how to restore vista MBR?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beck
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Beck

Back when using XP, to remove grub and restore XP mbr I simply booted into
XP setup, chose recovery and used the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

However the Vista repair is very different. If I select repair startup it
does not actually list vista as an option to repair. I tried repairing by
clicking next anyway but it found nothing to fix. Vista is there and
bootable, I am using it now, but I wish to restore its bootloader.

Can anyone please advise?
 
stealbean said:
1. Reboot from Vista disk, select Startup repair in WinRE.
Click to expand...

Startup repair does not help, it does not find a startup problem
2. Run CMD as administrator, use "bcdedit" + some parameters. you can
type "bcdedit /?" to get more help.
Click to expand...

Does not seem to be a restore boot option in the help section.
 
download EasyBCD and install in either xp or vista.
one of its options is to repair boot.


(e-mail address removed)@sport.rr.com

Back when using XP, to remove grub and restore XP mbr I simply booted into
XP setup, chose recovery and used the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

However the Vista repair is very different. If I select repair startup it
does not actually list vista as an option to repair. I tried repairing by
clicking next anyway but it found nothing to fix. Vista is there and
bootable, I am using it now, but I wish to restore its bootloader.

Can anyone please advise?
 
mikeyhsd said:
download EasyBCD and install in either xp or vista.
one of its options is to repair boot.
Click to expand...

That has not worked, nor did VistaBootPro.
Thing is when I use these programs to check the boot, everything seems
normal and linux/grub is nowhere to be seen. Its as if the Vista boot is
totally in tact, but Grub is before it and overiding it.
 
Beck said:
That has not worked, nor did VistaBootPro.
Thing is when I use these programs to check the boot, everything seems
normal and linux/grub is nowhere to be seen. Its as if the Vista boot
is totally in tact, but Grub is before it and overiding it.
Click to expand...

I was running a non-Microsoft bootloader (OSL2000) because I'd been
experimenting with OS-X on a system that was already booting Win2K and
two versions of XP and Vista. For a while I had all five running
nicely, but I tired of my experiment with OS-X and decided to drop
OSL2000. I could have killed it with the OSL2000 setup program, but I
had inferred that that didn't really get it out of the MBR -- it just
masked it. (I think. Not really sure, but that's not important now.)
I tried to get rid of OSL2000 by doing a boot repair with my Vista
installation disk. Didn't work. So I did a repair using my XP
installation disk. FIXMBR warned me that it had found a non-standard
bootloader and cautioned that running it might rearrange partitions. I
took a deep breath and ran it anyway. It fixed the MBR (got rid of
OSL2000) and left the Vista bootloader alone. Now when I boot I get a
choice between Vista and "older version of Windows." Partitions
remained where they were and OSL2000 is gone.
 
If you have an XP CD, use that to fixmbr to rid yourself of GRUB. You will
then have to use the Vista DVD to repair the Vista bootloader. BTDT ;-)
 
Jane C wrote:
You
will then have to use the Vista DVD to repair the Vista bootloader.
Click to expand...

In my experience that wasn't the case. Surprised me, that's for sure.
But the Vista bootloader was untouched by XP FIXMBR and is still running
just fine without an additional Vista DVD repair.
 
Install your S-ATA drivers to see the installation. Then you can work with
it.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Beck said:
Back when using XP, to remove grub and restore XP mbr I simply booted into
XP setup, chose recovery and used the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

However the Vista repair is very different. If I select repair startup it
does not actually list vista as an option to repair. I tried repairing by
clicking next anyway but it found nothing to fix. Vista is there and
bootable, I am using it now, but I wish to restore its bootloader.
Click to expand...

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to
troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/en-us
 
Don't know if this is what you look for:
In the 'boot' folder on the Vista DVD you find a program called
'bootsect.exe'.
With 'bootsect /nt60 c:' you can write a Vista compatible bootsector, with
'bootsect /nt52 c:' you can write an XP compatible one.
This will allow you to change between Vista's BOOTMGR and XP's NTLDR.
Best regards
 
Performed a "Clean Install" of Vista using an upgrade disk. (No dual boot
action.)
To do this, had to set the BIOS to boot from the CDROM first.

Everything worked great, until I rebooted and removed the Vista DVD. Now,
Vista refuses to boot unless the installation DVD is inserted and the BIOS is
set to seek it first.

Tried formatting my primary and extended partitions on Drive 0 and
reperforming the upgrade only to end up in the same situation.
(Yes, this can be done with an upgrade disk.)

Bootmgr is nowhere to be found on the system disk. System Repair won't fix
the problem.

What files need to be on the System Disk for a C: drive boot?
What is the exact command needed to make the MBR look there instead of any
other drive?

Lastly, why doesn't it install correctly?
(Put the correct files on the correct drive...)
 
Hopefully this may help.

When you do a "clean" install using a Vista upgrade DVD, you need to run the
install (first pass) without entering the product key. After the install
completes and brings you to your desktop, run the install again from within
Vista. Enter the product key and activate the product.

I didn't have any issue with needing my DVD in the drive in order to boot
into Vista.

Keith
 
Thanks, but that was done as stated, more than once.
Vista still requires the DVD to be inserted to boot.

If this clarifies:
If I set the BIOS to HD First, CD Second, then the reboot gives me the
message "Error Loading OS."
If I set the BIOS to CD First, HD Second, but don't insert the Vista DVD,
then reboot gives me the message "Error Loading OS."
If I set the BIOS to CD First, HD Second and insert the Vista DVD, then
it states "Press Any Key to Boot From CD or DVD...."
If I press a key, it attempts to re-install Vista.
If I do not press a key, it boots just fine and works accordingly.

This implies to me, the MBR is pointing to a non-OS drive and fails to find
needed files to boot from the HD.
 
Wow.. that's really odd! Have you tried Searching for this issue in the MS
KB or Googling the Web? I'm at a loss as to what would be causing the issue.

Keith
 
Yep, I've searched the world over and thought I found true love...

but, in all cases I found, it was a result of dual-boot incorrectly installed.

That's why this appears to be different... there isn't a dual boot
partition. It's Vista only.
 
You could try the old fashioned fdisk /mbr to re-write the record on the
hard disk.

Use with caution as always.

Craig
 
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