No Default Operating System in Startup and Recovery dialog Win 7

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

Greetings;

Win 7, SP1, multi proc dell, one physical drive 2 partitions, nether marked as active

I'm 2 days into recovering from a Trojan

os Alureon virus. Using this Encyclopedia entry: Trojan

OS/Alureon.A - Learn more about malware - Microsoft Malware Protection Center

All is pretty good but when trying to troubleshoot a (related?) IE hijack issue, and going into safe boot, I found I could not get back to normal boot. It just stayed in Safe. I eventually replaced some boot files from a backup and it got back to normal.

I saw that there was not OS listed in MSConfig and none listed in the Startup and Recovery dialog.

No partitions are marked as active. I've tried to use the disk managment utility in Computer Managment to set the OS partition as active but I get an IO error.

Any suggestions appreciated
Thanks

Arc · Dec 30, 2011

You should try the method two or method three of the tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html then.

theog · Dec 30, 2011

Download the liveCD & Run, this is a free tool from MS:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/166445-microsoft-standalone-system-sweeper.html?ltr=M

Than

Information

Boot up using the Startup Repair CD or Windows 7 DVD. (not the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disk) If you have a Netbook, you will need a CD/DVD drive.
NOTE: Make sure no USB drives are plugged in.
Do not use a USB Pendrive for Startup Repair.
startup repair disc-create

1) Use the Rebuild BCD in this tutorial:
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

2) Restore MBR.

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

Thanks a lot guys-

I tried the Bootrec tool and it does not see Windows on my C: drive... only on a recovery drive.
I will try the cmd prmpt approach from Arc in a few minutes.

In looking at all the posts on the virus I had, I'm thinking a complete burn down is my best option.

As I'm typing and looking over at Computer Managment console on the bad machine, I see a little 2 MB partition that is marked active. It will not let get any info on it or let me do anyting to it. Looks like more reason to do a complete wipe.

Does the Win 7 install disk (non OEM) has all the tools to do a secure wipe and rebuild of an entire disk (only 1TB)?

Arc · Dec 30, 2011

Toddwmac said:
As I'm typing and looking over at Computer Managment console on the bad machine, I see a little 2 MB partition that is marked active. It will not let get any info on it or let me do anyting to it.

It would be better to understand if you post a full screen snipshot of your disk management window. Generally the active partition is a 100MB NTFS primary partition.

Toddwmac said:
Does the Win 7 install disk (non OEM) has all the tools to do a secure wipe and rebuild of an entire disk (only 1TB)?

Yes ! http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

For your reinstallation, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html .

theog · Dec 30, 2011

Information

We always assume you have made your Recovery Disks using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Media Creator app the first day you had your new PC.
& made the Startup Repair CD.
startup repair disc-create

Did you make the DELL OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

No Oem recovery... it was a vista machine originally

Attached is a snip of the disk window.

Arc · Dec 30, 2011

In this situation, I think you are right. You should wipe up your entire disk , and go for a clean install then . The steps you should follow in order to do it are ...

To wipe up the hard disk .. Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

To optimize the disk for reinstall ... SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation .

For the installation .... http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html .

Before wiping up the disk, better you back up your data externally .

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

Thanks guys....
I hit the button of no return.... clean all just few minutes ago....
now I'll wait for 3 hours and read some of the words of wisdon here on the forum.

If nothing else, I'll have a nice clean Win 7 machine when I'm done.

Cheers

Arc · Dec 30, 2011

Toddwmac said:
If nothing else, I'll have a nice clean Win 7 machine when I'm done.

Cheers

We hope so ! Best of luck

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

Me too!

One question... in looking at the optimize disk tutorial, I was wondering if in my case I can just use the standard Win 7 install GUI or should I do it in Diskpart before I do the install? I don't have a lot of working knowledge on disks so I suspect the default options are better than my best guess.

I have 1 900G onboard drive

My requirements
I don't need to multi-boot
I don't need to conserve storage space
No bit locker

Something like this feels about right

200G System Reserved Partition (not sure why I need it but it seems like I might)
100G Win 7 system partition (as suggested) Where I would install Windows
600G Data partition

Make sense?

Arc · Dec 30, 2011

200 GB system reserved is not needed at all .... 100 MB is necessary and sufficient for it . Dont need to block so much extra space completely unnecessary .

In the http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html , when you are on step 8, click on "new" to make a new partition , give the size 102500 MB , make a partition . Use the rest for another partition.

Now, when you select the 102500 MB partition for windows installation, accept the formatting of the partition, it will automatically split up the space into two... one is 100 MB system reserved (The primary system and active partition, without any drive letter; containing the MBR) and the rest is as C , of 102400 MB=100 GB .

So, if you think, you may drop the SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation step .

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

Perfect....thanks!

gregrocker · Dec 30, 2011

I just boot the installer, choose Custom install and click Next which will create and format the partition along with harmless 100mb System Reserved partition effortlessly. If you already know you want a second data partition you can use Drive Options to partition accordingly.

Clean All is only necessary to securely overwrite data to make it nearly impossible to recover. There is nothing about Clean All that is beneficial installation-wise that the simple Clean command will not handle, since the issue if there is one is wiping the boot sector which either Clean All or Clean does.

Toddwmac · Dec 30, 2011

Thanks for all the help guys... clean Win 7 with updates streaming in as I type.

Today is a much better day....

Toddwmac · Jan 1, 2012

Hey guys-
All smooth but strange behavior on some USB attached drives. No files show up when you open the drive but when you do a virus check on the drive, you can see it checking the filles (I can see the file names I expect)

The disk properties show the correct used and free space %s

They were attached to the machine that had the virus so I'm thinking a master record of some kind was changed. Any ideas on how to a) check the disk to be sure there is nothing hiding b)get the files back?

Thanks... and Happy New Year.

gregrocker · Jan 1, 2012

Take ownership of the drive: Take Ownership Shortcut

Run a Disk Check on the drive from Win7, or if it doesn't show up in Computer, from free Partition Wizard
which can often see it when Windows cannot. I had an external recently spring to life with an Autostart box during PW File System check.

Toddwmac · Jan 2, 2012

Determined that the hidden bit was set and the file owneship data was hijacked. Great opportunity to re-learn about ownership and cascading permissions.

gregrocker · Jan 2, 2012

Good work.

No Default Operating System in Startup and Recovery dialog Win 7

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