repaired win xp but now win 7 wont boot???

Hello All

I have a triple-boot system of:

mandriva 2010
c:\windows 7
g:\windows xp

win 7 is my main OS that I use nearly all the time but when I tried to go into winXP today it asked me to insert the xp disk and repair the installation

So i rebooted the pc with the xp disk in and tried to repair the installation as it requested.

I selected "C drive: Microsoft Windows XP" and pressed "R" to repair. I thought it odd that it was showing winxp on c drive because win7 was supposed to be there! But I carried on thinking perhaps it was asking me to repair the xp but had changed the letter of the drive from G to C...

I went through the repair process but unfortunately when I rebooted my system I no longer had the choice of choosing win7 or winXP and instead booted straight to winxp!

Ive tried repairing the boot files of win7 with win7 disk but it doesn't recognise the win7 install any longer, tried superGrub and booting manually (this usually works when anything won't boot) but it seems as though the winxp repair has written files into the win7 patition?? I'm not certain of this..but then why doesn't it recognize the win7 install??

is there a way of accessing win 7 again?

anyone any clues?

I have most of my data backed up but I don't want to lose the little data which isn't backed up, so this is not a disaster if i cant get win7 to boot again

I can view the win7 desktop files and Documents etc if i boot xp, so I'm just wondering what damage has been done to the win7 files by trying to repair xp? Can I somehow mend the damage or check what damage has been done to the win7 install?

Help required, thanks in advance!!

Andy

 

It is odd that Super Grub didn't see the win7 installation.

Try booting from your win7 DVD and getting to the list of five options shown in fig. 7 here.

Then choose Startup Repair. After it runs if it doesn't fix the boot problem then boot from the DVD again and see if it now sees your Win7 installation and offers to repair it.

If neither of those works then you could write a new Win7 MBR to the disk. But that might leave you without both XP and Win7 booting. Before I did that I would see if the startup repair(s) even if unsuccessful would allow Super Grub to now see the installation.

 

thanks for the suggestions, looked like the repair was going to work for a moment then a horrible window came up saying: X Failed to save startup options

there were a few clues before this so i'll tell you what windows popped up and see if you have any ideas

the repair I attempted using the win7 dvd, after choosing "repair windows" the following messages came up:

"the file directory E:\programfiles\msbuild is corrupt and unreadable please use the chkdsk utility AND
the file directory E:\programfiles\(x86)\msbuild is corrupt and unreadable please use the chkdsk utility"

also the following windows:

"the file directory E:\programfiles\(x86)\sweetIM
the file directory E:\windows\system32
the file directory E:\appcompat
the file directory E:\assembly
the file directory E:\softwaredistribution"

and finally:

G:\boot\KO-KR is corrupt"

then "searching for repairs"
"attempting repairs"
then reboot

after clicking repair windows...

"windows found problems with startup options, do you want to apply repairs?"

After i clicked APPLY i then immediately got:

"X Failed to save startup options"

I have attemped rebooting win7 dvd and doing a repair again but now it is saying what it said last night:

"this version of system recovery is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair" - even though I have listed win7 (recovered) as my operating system twice (partition size 61439 which is the win7 partition!)

Anybody fathom any clues from this?

Oh and i've also ran supergrub again (several times) which won't even boot the xp any longer. At a loss I have tried to fixmbr and fixboot from command prompt which on both occasions said the operation was successful, but still windows7 or xp won't boot ??

Like i said most of my data is backed up, but there is a little data i can't recover unless i can boot windows,

any solution to this?

how can i boot win7 if BOOTMGR is missing is still appearing?

any help welcome

cheers, andy

 

Perhaps you should get a copy of KNOPPIX or BARTPE and try to retrieve the data that you want and reinstall?

 

it gets worse, thought i would try and repair grub with supergrub but now all i get is

"A disk error occured"

what now?

 

Hi,

I think you may just have a corrupted Windows partition.

Try running chkdsk /r on the Windows partitions.

Start with chkdsk e: /r
and also chkdsk g: /r

If that doesn't work then get a list of NTFS partitions and run a chkdsk on each of them.

