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If you are running a multi-boot configuration with Windows and Linux, and using GRUB as the bootloader, you may be headed for trouble. I first ran into this problem about six months or so ago, but I didn't realize what it was until a few weeks ago. I have been running this kind of configuration (Linux and Windows multi-boot) for several years with no problems until this came up.
The first symptom I saw was with installation of Vista SP2, on two of my laptops - the ASUS N10J and HP Pavillion dv2-1010ez. Both came preloaded with Vista SP1. Because I was going to lend at least one of them to someone who wanted to use Vista, last fall I decided to update them both to Vista SP2. Both had the same problem - after thrashing through a LOT of other updates, Windows Update finally offered to download and install SP2. It then spent a very, very long time thrashing around, until it finally said installation was complete and it needed to reboot. When I let it reboot, it went through the "Installing Updates, Please Wait... Phase 1 xx% Done" malarkey, then "Phase 2 xx% Done", each time counting slowly from 1% to 100%. Then it rebooted, and when it came back up it again went into "Installing Updates, Please Wait... Phase 3 xx% Done", and took a very long time to count from 1% until it finally got to 100%. It then sat there thrashing around for another very long time, before it suddenly announced "Update Failed to Install", and it then went back and removed everything it had done with SP2. No more information than that, no hint about what went wrong, what it didn't like, what I should do next, or anything else.
As I said, this happened twice, on two different machines, and on both of them I had done absolutely nothing with Windows beyond booting to make sure they worked. No configuration, no optional software installed or removed, nothing. At the time I wrote it off as just another example of stupid, broken Microsoft software, and told my friends they would have to live with Vista SP1.
I recently received a set of Win7 upgrade disks for the HP Pavillion, and decided to install them before passing that machine on. The compatibility check and preparation procedure from the first disk ran just fine, then it rebooted and told me to insert the Win7 disk. When I did that, it started running "setup copying files"... and then announced that it had run into an unexpected error, and couldn't continue. Grrrr. It's not possible that even Microsoft is this stupid, that a Win7 upgrade on an essentially untouched Windows installation doesn't work. So what could be the problem? I finally realized that the only thing that had changed was the bootloader. So I restored that, ran the Win7 upgrade again, and this time it worked! That reminded me of the previous SP2 problem, so I went to the N10J, restored the Windows bootloader, ran Windows Update, and it installed SP2 successfully this time!
So, a warning. If you are multi-booting Windows and Linux, and using GRUB, don't be surprised if Windows Update starts failing on you. The simple solution is to keep a copy of the MBR, both the Windows and Linux version, which you can put in place as needed.
jw 21/1/2010
Talkback
Hi JW.
That's a good one to remember, and I like the suggestion of backing up the boot sector. That alone would have helped me in the past with repairs of certain Dell PC's with utility partitions.
Most of the dual-boot stuff I've done is with Windows XP and Ubuntu. I often put the current Ubuntu on the end of a drive so I can remove viruses from the Windows partition, or just as an introduction to Linux. So far, I hadn't had any of the problems you encountered with Vista & 7 until I recently put Ubuntu 9.10 on with Grub2. A Windows XP repair-install from CD would not complete after the first blue stage copying files. The restart got to a screen with pointer in it but then did nothing else. I had to boot a Windows CD to command prompt (first repair option) and run fixmbr and fixboot, then run the repair-install again. Once complete, I booted to a Live CD and installed Grub2.
Do you think MS is still trying to make it awkward to run anything but their software?
(Question's rhetorical folks)
What in the world would Microsoft Update be looking at the MBR for? That's crazy. Thanks for the helpful tip though, I'm sure that there are many that are in a dual boot scenario that are having this problem.
Have you thought that it maybe grub that is causing the problems, after all they should have tested with windows updates before releasing it/
Pop - I had the same rhetorical question, and given the current temperature level with Microsoft, decided not to post it. When I try to be optimistic about it, I just figure they don't care, and they are just doing their normal "it works for us, and we don't care about the rest of the world". At less optimistic times, I wonder the same thing you did.
