Windows 7 is not accessible or can't be repaired after installing ubuntu 11.10 using live USB

Question

I've messed things up a bit.

I was running windows 7 ultimate 64-bit in my HP laptop. I was using live USB of Ubuntu 11.10 and then i tried to install Ubuntu on hard disk using the same live USB.

To install Ubuntu, i choose 50 gb free partition and 325 gb swap space or something.

While installing Ubuntu, my pen-drive came out and everything stopped. Then i booted again using the pen-drive and finished installation of Ubuntu.

Now the problem is I can't access my windows partition as they were in extended partition plus I am not able to boot windows7 from the booting screen and i can't even repair or recover it.

Whenever I try to boot windows it shows the message HARDWARE INACCESSIBLE, TRY TO REPAIR YOUR WINDOWS USING DISC. When i tried using disc, there was no instance of OS available to repair.

I can't even install fresh windows 7 as the setup asks me to load drivers of Hard disk.

I have important data in the windows root drive as well as in other partitions. How can I recover that data?

Answer 1

Oh sorry to interrupt but really your question gave me a shot of laughter especially the line "While installing the ubuntu, my pen-drive came out and everything stopped". I could not imagine that even today "DIE HARD 4" is going live somewhere.
Well the only problem you are having seems to be the grub loader issue. Just put in the window repair disk and open up the command prompt. After that, you can type there:

x:\sources>diskpart
x:\sources>select disk 0
x:\sources>list partition
x:\sources>select partition 4 //in case partition 4 is the one you have windows installed on
x:\sources>active

Well, if does not seems to help you, then why not just repair boot issue? Do it in following way:

x:\sources>bootrec /fixboot
x:\sources>bootrec /fixmbr

Maybe that could help you

Answer 2

Am not good at ubuntu/win issues however. If you can boot with ubuntu go ahead on the left u will see a shortcut panel. from top click the second icon to access your docs. From there u will see all existing media folders and try recover. This is possible as long the win partition exists.

Answer 3

Well, that happens, but is not the end. Just boot to Ubuntu, Click Home Folder from the Launcher Bar at the left and then click Filesystem from the left side panel and then look the media file, you should be able to see any partition that is on the same HDD, just click on it to mount it and you should able to see the contents of it as normal, even if is a windows OS partition. Then you can backup or have access to your data.

Other thing you can do is use the Windows Repair Disk to fix your windows boot entry that is not showing in Grub anymore, if that the case. Just google it, is free.

Hope this helps :)