrag the UFD.

That's it! Now reboot and test it.
(Press F12 at boot time to get a menu to select your UFD)

Next step;

After booting the Netbook with this USB drive, you will be see this
text:

Which Windows installation would you like to log onto
<To cancel, press ENTER>?
Enter the numeral 1 and hit the Enter key.
Next comes the prompt for your admin password.
Ignore it and simply press Enter once again.

Now, at the > prompt, type DISKPART and hit Enter
This will produce a list of the partitions on your hard drive AND it
will allow you to delete
the partition with Ubuntu on it and thus solve your GRUB problem.

On my Netbook, DISKPART returned:

-: Partition1 <EISA Utilities> 6150 MB = RECOVERY PARTITION
C: Partition2 <NTFS> 68653 MB = WINDOWS PARTITION
E: Partition3 <NTFS> 39622 MB = UBUNTU PARTITION
D: Partition1 <KINGSTON> [FAT] = YOUR USB DRIVE

ESC=Cancel D=Delete Partition

ALSO, in addition to the DISKPART command you might also run the MAP
command.
On my Netbook, that returned:

? NTFS 6150MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
C: NTFS 68653MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2
E: NTFS 39621MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3
D: FAT16 963MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

Now the dicey part:
You don’t want to delete the wrong partition.

It was suggested that I remove the E: partition.

I did so, then I ran MAP again and it returned:
? NTFS 6150MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
C: NTFS 653MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2
F: NTFS 39621MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3
D: FAT16 963MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

The E partition had been successfully removed.

When I shut down, removed the USB flash drive then restarted, my
Netbook successfully
booted into Windows.

Problem solved.
***************

Hope this helps someone else someday.

 

[Twayne]

Good work, Tim.

HTH,

Twayne`


n

I am so pleased! (told you that you'd get there in the
end!)
Concerning the bogus menu entry on startup.....

When you ran the FIXBOOT C: command, on your merry travels,
Windows re-wrote your BOOT.INI file that deals with the
start(up) menu (which lives in the root of your [C:] system
drive) adding any valid operating systems it could detect
at the time.
When you did this, the UBUNTU partition STILL EXISTED, but
now does not, so if you did selected this option at boot
now, I very much doubt you'd get anything but an system
error.
To get rid of it, either :

1). Goto "Control Panel" -> "System Properties" ->
"Advanced" tab -> "Startup and Recovery" (Settings button).

...and in the "System Startup" [top] section, press on the
"Edit" button.
Highlight and delete the ONE line containing the word
"Ubuntu" and save / close.
- you won't see the "Ubuntu" menu item on startup any more.


2). Type MSCONFIG into the "Run" box on the start menu and
click on the BOOT.INI "tab".

Press the button marked "Check all boot paths" This should
result in all invalid entries in the menu to be removed.

Press [ok] to save and exit.

3). Open a command prompt, and type the following
command :
attrib -r -h -s c:\boot.ini
notepad c:\boot.ini

...then edit the file (as in 1), removing the line that
contains the word "Ubuntu" and then "save" and exit. Again, the offending
menu entry will be gone....
==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

I rarely use either the MAP or the DISPART command and if
I have a major problem, similar to yours, I always use an
M$-DOS boot disk.

The difference being that the DOS command FDISK - does
return volume labels (where they exist) on partitions.

The thing is, without knowing which partition is which -
you might be deleting the netbook's recovery partition -
should it have one.

My best guess would be :

-: Partition1 <EISA Utilities> 6150 MB = RECOVERY
PARTITION C: Partition2 <NTFS> 68653 MB = WINDOWS PARTITION
E: Partition3 <NTFS> 39622 MB = UBUNTU PARTITION

Begs the question of why would Ubuntu be installed on a
proprietary NTFS partition?

D: Partition1 <KINGSTON> [FAT] = YOUR USB DRIVE

.....so, you could try deleting E: Partition3 <NTFS>
39622 MB ....(unless you know different - that this is
NOT the UBUNTU partition!)

My evidence for this is that as you are actually logged
in to C:\Windows while you are running Recovery Console,
the partition before it must have been there before or at
the installation of the C: partition - it has no
drive-letter associated with it, so it's probably a
hidden partition - usually this means the recovery
partition. That just leaves Partition3 (E

I think that at this stage finding the Active status of
the partitions might help. Carl (or Bob) would need to
create a Windows 98 Startup disk on USB and use Fdisk to
see what is going on with the active partition flag. I
haven't ever made a W98 bootable USB stick but a quick
search on the net leads to sites like this with all the
information and downloads for the necessary files:
http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm
How to Create a bootable USB Memory Key

You should be able to toggle the active partition with
Fdisk but I would also stick PowerQuest's (Symantec}
16-bit PtEdit utility on the
stick:http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/tools.htm John

Gentlemen -

I DO NOT BELIEVE IT!!!!

It worked!

I cannot thank you enough.

Here's what I did:

I deleted the E partition.

I ran MAP again

Returned:
? NTFS 6150MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
C: NTFS 68653MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2
F: NTFS 39621MB \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3
D: FAT16 963MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

I removed the USB flash drive and restarted, and it booted
normally, into Windows and all appears fine.

If you two would bear with me, I will summarize all of the
guidance, step by step, that you give me and post it at the end of
this thread plus post it on the Samsung Netbook site for others having
this problem.

I know there are many others with the problem because when
I Googled the GRUB problem, I got multiple hits but none of them
worked for me and most relied on an external HD and booting from a
Windows CD.
Tim said it could be done w/o an external HD and he was
right.
I'll try to write my summary this weekend and post it back
here.
BTW, just to be sure, shut down my computer and started
again and again, all is well.

My deepest thanks,
Carl

BTW, when I start up , I am offered the choice of booting
up in either M/S Windows XP Home Edition or Ubuntu, so there must be
something on the HD that I need to get rid of in order to weed Ubuntu
entirely from my HD, no?

 

[Tim Meddick]

Thankyou for that, Twayne,
however, I feel that in one or two steps in the
OP's procedures, a lot of luck came into it as well.

Not to detract from the OP's obvious gift for lateral thinking in
overcoming a load of obstacles with the minimum of guidance from me.

But I will say that it made me smile somewhat, on hearing that his Windows
installation had been brought back to life, as I'm sure he did...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.