At the command prompt run the following commands:

diskpart
select disk 0
list volume

Look for the letter of each NTFS volume (skip X: and any CDROM) and then run the chkdsk command on each of them followed with /r as above for e: and G:. Exit takes you out of diskpart.

 

I just saw that your Win7 DVD won't boot. Is it the same version 32/4bit as the version installed? That is usually why you get the incompatible message.

I think the XP CD may be able to run the chkdsk(s) but the drive letters will probably be different. I'm unsure if diskpart is available from the recovery console of the XP CD. I think there is a map command that will give the same information so you could try that to get the list of drive letters.

 

the win7 dvd boots, but at the system recovery options window there are no longer any OS listed to try and repair (there were 2 win7 before?) and now instead of receiving bootmgr missing I get "a disk read error occured" - what has happened do you thik?

I'll try what you suggested in command prompt in meantime, thanks for staying with me dude!

 

tried chkdsk e and it aborted when it tried to recover master file table, failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50
(?)
when i tried chkdsk g it started the process and got to 33% complete and it froze for almost an hour on same no. of files so I restarted and trying again and if that doesn't work i'll try the diskpart command suggestion , see what happens then

keep you posted

 

It is starting to sound like a problem with the HD. The disk read error is apparently troublesome as there is no straight forward fix. I'm not sure why this whole situation has occurred. My guess is that the WinXP installation caused some error/corruption at the very beginning of the disk.

The status 50 message is normal when running from DVD. It won't save a log which is fine. The not being able to read the Master File Table is not good. I would see if you can get it to go any further on the E: drive since that contains your Win7 files.
I think G: may be the system reserved partition which is only 100mb so it should of been very fast. (I'm guessing at the drive letters because they are probably different from the recovery environment.)

Onr other thing you could try that may at least force it to try to boot would be to set the Win7 partition active. Then boot from the DVD and choose startup repair from the list of 5 options. See if it boots afterwards and if not boot from the DVD again and see if it sees the Win7 installation and will auto repair. (This is different because it will write a new copy of the boot files to E: rather than G: .)

To set the Win7 partition active would be get its drive letter (I'll use 5 in my example) from the list volume command (you should be able to tell from size). Then continuing in diskpart:

select disk 0 (you only have to do this if you haven't already when starting diskpart)
select partition 5
active
exit

 

I was curious about the disk error and tried to view it in GParted and it's not there!

I should have said actually I have a 250gb and 500gb HD for storage which are mechanical, 3 drives altogether - the one which all 3 OS are on, is an SSD (don't know if that makes a difference?) - so the chkdsk could be scanning one of the mechanical HDs (I'll start calling them SSD's and HD's! to save more confusion) in chkdsk it says there's not enough disk space to repair the corrupt files (which would make sense because the storage drives are nearly full)

I can see the SSD in the boot menu (F10) but for some reason is invisible elsewhere

I'll try what you said above tomorrow morning (I'm shot), any suggestions advice in meantime are welcome

thank you!

 

I think you have a boot loader problem and you can easily repair this by using EasyBCD available here: http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

 

UPDATE: I've made a little progress and got rid of the read disk error message, now I'm getting Bootmgr is missing again

So far today,

first i disconnected the 2 storage HD's and now the SSD is the only drive connected to my system (this originally had all 3 OS on)

I have now successfully ran chkdsk on the win7 partition and everything went through - rebooted and instead of the read disk error message I got the bootmgr is missing message instead, so at least now the disk is visible

I booted win7 dvd again and even though the win7 partition is now visible when i select it for repair it wont let me, telling me to insert a windows disk which is compatible (as per yesterday)

I then tried to force windows to boot by activating the partition - no good, still bootmgr missing

I booted supergrub and tried to boot windows that way - nope. I tried the advanced options, choosing partition etc

I have now deleted the partition where i attempted to repair winxp, removing the corrupt files and leaving my win7 partition ; i used Gparted to do this

the chkdsk on the win7 partition was successful so why cant I now boot windows??

surely now there must be a way?

thanks for your input
Andy

 

I've almost given up hope now booting win7, especially when it seems as though you guys have ran out of suggestions, which is always a bad sign

I have repeated a few steps which have already been done, chkdsk, force boot partition, supergrub and I also rebuild the bcd, after which when i try to repair win 7 with dvd - instead of it saying "win7 61439mb c: local disk" under operating system (system recovery options window) it now simply says "unknown 61439mb c: local disk" (ummm) but same window pops up if you try and repair it: "this version of system recovery options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair" (i beg to differ!)

