[lefty.crupps]

We got a new Dell machine with the Vista preinstalled. Employee wanted Ubuntu (how do ya blame him?) so he resized partitions and installed Ubuntu, but now Vista won't boot.

What can we do to get Vista to be happy again?

This howto:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/ab....html#dualboot
says:
"DO NOT resize the Vista partition during the installation of the Linux distribution! Due to the change in NTFS versions, no Linux partitioning program, nor standard Windows partitioning programs, can properly alter the partition that Vista is installed to."
But we're too late for that...

[spdabbs]

Are you able to access Vistas built-in repair feature, either from the F8 menu or from the recovery program?

[techy689]

Try using system restore disks to do a repair. Unless you have anything important on that computer, you could do a clean install.

[peter_parker]

I am in a very similar situation. I had a friend who was very dissatisfied with Vista so I offered to dual boot Ubuntu for her so that she could try it out. I resized the partition with the Ubuntu partitioner and now I cannot get Vista to boot.

The computer has 3 bootable factory partitions. The first is the Dell system diagnostics utility. This works fine. The second, I assume, is the recovery partition. (The hard drive has an OS and RECOVERY partition.) When I attempt to boot this partition, I get the message: "BOOTMGR is missing" When I boot the final partition, which I am confident is the actual Vista partition, I am given a Vista load screen but it does not ever seem to be making progress. (It has been loading for over 20 min and nothing has changed.) I have also tried booting from a recovery CD obtained here:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/
I had to press a key to boot from CD, then I was given the same load dialog mentioned above. Eventually the load "completes," but then I see only a blank screen. Is any of this information indicative of my specific problem? Is the problem purely because I used Ubuntu's partitioner, or could there also be an issue with GRUB? I do not have access to Vista install discs; is there anything else that I can do??

[peter_parker]

lefty,

I finally found a solution to this problem. It *does* indeed work; I am a testament to this. However, you will need a Windows XP CD to execute this solution.

The fix is available here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=373074&page=4
as posted by user eatingorange

[richard94]

Boot from the Vista install CD and run Startup Repair. This happens whenever you try to resize a Vista partition from something else.