Cannot start Rescue & Recovery (Hidden Partition)

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kachofool · #1 Post by **kachofool** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:18 am

Hey all.
I dual-boot Ubuntu and Vista, and use GRUB as my bootloader. After a Linux update yesterday, I had to reconfigure GRUB and in rechecking everything I noticed that R&R would not boot (I don't think that the GRUB update caused this problem, just that this is when I noticed it).

I'll outline what I've done so far to try and fix this issue.

First, the problem is, when I try to start Rescue and Recovery, either by pressing 'F11' or the 'ThinkVantage' button, and then 'F11', Windows Vista starts instead of Rescue & Recovery. I can see the hidden partition through Ubuntu and through different partition managers, so I know it exists. It is 6.5GB in size.

First I thought GRUB was the problem, so I overwrote it with Vista's bootloader, and overwrote Vista's bootloader with Lenovo's MBR fix (available from their website). At this point, my MBR is basically factory default, but there's absolutely no change in the situation.

I have R&R 4.1 installed on the system right now. I read on another forum that installing 4.0 solved a similar problem so I tried doing that (uninstalled 4.1, tried to install 4.0). But when I try to install 4.0 it says there is not enough disk space to run R&R (I have ~10gb free on the Vista partition)... this also makes no sense since 4.1 installs fine. I don't know if the issues are related...

I'm not sure but I think trying to boot the hidden partition ends up booting the Vista partition instead. I think I can confirm that the hidden partition is the one that is (at least initially) being attempted to be booted because Vista is loaded up in two cases:
1) Through F11 / ThinkVantage button during startup -or-
2) Through GRUB, when I specify root: hd0,0 (first [only] hdd, first partition)

I'd appreciate any help...
TiA
KF

#2 Post by **ryengineer** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:02 am

Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette.

You'll need a floppy disk drive.

kachofool · #3 Post by **kachofool** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:50 pm

Hey ryengineer, if you read my post, I already tried the Lenovo MBR Fix. It got me to where I am right now. It technically 'fixed' the ThinkVantage button but instead of loading R&R, it loads Vista.

#4 Post by **carbon_unit** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:12 pm

I think that what happened is you must have moved the Vista partition to the spot where R&R used to be in regards to sda0, sda1, etc. Can you boot to the live cd and tell me what your partition layout is? This probably happened when you created a partition for Ubuntu.
I let Grub handle everything and it runs R&R just fine.
I can post my menu.lst of you need it.

kachofool · #5 Post by **kachofool** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:50 pm

I have my grub setup like so...

(hd0,0) -> IBM Recovery partition
(hd0,1) -> Vista
(hd0,3) -> Ubuntu

But both (hd0,0) and (hd0,1) boot to Vista now. I don't know what to do...
fdisk shows 6 partitions,
dev/sda1 :: unknown system type (I'm guessing this is the recovery partition)
dev/sda2 :: HPFS/NTFS, bootable (guessing this is Vista)
dev/sda3 :: W95 Ext'd (LBA)...I have no idea what this is, maybe my media partition
dev/sda4 :: Linux
dev/sda5 :: HPFS/NTFS, no idea what this is
dev/sda6 :: Linux swap

fdisk also tells me that sda1,2,3,4 do not end on cylinder boundary. No idea what that means

kachofool · #6 Post by **kachofool** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:56 pm

I should mention I considered burning the recovery discs to restore the system to factory state, but it always errors out burning the second disc:

"An error occured during verification. (etc). Click OK and insert a new disc when prompted."

It just keeps coastering my dvds like this... really frustrating.

pae77 · #7 Post by **pae77** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:58 pm

If your under warranty, call support and explain what is happening when you try to burn recovery disks and they should send them to you at no charge.

#8 Post by **carbon_unit** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:16 pm

kachofool wrote:snip...

But both (hd0,0) and (hd0,1) boot to Vista now.

snip..

fdisk also tells me that sda1,2,3,4 do not end on cylinder boundary. No idea what that means

I think these things are related. You now have a non standard partition layout with incorrectly defined boundaries. I had this on my T60 and when I went to fix it I lost everything. Not trying to scare you but to warn you. Backup everything now before you fix anything. Write down everything before starting to repair anything. Ranish partition manager will give you enough info to recreate what you have now if things go bad during the repair.
I would recommend contacting Lenovo and tell them how you could not make a recovery set and get them to send you a set. When you get them start over.

kachofool · #9 Post by **kachofool** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 12:25 pm

I went out and bought some expensive Sony DVDRW discs... and burned the recovery cds without problems...

But I ran into the same problem!

I put in the Startup Recovery Disc and it boots to Vista!

I don't know how it works, but if R&R reads off of the hidden partition, and my hidden partition is messed up, then I guess my Recovery Discs are botched too?

It's frustrating since I think the problem is probably something small to do with the startup of the R&R environment and not with the actual content (Vista, factory driver set).

About calling Lenovo... I'll get around to it, but I don't like their support. I got this laptop a couple of months late because there was a shortage initially, and I had to mess with tech support a lot (ie calling many times, talking to a lot of reps) before they gave me any offer of compensation (which they were handing out at that time).

#10 Post by **carbon_unit** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 8:00 pm

I would tell tech support what is happening and they will probably either send a recovery set or tell you how to fix the problem. I am not sure what is happening at this point.

#11 Post by **ryengineer** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:38 am

kachofool wrote:snip...I put in the Startup Recovery Disc and it boots to Vista!...snip

I am sure support will be more than happy to send you a set but make sure you've set CD/DVD-RW as first boot device in the BIOS prior to attempting to initiate the process.

Cannot start Rescue & Recovery (Hidden Partition)

Cannot start Rescue & Recovery (Hidden Partition)

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