On 22/06/13 08:32 PM, Lagun Adeshina wrote:
> *From:* Gary Dale <garydale@rogers.com> > *To:* debian-user@lists.debian.org > *Cc:* debian-user@lists.debian.org > *Sent:* Saturday, 22 June 2013, 21:47 > *Subject:* Re: Unidentified subject! > > On 22/06/13 04:38 PM, Lagun Adeshina wrote: > > > Hi Guys, > > > I need your help. > > > > > 1. I set out to install Debian from Windows 7 > > > > > 2. I downloaded the win 32 Debian Installer and went through the > procedures > > > > > 3. On reaching the partitioning option I got a little confused I had > > > used the RAID5 Partition then > > > > > 4. I went on to stop the installing > > > > > 5. I could not restart either my window 7 nor continue the installing > > > > > 6. My computer is a emachine 732 running initially on windows 7 > > > > > 7. Help me please > > > This could be that the Windows 7 partition was corrupted. I always > advise people to do the partitioning outside of the installation when > doing a dual-boot. The reason is that Windows file systems are touchy > and probably need to be checked after being resized. > > The fact that you seem to have a RAID 5 array, which I'm guessing is > using the SATA RAID drivers for Windows, makes things more complicated. > > However, we need more information on what exactly your setup is, where > the RAID 5 comes in, and what happens when you try to boot.
All I did was try to install Debian 7 and the RAID5 was just some option that came up during partitioning. I read about it and understood it was supposed to keep whole old stuff sale. That was my understanding and I'm left with no OS neither Debian nor win7
I have no idea how you managed to get a RAID 5 option on a laptop. However, I suppose it is possible. Anyway, I doubt that Windows would have installed on it. It sounds like you've messed up the partitioning. I suggest you boot from parted magic (http://partedmagic.com/) and try to recover the original partitioning. (It's also possible that it is intact and it's just the Windows bootloader that has been corrupted. Check on a Windows site to find out to fix a corrupted boot loader.)
If you have important data on the laptop, you should plug in an external drive and dd the entire laptop drive to an image file on the external drive (which must have at least as much free space as the laptop drive's size).
Once you have a copy of the drive, try to recover the old partition information so you can mount the drive and copy the files off of it onto some other medium.
Only then should you try to get Windows to boot again.Warning: you've messed up your system and shouldn't try to recover it unless you feel comfortable doing so. Otherwise, find someone who knows how to do this to do it for you. Recovering important files is easy to mess up and the techs at the big box stores frequently don't understand the process.
Linux setup shouldn't cause the symptoms you described but it also shouldn't have offered a RAID 5 option when you only have one drive in your laptop. It is also possible that you ignored the instructions to make sure your Windows partition is clean before resizing it to make room for Linux.