Re: Help! I can't boot my Windows partition any more!

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

    Date:        Wed, 30 Sep 2015 17:41:51 -0700
    From:        Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <CAJcb3fqm1ABDS=K94THpgT2EHCBScv3_pG12C2DZdJOhYb__Sg%mail.gmail.com@localhost>

  | Sounds like your primary boot loader, the mbr loader, is missing?

Not missing, or the system wouldn't boot at all, but the wrong version,
either it is the windows mbr boot loader (most likely I suspect), or the
NetBSD one intended for systems where there is only NetBSD.

Ottavio: Use the (NetBSD) fdisk, have it update the mbr boot, and install the
boot selector, you'll know you're doing the right one when it asks for a label
for each partition (a boot name).   Don't change geometries, or partition
layout info or types - just the mbr boot code.   For the labels use "Windows"
and "NetBSD" (or whatever else you like - I tend to use somewhat more
derogatory names instead of "Windows" when I have to do this occasionally...)
for those two partitions (no labels at all for any mbr partition you don't
want to be able to boot).

Doing this tends to be necessary any time you have upgraded windows, or
used any of its recovery tools, as they'll wipe out the NetBSD MBR boot
loader, and install their own (dumb) version which only ever boots the
active partition.

Then when you boot next, you should get a boot menu, where you hit a
key to select which system to boot (which is either a F key, or a number,
depending upon which version of the mbr boot code you're using, it has
changed over time ... but it will tell you).  If you do nothing for a few
seconds, it will boot whichever system is the default, so it is still possible
to have the system boot unattended.   When you're doing the fdisk you get
the option to change how many seconds the delay is, but the default is fine.

kre