grubinst.exe- write failed- Vista & NTFS bootsector External links Options

[ilko]

Just got a chance to play a bit with such system, where grubinst.exe fails to write bootsector on NTFS formatted partition.
OS is Vista 32bit SP2.


CMD is run as administrator, writing grub4dos MBR to the same disk is successful, so is writing BS to FAT32 partition on the same disk:

C:\Users\mute\Desktop\files\grub4dos>grubinst -v -l (hd1)
Partition list
# id base leng
0 0C 3F 7AFFC1 (3936M)

C:\Users\mute\Desktop\files\grub4dos>grubinst -v (hd1,0)
Start sector: 0x3F
Image type: FAT32
Install mode

C:\Users\mute\Desktop\files\grub4dos>

Grub4dos bootsector is written indeed.

Changing "optimize for removal" / "optimize for performance" did not help.
I have never experienced such behavior on XP SP2/3.

Any help with this, please?

[steve6375]

Run as Administrator ???

[ilko]

Run as Administrator ???

...CMD is run as administrator...

[steve6375]

Is the system BIOS option for 'Virus Protect' enabled? This prevents write to the first track?

[ilko]

steve6375, I appreciate your replies, but I must quote myself again :

...writing grub4dos MBR to the same disk is successful, so is writing BS to FAT32 partition on the same disk:
....
Grub4dos bootsector is written indeed...

BIOS would not be relevant, it's something to do with NTFS BS and Vista/7, and grubinst failing to write the BS under those circumstances.

[steve6375]

steve6375, I appreciate your replies, but I must quote myself again :


BIOS would not be relevant, it's something to do with NTFS BS and Vista/7, and grubinst failing to write the BS under those circumstances.

Vista locks the volume for absolute sector writes, but usually it is the FS area and not the VBR. So Vista will not let you write to any sector which has a mounted volume - but I am a sure that that the boot sectors would be writeable (at least in Vista SP1).

You could try a hard disk sector editor and read a sector and then write it back again.

??
S

[ilko]

...You could try a hard disk sector editor and read a sector and then write it back again.

Since FAT32 works just fine on the same system I would not play with disk editor.

I use grubinst in WinSetupFromUSB to put grub4dos bootsector. Only some people report issues like this, and today I managed to get remote access to one of those installations to gather the data above.

I hope Bean123, the author of grubinst, will have a solution, and also hope it might help him in case fbinst uses similar approach when writing to USB sticks.

[steve6375]

If you use a disk editor to read then write sector 0 under Vista it will work. If you use a disk editor to do the same to sector 50000 it will fail if that sector is part of the mounted OS volume.
If you tried sector 3f (63) and then say sector 7f, etc. you might find out just where Vista starts to deny write access. It could be that when formatted as NTFS, the sector(s) that grubinst tries to write to is protected, but when formatted as FAT32 - the same sector is writeable.

[tsetya]

i had same experienced, using grubinst to install grub4dos to NTFS partition boot sector failed if there is vista partition on the disk.
then using grub4dos toolbox to install to the same partition with no problem.

[was_jaclaz]

@ilko

Read this:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7328

It seems like bootlace.com can be used now under NT based systems.

jaclaz