Windows 7 - The partition table does not have a valid system partition

OK, one of two things has screwed up my pc.

1. I opened my pc to clean all the dust bunnies, which I do every 6 months (customer pc from 07). I installed two new 2 tb western digital caviar blacks I got from target via the essentials deal.

2. A few hours ago I extended the volume of my e: for some reason there was almost 100 gigs unallocated. I noticed it changed from normal to simple.

Now ever time I reboot my pc I get prompted to enter a boot dvd or repair disc. (Which I have).

I have done few google searches and have tried to follow the repair steps with no luck.

Can anyone please help me out. Thanks in advance.

Forgot to mention I am running Windows 7 Pro x64 OEM

Hello polorsport.



Since you can get into Windows; and before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.


How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

Unfortunatly windows will not boot up for me. I just receive boot error to insert dvd and press enter

OK here you go.

Start by disconnecting all the Hard Disk Drives (HDD) except the one with Windows 7 on it; then boot to diskpart and run these commands to see if the Windows 7 partition is "Active", if it is run the 3 separate startup repairs with the restarts to correct the boot errors; if it is not "Active" use Option Two #1 to mark it active and then run the 3 startup repairs.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

click to enlarge

I just want to be clear now when you say to remove all the hard disk drives except the one with windows 7 on it...I have windows 7 on both my c: and e: drives.

Also do I need to remove the install dvd that is my external dvd drive?

What I would do is do this same process to each HDD that has a Windows 7 installation, separately, do one with it only connected then disconnect that one and do the second, that way they will boot independently of each other using the BIOS one-time boot menu instead of the Windows boot manager; that way they won't be 'tied' to each-other.


"Also do I need to remove the install dvd that is my external dvd drive?"

You lost me with this one, do you mean to remove the installer DVD from the DVD drive; if you do that how will you boot to diskpart?

Well I disconnected the new drives and left both c: and e: connected.

Followed the steps to get to diskpart and entered the commands in your picture.

Disk 0 which I think is my e: was listed as Dynamic Data under Partition 1

Disk 1 which I believe is my c: was listed as "Primary" under type in Partition 1

When I entered detail partition 1

Type: 07
Hidden: No
Active: Yes
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

* Volume 3 C New Volume NTFS Partition 931 GB Health

Did you see my post #6 above?

Yes, I had submitted that post before reading yours. Going to disconnect the e: and just try it with the c: as you stated.

A question I had you said to use option 1. Run Startup repair 3 separate times. But, thus far I can't get windows to boot up

Did you have only the C: HDD connected?