Some have suggested using knoppix live cd etc. to retrieve files but unfortunately the data i want to retrieve is inaccessible because I have to do a backup first - Garmin Training Data and Calorie King nutritional data which I have manually recorded, in both cases I have to click backup and save to computer which i haven't done for a few months; I don't see how I can retrieve this data with a live cd (correct me if i'm wrong!) - this is my main motivation for not giving up on this issue and squeezing out every last option before i lose this data. The rest of my data is on a cloud storage thankfully!

any final suggestions before i do a re-install?

cheers, andy

 

The fact you haven't clicked on save for a while either means the data is lost permanently (because it was only held in RAM) or, far more likely, has been saved to disk and the only problem with recovering it is finding out where.

A Knoppix or Puppy live CD is the way to go. Post back if you need any help with that and let's hope the hunt for your data files is successful.

 

Before doing a reinstall let me see what you are getting from diskpart.

diskpart
select disk 0
list partition
list volume

list partition should give you two partitions, what are their number and sizes?
list volume should give you a couple of volumes that are of type "partition" what are their letters, FS(file system) and sizes?

Continuing in diskpart to find the Active partition. Is partition 2 (the 61439mb) shown as Active in the details?

select partition 1
detail partition
select partition 2
detail partition


The message about not compatible has always been a 32bit vs. 64 bit problem for me. Are you sure that that disc is the same version as the one installed? Is your installation 32 bit or 64bit?

*****
If I don't see something obviously wrong in the diskpart information then I would probably suggest the Nuclear option from this page. Edit: If you do this on your own make sure you are doing on the actual Windows partition letter from the "list volume" command which appears to be C: (61439mb) from your previous posts. Drive letters are often changed in RE but yours appears to be C:.
Copying the long number including the brackets is a bit tricky but otherwise it is pretty straightforward. I've seen it work where nothing else did.

 

One last thought on the compatibility message is to be absolutely sure that you are dealing with the win7 partition. Does this command at the X:> prompt give a list of files including a Users folder rather than a Documents and Settings folder? dir c:

 

I downloaded a x64bit win7 recovery disk (iso then burned to cd) earlier today and now I don't get the "compatibility with this version of windows" message anymore, it did some kind of repair and now it tries to boot and I no longer get the Bootmgr is missing message!

BUT when I get to the win7 splash screen it stays there for a moment and reboots (wheter the dvd is in the drive or not) I managed to access the safemode options but whichever i selected it would only get as far as listing the drivers and then stop, reeboot again.

so it keeps rebooting time after time and now if i boot from win7 rec CD I still don't get the compatibility message but after selecting "startup repair" I get the "startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically" window, reboot and the same happens again

Back to your diskpart:

********
list partition:

partition 1____primary_____60gb_____1024kb (offset)
partition 0____extended____21gb_____90gb
partition 2____logical_____9gb______90gb
partition 3____logical_____1027mb___99gb
partition 4____logical_____10gb_____100gb

list volume:

here it lists the dvd rom and sd card etc with my
c drive as follows:

Volume ###___ltr___label___FS___type___size___status___info
___2_________C____________ntfs_ptition_60gb___healthy_____

((i've deleted winxp and left its partition unallocated))


select partition 1
detail partition:

Partition 1
type : 07
hidden : no
active : yes
offset in bytes: 1048576

then it lists drive c as in the table above.

select partition 2
detail partition:

Type : 83
hidden : yes
active no
offset in bytes 96638846976

there is no volume associated with this partition


***********

How does it look?

is the fact that it's now showing the windows splash screen mean we're making progress?

Cheers, Andy

 

yes those files are there, just checked now

 

The output of those list commands looks Ok.
Your bootloader seems to be working now.

The hanging on the Win7 screen seems like either corruption or a blue screen. From the Safe Mode options try the one for "Disable automatic restart on error" and see if it lands you on a blue screen with an error message you can read rather than a restart.

