Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

konos5 · 2011-08-24 21:41:17

Hi everyone,

I originally had Arch Linux installed and everything worked fine. Then I tried installing Windows 7..and hell breaks loose..!

Here's what I did:

1) Shrunk my /home partition by a few GBs using GParted.

2) I then deleted the linux swap partition and in its place I created a primary partition so that I could install windows (I could only assign 4 primary partitions - Using extended partitions wouldn't work for windows.

3) Backed up my grub using dd.

4) Installed Windows 7

5) Used a liveCD to "reinstate" grub using dd.

Now, during bootup if I select to boot into windows, grub returns the following message:
Error13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

If I boot to Arch and try to run GParted it will show all of my hard drive as unallocated space!
What should I do to fix the boot problem?

Thank you in advance!

themattbeballin · 2011-08-24 22:56:49

What does your menu.lst file look like?

konos5 · 2011-08-25 00:47:43

This is my menu.lst

# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS 
#
#  Linux           Grub
# -------------------------
#  /dev/fd0        (fd0)
#  /dev/sda        (hd0)
#  /dev/sdb2       (hd1,1)
#  /dev/sda3       (hd0,2)
#

#  FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#          | 640x480    800x600    1024x768   1280x1024
#      ----+--------------------------------------------
#      256 | 0x301=769  0x303=771  0x305=773   0x307=775
#      32K | 0x310=784  0x313=787  0x316=790   0x319=793
#      64K | 0x311=785  0x314=788  0x317=791   0x31A=794
#      16M | 0x312=786  0x315=789  0x318=792   0x31B=795
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#  for more details and different resolutions see
#  http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_Resolution 

# general configuration:
timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e9f8bdd0-7ed1-424e-9806-18ef03412db8 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e9f8bdd0-7ed1-424e-9806-18ef03412db8 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

# (2) Windows
title Windows 7
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
chainloader +1

But I believe the most interesting part is this:

sudo cfdisk /dev/sda

I get

FATAL ERROR: Bad logical partition 5: Partition ends after end-of-disk
Press any key to exit cfdisk

Chances are the next thing you are gonna ask is to run the fdisk -l -u command...well, there u go..

Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc9649407

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63      208844      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2        81293312   390721535   154714112    5  Extended
/dev/sda3          738990    16113194     7687102+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4   *    16113195    81293311    32590058+  83  Linux
/dev/sda5   ?  2017562706  3853579121   918008208   4f  QNX4.x 3rd part

Partition table entries are not in disk order

What's happenning here??

Last edited by konos5 (2011-08-25 00:50:44)

themattbeballin · 2011-08-25 01:16:58

I think I see a problem with your menu.lst file... I could be wrong here... so someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

My menu.lst for the Win7 section looks like this...

# (2) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Now, at the top of the menu.lst file, it says the following...

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
#
# Linux Grub
# -------------------------
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/sda (hd0)
# /dev/sdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/sda3 (hd0,2)
#

Meaning chances are (and correct me if I'm wrong), and looking at your fdisk -l command, I'm assuming windows is either /sda2 or /sda5... which means your menu.lst should have root (hd0,1) or (hd0,4) instead of (hd0,0), if that makes sense.

You also should uncomment that makeactive setting, iirc.

I could be wrong here, but you might try setting your root to one of those and see if it works.

Last edited by themattbeballin (2011-08-25 01:18:09)

iTwenty · 2011-08-25 07:16:12

Your menu.lst is obviously wrong. the root parameter for Arch and rootnoverify for Win7 both point to (hd0,0) (i.e /dev/sda1). Also, I don't see any NTFS partitions in your fdisk -l output. First step I would try is to fix the "Partition table entries are not in disk order" error you see in fdisk -l. Do this:

>> fdisk /dev/sda

>> type x (for advanced options)

>> type f (to fix partition order)

konos5 · 2011-08-26 18:24:53

OK! I fixed the order as you suggested. This is the new output:

[konos@archBox ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc9649407

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63      208844      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2   *      738990    16113194     7687102+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3        16113195    81293311    32590058+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4        81293312   390721535   154714112    5  Extended
/dev/sda5      2017562706  3853579121   918008208    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Now..when I tried to verify my partition table (by typing v), I got this:

[konos@archBox ~]$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5

Command (m for help): v
Logical partition 5 not entirely in partition 4
Total allocated sectors 1916779522 greater than the maximum 390721968

Command (m for help):

On top of that, when I use the cfdisk command that's what I still get:

     FATAL ERROR: Bad logical partition 5: Partition ends after end-of-disk
                          Press any key to exit cfdisk

I believe I may have to resize a partition but I am not quite sure how and which one...

Last edited by konos5 (2011-08-26 19:21:57)

iTwenty · 2011-08-30 13:32:10

Your Win7 partition is a logical partition and, as the start and end counts in fdisk -l output show, not contained within the disk. The best thing I can think of is deleting /dev/sda5 then /dev/sda4 and reinstalling windows. Let the windows installer create a partition for itself in the space freed up.

davidgurvich · 2011-08-30 14:49:37

Doesn't win7 require a primary as opposed to logical partition to boot from?

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-24 21:41:17

Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#2 2011-08-24 22:56:49

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#3 2011-08-25 00:47:43

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#4 2011-08-25 01:16:58

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#5 2011-08-25 07:16:12

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#6 2011-08-26 18:24:53

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#7 2011-08-30 13:32:10

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

#8 2011-08-30 14:49:37

Re: Arch and Windows 7 dual boot mixup..

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