Of easily offended partition tables

[dragonkin]

The epic battle of my new computer continues.  For those new to the drama, basically things went to crap in my attempts to install XP to a separate partition.  Then it stopped loading Vista.  Or anything.  So.  "Failing on fire" is, I understand, the appropriate sentiment.  Apparently Microsoft released a Vista Restore disk available online, so I

Comments

[swinky]

Windows boot stuff can be super picky. And I also hate the fact that manufacturers are not sending out physical disks nowadays. I wonder why they do that? Blank CDs cost 50 cents, so it can't be that expensive to manufacture them in bulk. My laptop (by Toshiba) actually came with physical disks AND a restore partition, and I am damn happy to have those DVDs.

I'm not familiar with the "no valid system partition" stuff. The "system partition" is lingo that Microsoft sort of invented with Vista and I'm not sure what exactly it entails. The stuff I've read online suggests that it is Microsoft-Speak for "Primary partition" but Vista should already be installed on such, making me wonder why you'd be getting such an error.

[swinky]

I forgot to add, but generally for such a thing, I think you need to call HP, because their Vista disks will be specific to your computer.

[dragonkin]

Yes, I was figuring HP would be the ones to call. Thanks.

I can't imagine why they've stopped sending disks with new systems. It's pretty silly of them, especially when the BIOS is still going to be asking for an external media for finding OS installation files. Boo.

The "partition table" crap is kind of annoying, but at least it isn't a hardware problem, so I shouldn't have to resort to returning the system. The Vista partition had been the active partition (aside from being one of the primary partitions, or vice versa), but it's possible that somewhere in the epic failure-to-install-XP process, the master boot record was moved or rewritten (because Vista and XP boot in completely different ways; awesome job, Microsoft). So, all hope is not lost, but if I can't find or can't fix the master boot record, then it will come down to reinstalling Vista. Or else, "restoring" it, but for that I'll still need the install files which I don't have. :(

[swinky]

My only other suggestion would be to boot up a live linux CD, either Ubuntu or Knoppix, as both have pretty good hardware support, so you shouldn't have any problems booting. (If you go the Knoppix route, make sure to get version 6, version 5 doesn't work on some newer systems.)

Burn the disc and boot to CD.
When the desktop loads up, open up a terminal (Ubuntu- it'll be in the applications menu under "accessories", Knoppix- It is the black box on the task bar). In the console, type: sudo apt-get update That will refresh the software lists. When that is done, type sudo apt-get install gparted ntfs-3g (some or all of that may already be installed, depending on the distro, I don't really recall.) That will download and install some stuff - gparted is a partition editor and ntfs-3g is support for ntfs partitions.

When those finish installing, type sudo gparted This will load up the partition editor. This way you can at least see if your partitions are still in existence. Assuming they are, make sure the Vista partition has the "boot"

[tecrogue]

Partition Table Doctor got me back up and running when I had a similar problem last year.... the bad news is it's like $45 normally... but the good news is that one can find a copy of it sertain places for less...

[dragonkin]

I'll have to look into that, thanks. Though I'm SURE I'm too innocent to know what "certain places" you might be referring to... :P

According to the Vista restore disk the partition table has been repaired now, but it doesn't have many options for restoring partitions.

[brazen_heart]

That's... too bad. I hope you get it up and running soon! After that, maybe you could consider trying to run a virtual machine instead? They're... a pain, but they're a different kind of pain. Much less likely to kill your computer.

[dragonkin]

I've... considered running a virtual machine, but frankly with Vista being such a memory hog already I'd rather just deal with whatever work-arounds I have to in order to use whichever local OS I can finagle into working. Thanks for the suggestion though.