Also try the automatic repair again and when it fails there should be a link that says Details of Diagnostic or something. Does it give any hint to the cause of the error? You can see the link behind the main window here in this picture: http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/scassells/w7 VM Extensions BSOD/VM Addons Not Installed.jpg

You may also want to click on System Restore from the list of five options to see if there are any restore points available as something to try if nothing else works. You don't have to restore but just see if that is a possibility.

 

right, ive managed to get the blue screen from disabling the automatic boot, it reads as follows: (some text goes off screen though)

(something)... P: c000021a {fatal system error}
iniial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly with a s... (something)... of 0x00000000 (0xc0000001 0x00100568).
(something)... system has been shut down.

- oh dear!

I'll post back in a minute with that diagnostic error on startup repair
back in a minute!

 

thediagnostic and repair details produces a long list of different tests, things like:

system disk test, disk metadata tests, boot manager diagnosis etc. etc. all of which show,

Result: Completed successfully, error code = 0x0

then there is:

Root cause found:
boot status indicates that the os booted successfully

then there's a long list of more tests performed with the same Result: Completed successfully, error code = 0x0

then,

root cause found:
unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem

(interesting)

list continues of tests performed and nothing else of interest



hope this helps!!

 

I just walked in. I know our time schedules don't coordinate very well.

So it looks like it is saying it booted the system without error, so all the bootmanager/BCD/MBR components are OK.

Now it is the 21a error that is keeping you from logging in. I think that is fixable (from memory of reading various posts) but am not sure how. I'd have to read up on it.

The only things I could suggest right now would be one more chkdsk on the c: drive in case it is just a corrupted file or seeing if htere is a restore point available.

Is any particular file mentioned on the blue screen? Also what is the first set of numbers after the 00021a error. ie. 0x00005

I will read some threads tonight and see if there is any common cause of the error. The first five hits on google didn't really reveal anything useful.

 

not all the text is available, some runs off the screen:

STOP: c000021a {fatal system error}
initial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly with a s... (something)... of 0x00000000 (0xc0000001 0x00100568).
(something)... system has been shut down

this is literally what's in front of me right now (where i've typed "something" is where the words go off the edge of the screen) - the first set of numbers after the 21a you spoke of would be 2nd line down 0x00000000 ....

I have already ran chkdsk again in norton 15 boot disk utility

and from what i've seen on google there isn't anything i can find which makes any sense to my issue and i'm uneasy about trying anything which might make things worse

it seems we are getting closer to a solution though! but BSOD doesn't sound reassuring from what i've read so far

anyway, i've been giving myself a right headache today and if i don't go to sleep i thing blood might start trickling out of my ears or something - i'll see if you've posted back in morning (about 7 hours from now) and i'll do some more googling and searching on here tomorrow no doubt!

thanks for help buddy!

cheers, andy

 

You have done a great job getting past the disk read error, so I agree you don't want to mess that up. That is a tricky one.

I've been reading but no clear cut solution. I'll keep at it and see what I can find. I know there have been threads with that error on here several times so I'll look for those too. I think it has to do with the actual process of logging into a user but I haven't found anything clearly stating that yet. I'll post something before going to bed if I find any clues. Good night!

 

I didn't spend much time on this at all tonight. I apologize.

I didn't see a clear-cut answer on that error. A non-destructive repair was the only thread I read that actually got someone booting. (I'm not sure of the specifics for Win7 as most guides are for XP.)

You seem very savvy. I'm thinking maybe you could make some backups up of that 60gb Win7 partition and work with those. You have two other HDD do they have enough space for a clone of the 60gb partition and also an image of it? That would be about 100gb. Macrium Reflect would let you do both a clone of the 60gb partition to one of the other drives and also a backup/img file of just the used space.

The image file would just be an extra fail-safe. The clone would be what you are working with while you disconnected the problem drive!

If the drive you wrote the clone to has less than 4 primary partitions then you should be able to use the Win7 repair disc to try to automatically fix boot up issues and see if you can get to the same point you are now. You would only be working with a clone and could try a non-destructive repair or (I know, again) a chkdsk to make sure that it is not some random corruption.

