If you’re a normal sort of Linux user, when you buy a laptop you probably keep that Microsoft OS partition around, shrinking it to a minimal size and allowing it to coexist with Linux just in case you need it for firmware updates, special Windows-only tools for special situations, or sometimes just for an A/B comparison if you suspect something might be wrong with the Linux driver for a particular device.
So, after not booting that Windows Vista partition for a few years, and possibly having gone through a few disk upgrades and associated disk imaging in the meantime, you try to boot it up only to find:
- It doesn’t boot via the automatically populated GRUB entry, hanging at a black screen
- It doesn’t boot via Hiren’s Boot CD or another tool booting the Vista partition directly, with a
winload.exe“missing or corrupt” BSOD - Third-party software upgrades don’t work
- Windows Update doesn’t work
- Anything you try to install manually doesn’t work
ARGH!!
Well, here’s how you should be able to fix that mess (steps tested on Windows Vista Home Premium OEM 32-bit SP1).