Windows 7: Accidentally Deleted system partition. Cannot boot. Dynamic Drives.

Alright, quick update now that I have PW working.



I was able to apply the "Converting Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk" inside PW 4.2. It completed the operation successfully. However, when moving onto gregrockers next step for converting my main Windows 7 install as primary. When I right click or go up to the partition menu the option for "Modify>Set Partition as Primary" is grayed out. The "Set Partition as Logical" is not grayed out though, does this mean it's already set as the Primary? How can I check? I've attached a screenshot.

Edit* for clarification, LONGCAT is my C: main partition with windows 7. ISLONG is the E: drive and does not have an OS on it at all, just data, movies, etc. Lastly, FREE is the D: drive I formatted which also happened to be my System Partition and got me into this mess. I tried re-installing windows 7 on it which is why it has about 14GB used up on it.

Do you need to maximize the window or scroll right so we can see the partition labels? It's rare there are none to be seen at all. If the first partition is labeled System, for example, we should try first to move the Active flag there to rebuild the MBR or repair it's System boot files.

Windows 7 partition apparently already Primary and Set Active, so click on Disk1 to highlight it, then from Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, Apply.

If Windows 7 doesn't start after reboot during which PW CD is pulled out, boot into Windows 7 DVD or System Repair Disk to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Windows 7 starts on its own.

/facepalm DURRR, I'm a moron. When I scroll over they are ALL listed as Primary. Should I set all of the ones I don't want as Primary's to logical? I'm so close, but I have to leave to see The Avengers movie soon. I'll probably be back late late for my subsequent updates. Thank you SO much for the help so far greg. You're a wizard Greggy!

Don't do anything other than the steps you've been given or you will mess it up again.

I'd like to see a Disk mgmt screenshot with the window maximized or at least scrolled over to the right to see the other labels if they're there. If not, which partition is labeled System?

Okay, sorry for the delay I'm back (had a long night)

Before I left I tried clicking on Disk 1 in PW 4.2 and clicked on "Disk>Rebuild MBR" which completed successfully. Then tried booting and ran into the same old "Loading Operating System..." problem I've been having. I booted into windows 7 repair and tried running that a few times with "no problems found."

So now I'm back in PW 4.2 and I attached a screenshot (with the full menu in view this time). How do I know which partition is system? I don't see a label anywhere.

Did you run Startup Repair 3 separate times with reboots in between each to try to write the System boot files to the known Windows 7 partition which is marked Active?

If you have done this fully and without shortcut, then try rightclicking on first partition to Modify>Set to Active, click OK, then again highlight Disk1 to Rebuild MBR from Disk tab, Apply. If this fails to start Windows 7 at reboot then again run 3 Startup Repairs to see if it will reestablish it as System partition for the old Windows 7 installation.

If not boot the Windows 7 DVD to Custom Install to the first partition, which will give you access to your old Windows 7 files and allow you to gradually move it over to first partition. If you do this while it is marked Active it may work better than before. I would first use Custom install's Drive Options to delete the first partition (only) then just click Next to let it auto-create and -format and begin install. Clean Install Windows 7

May I ask why you had such a large System partition to begin with? Was there another OS there at one time? Have you had Linux GRUB bootloader on the drive as this can corrupt Windows 7 beyond repair? If not it may be random and reckless changes you made which corrupted Windows 7 beyond repair.

i bought a new hp dv4 laptop. i bought windows ultimate x64 dvd. so was going to install it and accidentally converted my 640GB HDD to dynamic. i was able to boot but was not able to convert it back to basic as the c: drive was in use because of the windows. i struggled a lot today on the net but i was not able to find a proper solution.
i came to this thread and VIOLA!! problem solved.
i would like to thank gregrocker from the core of my heart. god bless you

I registered just to say thanks