Removing a dual boot (some Vista knowledge may be required)

[devils casper]

I would suggest you contact HP only. Ask them to either provide Installation CD/DVD or Rescue CD at least. You can re-install Vista Boot Loader through Vista Rescue Disk too.

[dpatagia]

I would suggest you contact HP only. Ask them to either provide Installation CD/DVD or Rescue CD at least. You can re-install Vista Boot Loader through Vista Rescue Disk too.

All right, will do.

[dpatagia]

Sorry for the double post.

Here is my correspondence, basically it leads back to, "You need to buy our software." I'm going to look for a friend that has the Vista install disk in the meantime. But thank you for all of your help so far.

Dear Sean,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

I gather from your mail that you want to know whether you can run "
bootrec.exe /fixmbr" and " bootrec.exe /fixboot" command from the
recovery drive.

I understand your query and will provide you appropriate information.

Sean, I would like to inform you that since you have installed the Linux
operating system on the hard drive, the recovery drive has become
corrupted.

However, I would request you to try to create the recovery disk with the
help of the link mention below. You would try running these command with
the help of the recovery disks. We cannot assure the full functionality
of it.


HP Notebook PCs*-* Using HP Recovery Manager*
&product=3340263&rule=42173&lang=en

NOTE: Clicking the link may give an error indicating it is
invalid. If this occurs, copy the portion of the address
on the remaining line(s) and paste it at the end of the
address showing in your browser until the complete address
is displayed in the Address box.

If you have further questions, please reply to this message and we will
be happy to help you.

You may receive an e-mail survey regarding your e-mail support
experience. We would appreciate your feedback.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running,
please visit our Web site at:

HP Total Care


Sincerely,

Alex
HP Total Care


Our advice is strictly limited to the question(s) asked and is based on
the information provided to us. HP does not assume any responsibility
or liability for the advice given and shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in
connection with the use of this information. Always back up your data.
For more information, including technical information updates, please
visit our Web site at Hewlett Packard Technical Support - select a country or region.



Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Oh wow that was quick,

I may have not made this clear but it is a dual boot. I use Vista as my
primary OS but I is has been highly recommended that we use Linux
(primarily for GCC) as I am doing a Computer Science major and our class
is in the C programming language and everything that we do with projects
is done in the Linux environment.

I had originally installed the dual boot in order to begin to learn the
Linux OS, mainly for curiosity. I have not had any major problems with
Vista as of today.

Here let me quote the response I got on the Linux forum:

"You have to re-install Boot Loader only.
boot up from Vista Installation DVD and select Repair your Computer.(its
below Install Icon).select Windows Vista and select Command Prompt.
execute this

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot

close command prompt window and restart."

Is there a way I can get to this from the recovery drive? Once I can run
those two commands in the Windows Recovery Environment, I should be
fine.

Thank you for your time,
Sean


-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: HP Pavilion Notebook E-mail Support
<laptop_support_en@mail.support.hp.com>
> Dear Sean,
>
> Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.
>
> I gather from your mail that you have installed the Fedora onto your
> notebook and now you need to uninstall it and want to install Red Hat.

> You also want to get the recovery disks for your notebook.
>
> I would like to inform you that HP does not recommend that customers
> install Linux on their Pavilion notebooks; however, we understand that

> some customers may wish to change operating systems for their personal

> needs. HP does not support Linux on any models of HP Pavilion PCs at
> this time. Information about Linux can be located at the following
Web
> site:
>
> http://h10018.www1.hp.com/wwsolutions/linux/index.html
>
> HP pre-installed the latest version of the Microsoft Windows operating

> System (98, Me, XP) on your Pavilion PC. The Warranty on your
Pavilion
> system does not apply to software not provided by HP and does not
apply
> to defects or errors in hardware resulting from software not provided
by
> HP with that system. Please review your PC documentation to identify
> the supported operating system.
>
> Regarding recovery disks query, I would like to inform you that none
of
> the HP notebooks goes with any disks because they now ship with a
built
> in recovery partition. It is a back up file stored in your notebook in

> separate D drive. It has the back up Operating system, applications
and
> drivers that are shipped with your notebook. With the help of recovery

> partition you can install all the drivers and applications back to
your
> notebook.
>
> You can know more about using the recovery partition and creating
> recovery disks from the article at the link -
>
>
HP Notebook PCs*-* Using HP Recovery Manager*
> &product=3340263&rule=42173&lang=en
>
>
> Sean, I am providing you a link from where you can purchase the
recovery
> disks for your notebook.
>
>
https://warp2.external.hp.com/driver...=438964-001&la
> ng=en&cc=us
>
> NOTE: Clicking the link may give an error indicating it is
> invalid. If this occurs, copy the portion of the address
> on the remaining line(s) and paste it at the end of the
> address showing in your browser until the complete address
> is displayed in the Address box.
>
>
> If you have further questions, please reply to this message and we
will
> be happy to help you.
>
> You may receive an e-mail survey regarding your e-mail support
> experience. We would appreciate your feedback.
>
> For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running,
> please visit our Web site at:
>
> HP Total Care
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Alex
> HP Total Care
>
>
> Our advice is strictly limited to the question(s) asked and is based
on
> the information provided to us. HP does not assume any responsibility
> or liability for the advice given and shall not be liable for any
> direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in
> connection with the use of this information. Always back up your
data.
> For more information, including technical information updates, please
> visit our Web site at Hewlett Packard Technical Support - select a country or region.
>
>
>
>
> Original Message Follows:
> -------------------------
> problem description : Hello,
> About a month ago I set up a dual boot on my computer with Vista /
> Fedora Core 6. I had a person whom was very familiar with the
operating
> system set this up by repartitioning my hard drive and then installing

> Fedora Core 6 from a CD.
> If you would like to see the partitions on my system, they can be seen

> in an image format here:
> http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...Partitions.jpg
> In order the partitions are:
> 1) Vista
> 2) I am assuming this is GRUB for Fedora
> 3) Fedora
> 4) HP Backup
> I need to be able to uninstall Fedora and maintain my 25GB of memory
> that I allocated to it. I basically need to uninstall Fedora and then
> reinstall a distribution of Red Hat that my honors computer science
> course (for college) is highly recommending that we install.
> I do not want to be forced to wipe my hard drive. I know that if I had

> the Vista installation disks, I could just run the bootrec.exe
commands,
> but the disks were not provided when I bought this computer.
> troubleshooting : I have posted on a Linux users forum and obtained
the
> bootrec.exe information, would you please send me a copy of the Vista
> installation disk so I can do this.
> If there is a way for me to be able to fix this problem sooner, please
> let me know. But I would still like a copy of the installation disks
so
> I can use the Windows RE if I need too.
> Thank you for your time,
> Sean

[crzyspacemonkey]

This article might help (even though it says XP, it should still work):
How to Install the Vista Bootloader on a Windows XP Machine at The NeoSmart Files

[dpatagia]

That worked perfectly, just in case anybody runs into this problem again, I am going to state the steps I took.

1) Download and install http://neosmart.net/downloads/softwa...yBCD%201.7.exe
2) Run EasyBCD on Vista -> Bootloader Management -> Reinstall Vista Bootloader
3) I restarted to computer to make sure GRUB was gone
4) Delete the partitions (I had to delete the Linux partition twice because it was rewritten as "free space")
5) Merge the partition into my main Vista partition
6) Restart computer to ensure everything worked correctly.

Thank you for all of your help,
Sean

[devils casper]

Thanx for sharing solution with us and I am glad to help you.