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I tried to install in my laptop 12.04 so that I can dual-boot with Windows 7. I made some mistakes during this process and I didn't manage to install Ubuntu. But my real problem now is that I'm afraid that I also destroyed the installation of Windows 7. Your help would be precious for me.

Here are the details of what I did:

1.) I followed these instructions to dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7.

The only difference from what is described above, is that in my case the device names where:

/dev/mapper/isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0* instead of /dev/sda*

Note that I had created a bootable USB stick to do that.

2.) The installation proceeded normally, but in the end I got a fatal error because the grub-install failed.

3.) Then, after Googling this problem, I run Ubuntu from the USB stick and run this command:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/home/ubuntu/temp /dev/mapper/isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0p5

(/isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0p5 was the partition that I had made for /boot) but this command also failed.

4.) Then, I did something stupid (I think): I run the above command as:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/home/ubuntu/temp /dev/mapper/isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0

namely I tried to install grub in the device isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0 instead of the boot partition isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0p5

The above command did not fail and was executed OK.

5.) After that, I tried to boot my laptop, but it seemed that I had no operation system. Not even Windows were detected.

6.) I thought that I should uninstall grub from isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0. So following some online instructions that I found, I booted again Ubuntu from the USB stick and run the following command (this was stupid since the instructions were for a totally different case than mine):

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/isw_fdjdhbadc_Volume0  bs=446 count=1

Afte that, I was still unable to boot Windows. I realize that I deleted something that I shouldn't, but I'm hope that this is not crucial and I can recover somehow.

When I boot Ubuntu from the USB, I can see that the partition with Windows is still there, with all the directories, Windows files, my data etc.

So, my question is: Is there a way to undo the mistakes that I described above and recover Windows 7? This is my major question. After solving that, I'd also like to know what I did wrong with the installation of Ubuntu.

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Boot from Windows Installation disk and use the instructions given here.

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  • sriram pandey, thanks a lot for your link! Let me clarify that I'm getting the following error when I open my laptop: "Operating System Not Found" Do you think that this case needs a different treatment than what is described to the link you sent (where the reported error is “BOOTMGR is missing”)? Another question: It would be great if you could help me understand the following: By using the "dd" command, did I delete crucial data from the windows partition, or from somewhere else (that can be recovered)?
    – Tassos
    Jun 11, 2012 at 18:52
  • If you follow these directions, you will not make it worse. If your description is ok.
    – Anders
    Jun 12, 2012 at 17:02
  • Hi all, Finally I solved the problem and managed to recover Windows 7. I followed the instructions from the link of siriam pandey. I first tried the "Automated Startup Repair" as suggested in this link but it didn't work. Then, I tried the command-line stuff and it worked! Thank you for your help and suggestions!!
    – Tassos
    Jun 18, 2012 at 13:44

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