100237471 - Yeah, you're probably right, that's it. Never mind that this problem never existed before, that I have installed countless Windows Updates from XP original through XP SP3, and from Vista original through Vista SP1 and subsequent patches, and there was never a problem, but now with Vista SP2 it hangs. Yup, that's probably a GRUB problem all right. Thanks.
jw
Must say that my first reaction was that MickeySoft were playing their usual games, but it could be that they are just going their own way without regard for others. Either way either way it doesn't do anything to improve their reputation.
Moreover, I don't believe it is Grub which is at fault or that, necessarily, that that Grub can overcome this difficulty. Windows must be looking for its own boot manager and baulking - this possibly as a result of it's new (post XP) repair mechanisms.
Meanwhile, I do have the Win7 freebie, installed as an upgrade to the RC, with Ubuntu and WinXP already installed, and which overwrote Grub. So now I have the Win7 boot loader managing my start up choices using Easy BCD ,with Grub installed on the Ubuntu partition and with Ubuntu set as the default in both locations. I did have some initial issues setting this up which I wrote about before.
I wonder what will happen if or when I install the retail version of Win7, after the freebie version times out!
Moley - Good one, I hadn't thought about the "self-repair" stuff considering anything other than the Windows bootloader to be a problem. The odd thing was that it didn't "fix" it, by trying to reinstall the Windows bootloader, it just failed to install the update or upgrade.
Your multi-boot setup sounds interesting, and a good way to avoid this problem if it continues in the future.
It will be interesting to see what happens if/when your free "preview" version of Win7 runs out, and if/when you then install the retail version.
jw
I encounter the same problem with Vista dualbooting Debian
How can I restore MBR so that Microsoft will enable SP2 upgrade
and later how to reverse back to grub?
@Moley, I have the "free" 7, XP, and PCLinuxOS, and had to use EasyBCD to get 7 on. Everything works finw now. I don't plan on paying for 7 when the freebie runs out, I'll just use that space for another Linux partition.
@cae - Unfortunately, so far in my experience this is something that you have to plan in advance for. The simple answer is that once you have some kind of Linux running (any kind, including a LiveCD will do), you can save the MBR with <i>dd</i>, before you actually install GRUB:
<b>dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 out=boot.win</b>
This will create a 512 byte file that contains the Windows MBR. Of course, if you are running from a LiveCD, USB stick or whatever, you need to save this to a place that will not be lost when you reboot; one simple solution is to save it to a USB drive, but you could also mount either the Windows (NTFS) partition or some other Linux partition on the disk and save it there.
I do the same again after I have installed Linux (and GRUB), so I have it in case something else decides to overwrite it - both Windows and openSolaris will do that without warning. The procedure and the command are the same, just adjust the output file name.
When you want to restore one or the other, just reverse the command:
<b>dd if=boot.grub bs=512 count=1 off=/dev/sda</b>
Tecnically speaking you could omit the bs= and count= from this command, but I am extremely conservative when it comes to writing things directly to my hard drive, and I don't want to inadvertently copy a file that is too large for some reason, and scramble the disk.
Of course, if you didn't know about this before you loaded Linux, or you forgot and didn't make a copy of the Windows MBR, you can't restore it this way. There are supposed to be ways to restore it from the Windows Recovery Console, but honestly I have never had any luck with that. The first time I was in this position, I had to reload Windows from scratch (which also rewrites the MBR), and since then I have not forgotten to copy the MBR as part of a new Linux installation.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
jw
P.S. Just to be sure I was not leading you astray or overlooking something critical, I just repeated all of the commands above on my HP dv2-1010ez, and changed the MBR back to Windows, booted Vista, then shut down and booted an Ubuntu LiveUSB, copied the GRUB MBR back, and rebooted Linux as normal. It all worked fine.