carpeliam Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 I had a perfectly fine Windows XP64 system. Then I installed Linux, lost my Windows boot config, and now I can't boot into Windows. (I've tried to fix this in Linux/Grub, but for every partition I try to boot into, I get "Error 12: invalid device requested".)I'm able to run the Windows Recovery Console, and when doing so, I'm able to successfully log in to Windows- the console even authorizes my password, so I know something is working. However, neither "fixmbr" nor "fixboot" work for me.I also tried installing XP over my existing installation, but I'm getting the message "this disk does not contain a Windows-compatible partition"- a little bit of googling reveals that this can happen if there's an issue with the boot sector. (Pretty poor choice of error message if you ask me.)I really don't want to have to reformat and reinstall, and the fact that the recovery console authorizes my password gives me hope. Does anybody have any advice for fixing Windows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Welcome to the Windows Forum.Try to boot into the Recovery Console, then run the fixmbr command. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carpeliam Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Welcome to the Windows Forum.Try to boot into the Recovery Console, then run the fixmbr command.Pat, I've tried both fixboot and fixmbr, no luck. When I do this, I get "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" after rebooting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Do you have a disk, if so try a XP repair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carpeliam Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Do you have a disk, if so try a XP repair.Alan, unless I'm misunderstanding you, I already tried that- please see my original post to see the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 I also tried installing XP over my existing installation, but I'm getting the message "this disk does not contain a Windows-compatible partition"- Apologies I thought you had tried to repair it from the console rather than an XP repair.This is what I was referring to.http://www.windowsforum.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10455 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carpeliam Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 I also tried installing XP over my existing installation, but I'm getting the message "this disk does not contain a Windows-compatible partition"- Apologies I thought you had tried to repair it from the console rather than an XP repair.This is what I was referring to.http://www.windowsforum.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10455yep, I tried both. :/ and the link there provided the results you quoted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seshomaru Samma Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Judging by the install error and the Grub error, you probably installed Linux over Windows.If all your disc is formated as ext3 then the Windows install Cd wouldn't recognise it.Boot into Linux, run gparted (or install it if you don't have it)and check to see if your NTFS (or FAT32) partition still exist ,if not - create a FAT32 partition and install Windowsif your Windows partition still exist , then post the output of fdisk -l from the terminal(you might need to run - sudo fdisk -l in some distros, it's L, not 1) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.