Broken Win7 boot

J

jomtones

Member
Ok here's the full story:

Had XP running, installed Win7. Win7 only showed itself in bootloader, I was ok with that and used Win7 for 4 months now... all fine.

Had trouble with vid cam not picking up right in Win7, thought I'd try it in XP... Dutifully backed up MBR in EasyBCD b4 changing things.

Tried to use Acronis OS Selector to get it working after I didn't get anywhere in EasyBCD, Acronis didn't work either and when I disabled it, it left me with a completely non-booting system >.< ... I've now managed to disable BOTH OS's and can't boot at all... I just wanna restore the MBR I had from the backup and move on, BUT I can't even get back into windows to run easybcd.

Unfortunately the Win7 DVD won't recognize my Win7 install so I can't go that route to repair things...

So I'm thinking maybe I can make a bootable EasyBCD to restore the MBR? Is that my only option? Downloading the Windows AIK now but I don't like the idea of it, way over my head. Any other ideas welcome!

Addendum:

omg I think I have found the reason for my problem - Win7 is UNSUPPORTED in Acronis OS Selector... so without warning it trashed my Win7 boot. Awesome...

How the hell am I going to get it back up?
 
Last edited:
jomtones said:
Ok here's the full story:

Had XP running, installed Win7. Win7 only showed itself in bootloader, I was ok with that and used Win7 for 4 months now... all fine.

Had trouble with vid cam not picking up right in Win7, thought I'd try it in XP... Dutifully backed up MBR in EasyBCD b4 changing things.
Click to expand...
First of all, if you had a working dual-boot, why did you "change things" in EasyBCD? :S It is only a tool which does what you (the user) tell it to. If you told it "mess up my system", then don't blame EasyBCD for it. It simply followed your directions.
Tried to use Acronis OS Selector to get it working after I didn't get anywhere in EasyBCD, Acronis didn't work either and when I disabled it, it left me with a completely non-booting system >.< ... I've now managed to disable BOTH OS's and can't boot at all... I just wanna restore the MBR I had from the backup and move on, BUT I can't even get back into windows to run easybcd.
Click to expand...
Hmm...interesting. You screwed up your dual-boot with EasyBCD, then blamed it for it, then managed to mess things up even more with Acronis. :lol: By the sounds of it, you probably hid both OS's partitions, which explains why neither will let you in no matter what you do.
You need to use Acronis again to unhide the two partitions, then you'll be able to fix your boot. Since no one can know what all you've done to your system by now, in desparation, perhaps you better go ahead and post some further information.

For example, what all have you done in Acronis?
What message are you given at boot time?
Do you see any boot screen at all with entries on it?
How many HDDs do you have?
Did you change the "active" flag on any partition?
Unfortunately the Win7 DVD won't recognize my Win7 install so I can't go that route to repair things...
Click to expand...
Don't be so sure...
Sometimes your DVD wont recognize your OS if you have the wrong HDD in the boot sequence, or messed with other stuff. Plus, if you did what I think you did (i.e. hid your two OSs' partitions), then obviously the repair program can't detect your partitions, which explains why it can't repair it at the moment.
So I'm thinking maybe I can make a bootable EasyBCD to restore the MBR? Is that my only option? Downloading the Windows AIK now but I don't like the idea of it, way over my head. Any other ideas welcome!
Click to expand...
EasyBCD needs .Net framework, and runs on Windows. You might be able to hack it and get it work off a cd or a ufd (usb flash drive) but your time would be better spent fixing your boot with either the W7 DVD (after you unhide the partitions you hid with Acronis) or with the neosmart recovery disk, which will accomplish the same purpose.
Addendum:

omg I think I have found the reason for my problem - Win7 is UNSUPPORTED in Acronis OS Selector... so without warning it trashed my Win7 boot. Awesome...

How the hell am I going to get it back up?
Click to expand...
Not exactly. You trashed your W7 boot. Don't blame a program for simply following instructions you gave it.
 
Thanks, tried them both but didn't get anywhere... (bcdedit didn't work in step 4 btw)

In the end I got back up by starting a new Win7 install on a different drive... for some reason that kickstarted the boot and I got my old Win7 install back as a 'recovered' option. Thank god!

Somehow one of my partitions on that main drive got screwed in the process so all my music is gone :/ .. shows as 'raw' in Windows drive manager - anyone got tips on a decent partition 'uneraser'?
 
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