theyettihunta Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I need help restoring my pc to factory settings. I have an eMachines desktop EL1352. It came with recovery discs labeled 1-3. I run the recovery, choosing to restore it to the factory install. Then, it wipes my hard drive and installs windows throughout the three discs. When the third disc is completed a notification pops up saying the restore to factory install is complete and to restart the computer.. It didn't work, I've tried to but with an without the disc still in the drive. The bios is set to boot from the hardisk, which I believe is correct. When it tries i just get: "error: no such partition. Grub rescue>" Can someone please explain to me what I am doin wrong, this is my first time installing windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) 1) Did you have a Dual boot setup in your computer, before you restored your OS back to default? 2) Is your hard drive recognized/detected in the BIOS? Edited April 3, 2012 by Infiltrator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Yes I had a backtrack + a bt recovery partition I believe alongside windows 7. The recovery tool only lists about 322 gb to be formatted, and it's a 500 gb hd. However, when I boot the hardisk there is no option to boot any partitions... No Windows, no backtrack, just the error message I put in the original post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 It seems like you know what the problem is. Looking forward to a response, thanks infiltrator. I called geek squad hoping that they could tell me te solution, as I did purchase the pc from bestbuy with a year of subscription to geek squad services. The year was up and they couldn't help, despite me never using them once before. Or , I could pay them $50 dollars to come solve this issue. Screw that... I'm trusting my Technolust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 And yes my hard Drive is listed in the BIOS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Your boot.ini file has been rewritten as result of the Windows recovery process. You will need a Windows 7 Installation CD to fix the issue. Once your computer has booted off the CD, follow this instruction on how to recover your boot.ini file. http://www.pagestart.com/repairwin7dualboot02.html And let me know how you went. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Thanks looks like an easy fix. One problem I don't have Windows 7 on disc... Is there somewhere I can download it, Im not having much luck finding it and I don't understand why considering I would still have to enter a product key. Is it just an ISO file I can burn and boot from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 I have a copy of windows vista 32 bit lying around and could probably get my hands on an xp disc. Is there a way to use one of those discs soley for the repair tool, then re-run the recovery discs to install 7 as factory install?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 You could try downloading a copy of Windows via torrents, but I would not recommend doing it, as you never know it could be infected. In addition, you could try using that Windows Vista installation CD, as Windows 7 is still Vista. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angryxbit Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Coming from Windows, I have found it easier to dual boot by reformatting the entire disk and installing Windows as your primary. Using grub4dos as your bootloader, you can configure this to then chain-load any other partition on your hard-drive to boot from. Create a separate partition and install BT there and edit the boot config. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 You could try downloading a copy of Windows via torrents, but I would not recommend doing it, as you never know it could be infected. In addition, you could try using that Windows Vista installation CD, as Windows 7 is still Vista. Yea il give it a try when I get home, and it defiantly wouldn't be a clean install if I downloaded The Windows 7 ISO thru torrents haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Coming from Windows, I have found it easier to dual boot by reformatting the entire disk and installing Windows as your primary. Using grub4dos as your bootloader, you can configure this to then chain-load any other partition on your hard-drive to boot from. Create a separate partition and install BT there and edit the boot config. I'm confused, could you numerically list the steps involved? I think your telling me the first step is to reformat the entire hard drive, what tools can I use to do that? Also, I'm not sure what OS your suggesting I install first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Guys, if he had installed linux along side, and he gets a grub propmpt, grub is now the bootloader, not windows "error: no such partition. Grub rescue>" reinstall grub or backtrack and it should find windows(from your restore steps you did above) and linux for you. You could run a new install of backtrack to overwrite the existing one and it should fix everything for you if backtrack is foobared too, but you should be able to just install grub by itself to fix the boot loader and stil be able to dual boot both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angryxbit Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I'm confused, could you numerically list the steps involved? I think your telling me the first step is to reformat the entire hard drive, what tools can I use to do that? Also, I'm not sure what OS your suggesting I install first. Do what digip said. Just reinstall BT. I forgot it edits the grub bootloader to include windows (yay!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Thanks everyone I just got home and I'm burning a new BT iso. I really appreciate it, il post with my results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 So I installed bt5 and it fixed everything. I boot windows and installed it and went through the setup process and had a clean dual boot. I walked away as drivers were installing. When I came back I plugged in an external hd, and looked at the monitor to find windows shutting down and I just assumed it had to restart after installing drivers or something. Now the computer continuously restarts and can't boot the hd yet again only this time it isn't showing anything when it tries, the monitor displays a message saying no signal. I thought this was very bizarre but I really think it happened because I plugged In that external hd. I'm going to just repeat the entire process again, but I'm just curious does anyone have a guess at what might have happened? Thanks to all who helped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 (edited) Hmm. being that grub should be the boot manager, do you see the option to boot either windows or bt? If not, something else is foobared if you don't get to that screen. Check all hardware connections, make sure the GPU is seated properly, check cables, etc. Edited April 4, 2012 by digip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 If I were you, I'd just start from scratch, delete all the partitions and format the hard drive and then create two separate partitions. Install Windows first then install Backtrack. Here's an article, to guide you if you find yourself struggling. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/9059/dual-boot-your-pre-installed-windows-7-computer-with-ubuntu/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theyettihunta Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 How should I reformat the hard drive and with what, so that I can install windows first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 How should I reformat the hard drive and with what, so that I can install windows first If you have another machine at your disposal, you could rip the hard drive from this machine, and use the Windows builtin utility from the other machine to format this hard drive, or use one of the utilities on the Hiren's Boot CD to format your hard drive. http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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