I keep going back to chkdsk because it seems that something is not quite right with the way the disk is being read. The "disk read" error says the same thing to me. I'm wondering if Macrium which could work outside of Windows by using a boot CD would be able to copy all the files to a new partition and possibly make them more viable?

I know that I have no good answers, I'm just giving work-arounds.

On System Restore is that not an option because of no restore points or no recent restore points? It seems that even if there are viable restore points with the 21a error that they don't complete but I just want to rule them out as a possibility.

 

system restore is a no go, there are no restore points

I'm going to clone the win7 partition as you suggested - good idea! -(i backed the files up using norton ghost today but in the boot environment can't clone the drive) - i'll have a look at the program you mentioned and see if that will clone it from bootable cd, failing that, of course, i can plug the ssd into another computer and clone it that way

 

might be a clue here to what's happening...

I dug out an 80gb hard drive to clone win7 to and out of curiosity I tried to boot the win7 which was installed on it (I upgraded to an SSD a couple of months ago and upgraded using norton ghost, leaving my win7 still on the 80gb hard drive)

this win7 won't boot either and it was working fine before the upgrade??

I booted the 80gb from f10 boot select and i got my old mandriva splash screen selected windows, win7 then got the win7 splash screen and then it rebooted in the same way my current win7 did (keeps rebooting over and over) and when I disabled rebooting on windows failure (via safe mode options screen) I got the same Blue screen!!!

anyway I'll finish cloning the win7 partition, reformat the 80gb hd etc and post back with any more developments...

is there some significance in the 2 blue screens? (from 2 different drives)?

 

right well, i've managed to copy an image file of win7 and also cloned it

since then i have tried to boot the clone but with same resulting BSOD!

I will start trying different things to get the clone drive working and take things from there (knowing i've got a backup)

I used norton ghost to make a backup of my files and then tried to restore them on a different pc which resulted in an error message at the end. I take it it's not possible to restore your system onto another pc? (shame)

Anyway if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can solve my BSOD problem, bearing in mind I do have a backup so extremes welcome!

Cheers, Andy

 

That is interesting. I was originally thinking HD but I doubt that now. I just haven't been able to nail down any real solution. It seems a few people get lucky here or there but nothing that really makes any sense.

I did see a few mentions of RAM. I wonder if it may be worth trying to boot with a single RAM module to see if it makes any difference. Perhaps swap a SATA cable if you used the same one on both drives just to rule out those two things.

I did see a few people run a sfc /scannow. It is unlikely to fix anything but doesn't really take that long. You would do the second example for the whole file system. I believe your Windows files are on C: when working from the RE disc so you would substitute that drive letter. http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/run-sfc-offline-windows-7-vista/

 

WE HAVE IGNITION and LIFT-OFF!! ​

I'm not altogether how but I've finally got windows 7 to boot!!!!!! _ Yes!!

I booted the recovery disk with the clone drive connected at the same time as the broken drive (SSD), it asked me to repair, it booted past the BIOS screen, then I let it go past the "press any key to boot from cd" and to the win7 splash screen - I heard the drive making some noises (presumably the clone) and the windows splash screen stayed there for an eternity, screen went blank and saw the hour glass (blue circle) then WHAM! I was in, just logged in and there I was - in windows!

I backed up the files which I was fretting over and then did a reboot with the clone disconnected (expecting it not to boot) and it booted fine! How I am not sure, I assumed it had only repaired the clone (did it fix both? - must have!) Anyway it's (almost) all systems go

In my start menu most of my programs are missing (even via search window??) yet they are installed. And it says my copy of windows isn't genuine, hasn't done that before (it's a genuine Demonoid issue rolleyes, maybe this is the root of my problem??)

I'm going to do a fresh install anyway and restore my files through norton ghost (someone told me you should do a fresh install anyway when installing an SSD - which I didn't when it was upgraded 2/3 months ago...)

Thank you sach2, if you hadn't put the idea about the clone drive in my head I might never have booted windows. Macrium Reflect is a tidy piece of kit - it managed to do a clone where Norton couldn't (from boot disk anyway)

Cheers (and thanks again, friend!)
Best Andy