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Accidentally Deleted system partition. Cannot boot. Dynamic Drives.
I have a 1.5TB HD of which I originally created 3 partitions of around 500GB each (C, D, and E). I have Drive C: which is my main Windows 7 Ultimate x64 partition. I had an older installation of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 residing on Drive D:. I simply use Drive E: as storage of large media like movies, software, music, or anything else and it does not have an operating system installed.
Yesterday I decided it was time to format my old Windows installation on Drive D: hoping to merge it with my storage drive E: Big mistake, because it turned out Drive D: was my system partition. When my computer tried rebooting after completing the format I got a hang while the post screen says "Loading Operating System..." indefinitely. I initially panicked and tried to re-install windows 7 with my install DVD back onto Drive D: and it still wouldn't boot.
That's when I found a few promising discussions on this forum that gave me hope; mainly starting on the third page of this following thread between user rogerfour and the always helpful gregrocker: Changing the System Partition?
As Gregrocker suggests, I downloaded and burned a bootable image of Partition Wizard. Unfortunately, my entire disk and all the partitions are listed as Dynamic Disk instead of Basic. When I try and do anything inside Partition Wizard it gives an error popup saying it does not support Dynamic Disks in the free version! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
-So then I booted using my windows 7 DVD into installer>repair my computer
I then went into command prompt and ran DISKPART commands to make sure the C: partition was set to active. I also made sure to check the other partitions to make sure they were inactive using "select partition #" and "detail partition." Both D: and E: partitions are listed as inactive. There was also a small 31KB partition listed...it doesn't show up when I "list volume." Anyways, it was also inactive.
-I then ran Startup Repair the suggested 3 times (and more), always with a restart in between repairs. At first it seemed to be finding and fixing things, but now it always says "Startup Repair could not detect a problem." Opening the list of diagnostics always shows that the tests complete successfully with no errors.
-I also tried re-entering command prompt and running some other commands suggested by Gregrocker:
"bootrec.exe /fixboot"
Returns: "The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted."
"bootrec.exe /fixmbr"
Returns: "The operation completed successfully."
Bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force
Returns: "Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode" for both C: and D: partitions. It then says "Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes."
That's about the full extent of what I've tried so far, and I still can't boot. I've tried repairing the D: partition as well, using all of the same steps. The same problems persist. The only difference I have noticed is that I get a slightly different error durring start-up depending on which partition I have listed as active.
If C: is active I get:
"Loading Operating System...
A disk read error occurred
Pres Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"
But if D: is active I just get:
"Loading Operating System..."
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated on how to get out of this pickle. I've run out of ideas and most forums suggest I do the things I've listed already, some with slight variations. Is my disk being Dynamic have something to do with the problem? Anyways, I look forward to hearing back.