Just received an update through MS automatic updates, and it began to install before I realised it was SP1. It failed. The bad news is that there is a bug when it is applied to dual boot systems running linux. I followed the advice on ZD.net - the result of which is I am currently going through the motions of backup & system recovery.

This may be the final straw that weans me off of Windows for good.

Reminded me that the wise thing to do is to avoid Service Packs until SP2, and after it has been around a few weeks.

Mish.

What error is it?
If its the "GRUB-chainloading-Winload-leaves-you-unable-to-access-the-BCD-store" error, reinstall the Windows bootloader from the Install DVD, and reinstall GRUB from a chroot.

Microsoft's bootloader sucks, and they know it.
I got this error, because I have a separate drive for Hackintosh, where Chameleon has the same problems with Windows. Happened when I was ******* with BCD in order to disable testsigning, and EasyBCD complained. D:

No - it just doesn't find the disk. I have no Windows install disks - it is a Compaq, which comes with Windows 7 pre-loaded. I made a set of recovery disks. Tried to restore to the point before the SP1 installed, but they didn't work. The other option was to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch, but I figured I'd rather just put linux on it instead. I have found since Xmas Windows 7 has been getting incresingly flaky, my MCE based Digital Freeview box keeps seizing up and has to be hard-reset, my partner's laptop disk just died a few weeks after upgrading to Windows 7, and my laptop began needing hard resets as well. I liked W7 when it came out after Vista, but I think that is because Vista was bad; XP was better, but had got so slow with all the patches.

So, the disk is wiped now, W7 is gone, I put 32 bit Ubuntu on it, but I need to get hold of a 64 bit linux for it - preferably something that will let me play HD Freeview and DVDs etc.

Mish.

All you have to do is set windows 7 as the active partition, then install the update, then set Linux (OS X for me) as the active partition, reboot and you have grub (chameleon for me) ready to boot OS X | Win7 SP1 | Linux.

Use diskpart to set partitions as active. It's part of the win7 install disk.
Stick the disk in the drive, boot from cd/dvd, at the first prompt, press shift + f10 to bring up command prompt, enter:
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 2
active
exit
exit

replace disk and partition number as needed to set windows active.
reboot
install sp1

repeat to set whatever else as active, obviously changing disk and partition to suit your needs.

Hope this helps.

Thanks - but it is gone now. I liked W7 at first, especially after Vista, but the blue screens and freezing (and now this) just reminded me too much of the old Windows.

Mish.

Update on this. I don't think this is related to having dual-boot OS. The same thing happened on my W7 Media Centre last night. When I got up, the lights were on, but nothing was happening. Really odd, as in the past two weeks this has happened to two PCs running XP I know about.

I found that only by booting with a liveCD could I get to the HP initial startup screen so I could press <Esc> and select to boot from the CD. Once I did that, I could get into linux OK. The PC would not come up on reboot - so I had to power down, remove the power lead, and then start up again. Then I could get to the HP boot screen, select <Esc>, and boot from the HDD. Windows came up fine - and looking at updates, it appears that it had run these at 3 a.m., rebooted, and never come back up. I decided to run SP1 (which I had defered after my experience with the laptop), and two other security and performance updates. It appears that the system is running properly again. But, it is the oddest thing I have seen.

I am going to make it dual-boot, because all of our three W7 PC/laptops have had this problem in the past 3 months, and I have lost confidence in it. I guess I'll have to play with MythTV on it.