Very technical computer question - master boot record

[pilotdave 0]

I hate to even ask on here, but I'm about to format my OS/Apps hard drive so I might as well see if there's an alternative.

Long story short... boot folder on my windows 7 computer is gone (was on a hard drive that's been removed and formatted).

Restarted the computer and it says disk boot failure.

I can boot to the windows 7 disk. It doesn't find a windows installation to repair. Automatic repair doesn't help.

I can use the command prompt. The drive with windows works fine. It's the C drive.

Tried bootrec. Bootrec /scanos finds the windows installation, but /rebuildbcd fails ("element not found"). Followed advice to activate the windows partition using diskpart. Still doesn't work.

Tried every other piece of advice I could find online. Formatting the drive isn't the end of the world, but I'd really rather not.

Anyone have any other solutions in mind??

Dave

[AggieDave 6]

Can you boot to a DOS prompt off a install CD? If so, you an fdisk /mbr, its an old school trick that we used to do. Although, I'm not 100% sure that you can still do it with Windows 7. You may want to google that one around.

It used to be easy, one of the many "fix it" batch files that I had on a bootable DOS floppy, back when it was easy to hit a command prompt and fix stuff the right way!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[pilotdave 0]

Yep, tried that. Didn't help. I'm pretty sure it gave an error message but I can't remember off the top of my head.

Dave

[Hvance 0]

Hmm, that's an odd problem. Why was the MBR on a different hard drive anyway?

Most of the things I would try you've already attempted. Have you ever used Microsoft's DaRT package? Probably won't work given that the installation disk fails to recognize the installation, but it's helped me out a good bit in the past.

You might be SOL. Not too horrible. You sound like you know this, but if you don't have a backup, boot in another OS and grab the files first.

I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

[pilotdave 0]

I'm not sure how it got there. I'm guessing it was a few months ago when my windows drive failed and I had to install a new drive and reinstall windows and everything else. Having done that so recently is why I'm dreading it so much.

The way it happened was simple... I bought a drobo and moved an internal drive to it after backing it up. That drive was just used for storing pictures and stuff, so I really didn't expect any issues. Didn't realize it had some important system files on it.

The OS drive is backed up on my laptop right now, so I won't lose any data. But there's just about no data on it anyway... just windows and all my applications. Guess I'll just go for the format and reinstall.

Dave

[AggieDave 6]

Is it setup to be the master drive or any other goofy physical hardware problems like that?

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[pilotdave 0]

Nope, just a regular SATA hard drive. No weird settings at all.

So I started reinstalling windows. Oddly enough it recognized a previous windows installation and will move it to a windows.old folder. I'll have access to the data but I won't be able to run the old version. Seems so odd that the computer knows its there but can't do whatever simple task must be required to boot to it.

Dave

[Hausse 0]

If the data is of any value just get a second hard drive, take the current one out, install win 7 on the new one and plug the old one back in. You'll have all the data and more storage for $50 or so.

[theonlyski 3]

Its probably because Vista and 7 use a 100mb partition on your hard drive for their boot loaders. The drive you removed held that partition,

I say back the stuff you want up to another hard drive (or install a fresh one and load the OS on it, then plug your current one back in and access all of your stuff.)

Aside from partition magic, creating a new partition, resizing the current ones to accomidate the extra partition, and installing it from there....it is the best option.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[Icon134 0]

I think I know what you're talking about... when I first transitioned from Windows XP to Windows Vista Several years ago I had a similar issue with the Boot Drive being an old IDE drive and my windows vista primary partition being on a different drive.

I finally managed to repair the boot up problem (I wanted to be able to remove the old, relatively small, slower IDE drive) using the drive manufacturer's recovery software.

I know both Seagate and Western Digital have drive recovery software that is free to download as long as you have one of their hard drives...

Unfortunately for you I did this repair over the summer and don't recall exactly what I did to fix it... but I did fix it... so it can be done...

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[pilotdave 0]

Yeah, I have an esata docking station. I just pulled the drive out, plugged it into my laptop, and copied the contents of the drive.

But of course after reinstalling windows it turns out all the old contents of the drive were moved to a folder on it so the backup wasn't even necessary. I was assuming I'd have to format the drive.

I'm back up and running. Just need to install every program I own. And get all my settings back to the way I like them. And remember to set up weekly recovery points so I don't have to go through this again.

Dave