Thanks whs for your suggestion. But I guess I tried the same - Restoring bootmgr using How to Manually Repair Windows 7 Boot Loader Problems - How-To Geek but still of no luck!
Can you please give me a good link/guide of restoring bootmgr ?
Or is it because I haven't marked C partition as active explicitly (donno if its active or not currently) but tried to restore bootmgr and so it failed ?
OP has overwritten the Recovery partition with Ubuntu. So I think the recovery partition cannot be restored.
He has to try what whs has suggested.
The last option would be to clean install from the downloaded, same Wndows edition ISO and activate it using the COA-SLP key on the sticker.( He may also copy the recovery partition from a friend's lappie - same model, same Windows edition, if he finds one and provided he has not altered the partiton size.)
Whatever he does, I would recommend that he takes parallel action to get the free OS reinstall disk from DELL as in my post #2.
In many links (to restore bootmgr) it suggests to run only two commands
bootrec /FixMbr
bootrec /FixBoot
But in some links, it asks me to rebuild bcd also
bootrec /RebuildBcd
Do I need to do that as well ?
Do I need to run all the three commands or only some of them ? Please provide a good link for restoring bootmgr. Thanks
Been through the same thing, and was too easy and took me 20 minutes to solve after 4 hours of research.
1- First install the operating system GParted Live on USB: GParted -- Download
2- Use the GParted app on the desktop to check your hard drive. If there's no NTFS allocated partition (probably C drive you installed Windows in) that is apparent, then the problem is obvious.
3- Close GParted and open Terminal on the desktop. Run the command testdisk. It can modify your hard drive. Just repeatedly press enter at every screen, without having to use up down arrows and different options. It will analyze and fix your drive and partition tables by default. It does not format the drive. No files will be lost.
4- Now close Terminal when done and check back to GParted. Your hard drives C: and D: will be back. Shrink/extend the volumes the way you like it and shut down GParted Live. Use another USB to install windows 7 back as it is.
I think this is the best you can do with a hard drive that is corrupt, as your PC says "file system not recognized"
I know it looks like you've made progress with the boot files, but even if you had it fixed, how come you still expect to boot with this most likely corrupt drive? Having Windows 7 reinstalled will require less clicks and effort. After all, you're better off waiting 1,5 hrs installation rather than 1,5 hrs killing yourself playing around corrupt files.
Ok, I missed that on first reading. Every Linux I ever installed saved the MBR to a file. I would try putting it back and rebooting. Got nothing to lose at this point.
During grub install it should have saved MBR to a one sector file. 512 bytes. Check out dd command to write the 512 bytes to the disk. Also there may be a script for removing grub while restoring the MBR.
If there's no quick fix then the disk repair routine may be required.
Boot into Windows 7 DVD System Recovery Options or Windows 7 System Repair Disk to Mark Active Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved boot Partition (preferred if you have it).
Then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Windows 7 starts and holds the System Active flags.
Be aware that sometimes GRUB can corrupt Windows 7 beyond repair when on the same HD. If problems persist I would delete it completely and then for any future Linux Dual Boots use separate HD's booted only via BIOS, or Dual Boot Ubuntu with EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki.
If this fails then everything possible to get unbootable Win7 started is in these steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot including the latest installer and tool to write to flash stick or burn to DVD to try repairs or reinstall.
It's been a while since I did serious multiple OS on one system. Before giving up and doing a complete install I would check with these guys:
reboot.pro
Anything and everything about booting PCs in just about any OS you can find info there. I'm sure they've run into similar circumstances. There may even be a forum dedicated to backing out of bad dual boot scenarios. :)
SevenForums is probably the top resource on the web for consumer multi-boot issues, with over two million views and 1800 attended comments on our WIn7-XP Dual Boot tutorial alone. Nothing else including from MS even comes close.
Quote