Windows Recovery disk shows operating system: Unknown on (Unknown)


  1. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional
       #1

    Windows Recovery disk shows operating system: Unknown on (Unknown)


    I've been trolling the forums here for a while. Lots of great info but now I actually have an issue where I need some assistance.

    When I was booting one day last week I got a nasty BSOD when Windows was trying to load. Then on the next reboot Windows 7 said it couldn't load and needed to do the recovery OS option from the Windows 7 repair on the CD. Well, before trying that I did a cold reboot and it got back into the OS fine so I didn't think much of it. Now, I noticed Ghost shows the C: drive status as "Unavailable" and it can't back it up anymore. It does give me an option to restore from one of my old backups. I'm thinking the MBR got hosed up somehow or something like that. But I'm skeptical to run an MBR repair since I have that 100MB partition on my SSD where my OS resides.

    Ghost Shot>

    This was about a week ago my Windows 7 started acting up right before the big patch Tuesday. I've been running it for over a year now and it's been solid. When I first set it up I installed it on my SSD (Intel 510 120GB) drive. One of the qualms I had with the install is Windows created a separate boot sector on the disk drive where it stored my boot files. This is known the the "system reserved" operating system files 100MB partition. Apparently the way to avoid this is to use a third party partition tool before doing the windows install. That way it will keep the Boot sector files on the same partition which is how I would of liked it for doing restores from Ghost 15,etc. Anyway, ghost was backing up my system C: drive before last week. I have yet to even try and use Ghost to see if it would successfully restore my OS but I've been using it to backup my C: drive anyways. Prior to last week it could backup my C: drive fine. I might try a Ghost restore point from a few weeks back before this happened but not sure yet.

    Here's my partition setup in disk mgt.


    And here's what the diskpart tool shows:
    Code:
    DISKPART> list volume
    
      Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
      ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
      Volume 0     H   GSP1RMCPRXF  UDF    DVD-ROM     3167 MB  Healthy
      Volume 1     D   GAMES        NTFS   Partition    459 GB  Healthy
      Volume 2     E   RAIDAPPLICA  NTFS   Partition    701 GB  Healthy
      Volume 3     F   BIOSLOADS    FAT32  Partition     24 GB  Healthy
      Volume 4     G   BACKUPS      NTFS   Partition    117 GB  Healthy
      Volume 5         System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
      Volume 6     C                NTFS   Partition    111 GB  Healthy    Boot
    When I just tried the recovery options from the Windows 7 CD it says "operating system: Unknown on (Unknown) Local Disk." I guess I would need to load my SSD drivers to get this function to work correctly but not sure yet. I was reading the thread about restoring the MBR using the bootsect tool on the CD but I couldn't get the Recovery CD to see my OS. So, do you think I can just put the CD in the drive while Windows 7 is running and run this command > bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr

    I found this info in this thread>
    MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record

    Another strange thing I noticed was in my BIOS my Intel SSD now seems to show 3 volumes and I'm almost certain that was not this way before. It shows these >
    A031 intel SSDSC2MH120A2
    Intel Volume1
    Intel Volume0

    Not sure why? I'm pretty tired but I'd like to get my Ghost backing up again and Windows repair capable of seeing the OS. Any ideas what I should try? I'm tempted to do the MBR repair inside widows since it seems MBR related. I only have Windows 7 on this system and don't want to hose it up since it still works fine.

    I don't recall loading anything that would of caused this issue and I'm not sure how it came about. I also just did a malware bytes scan and it came up clean. Thanks for any ideas/suggestions!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Note, I just went into my Disk 3 where my SSD resides in DISKPART and did some commands if this helps. It shows both the 100MB and 111GB Partitions on the Intel SSD as "Active".

    Code:
    DISKPART> list partition
    
      Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
      -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
    * Partition 1    Primary            100 MB  1024 KB
      Partition 2    Primary            111 GB   101 MB
    
    DISKPART> detail partition
    
    Partition 1
    Type  : 07
    Hidden: No
    Active: Yes
    Offset in Bytes: 1048576
    
      Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
      ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
    * Volume 5         System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
    
    DISKPART> select partition 2
    
    Partition 2 is now the selected partition.
    
    DISKPART> detail partition
    
    Partition 2
    Type  : 07
    Hidden: No
    Active: Yes
    Offset in Bytes: 105906176
    
      Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
      ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
    * Volume 6     C                NTFS   Partition    111 GB  Healthy    Boot
    Thx again for any/all help!
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 10,796
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bits 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
       #3

    diskpart and disk management show different information!

    disk management: only one partition is active. Of course system boots from it. And it's the win7 os partition.
    diskpart shows two active partitions.... don't know why. Those partitions are not one disk management screenshot

    Did you disconnect ssd? the information doesn't match to each other!
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Kaktussoft said:
    diskpart and disk management show different information!

    disk management: only one partition is active. Of course system boots from it. And it's the win7 os partition.
    diskpart shows two active partitions.... don't know why. Those partitions are not one disk management screenshot

    Did you disconnect ssd? the information doesn't match to each other!
    I didn't disconnect the SSD. I was thinking of disabling all my other drives and just leaving the SSD with the OS connected. The Disk mgt screen shot was taking about a year ago when I first installed my system. It's still listed as Disk 3 but I think the 101MB partition has a different label now. I'll post a screen shot of my current Disk Mgt when I get home later. I'm thinking I need to follow this procedure to fix this issue.

    Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

    I don't beleive both the partitions on my SSD should be set as active. Thanks for any ideas.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Fixed


    Well, I guess I was on the right track when I noticed I had two active partitions for my Windows 7. I have no idea how it marked both my C: drive partitions as active a few weeks back but going in and setting Volume 6 to Inactive fixed my problem. I left the system Reserved partition as Active and all is well. Ghost 15 even allows the system reserved partition to be backed up now! They must of applied an update over the last 6 months that allows it to backup system reserved!! Also, the windows 7 recovery now recognizes my OS but I don't need to run that. So, if anyone else notices issues and has two active partitions this was the fix for me. I used the diskpart tool in DOS prompt mode from the Windows 7 CD. Probably doesn't matter but that's how I set it to inactive. Whew.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 2
    7-64, 7-32, xp-32, win8-64-devpre
       #6

    My issue is more relevant to another thread but it won't let me post, says this is more appropriate one.

    Anyway ... See the graphic, I can't install WIN8 on the 104GB unallocated for some reason even though it WAS installed there, I just reformatted to do a fresh install and now, it won't work. Something is wrong, Win8 install says unable to create new system partiion when I try to install.

    Let me know your thoughts ... thanks!

      My Computer


 

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