How to fix screwed MBR ...

Alright guys, I completely screwed up my MBR (master boot record). Long story short I deleted it and cannot even install Win7 now...it says something to the effect of "cannot find a system partition" when I choose my drive to install. I have formatted the partition, so I no longer have an operating system to "repair". Any ideas on what I can do? I have a feeling my harddrive is basically junk at this point (brand freakin' new too). Any programs or tricks that ya'll know of?

Much appreciated in advance.

Is there any valuable information in the old install ?

If not just boot windows 7 disc and tell it to format the disc and install , if it's more complex than this please explain your setup ?

ickymay said:

Is there any valuable information in the old install ?

If not just boot windows 7 disc and tell it to format the disc and install , if it's more complex than this please explain your setup ?

Click to expand...

All data backed up on external drive, so that is no problem. I have already gone the format route with no luck...still says I cannot install install b/c it's missing "system file" or "system partition"...something like that. Question...do I have to restart after I have formatted using the disk, or should I be able to immediately go to install without restarting? Also, my larger 650 gig harddrive doesn't even show up under the windows installation. It showed up within windows when I was using my computer and it currently shows up in the bios. I also tried to install Vista and it DID show up under that installation, but would not install due to the above error msgs. I'm about ready to chunk both drives and go get 2 new ones...but I feel like there is still something simple I'm missing. I would hate to throw away 2 new drives (650 gig wd black and 320 gig wd blue), but I'm almost at that point. Keep the ideas coming. I'm at a complete loss.

are you trying to install setup within windows ?

I am not sure we are "on the same page" so plz keep the answers simple and accurate

my idea was the simplest method would to boot into the DVD and ask windows to setup from there and go through a fresh install wiping anything already on the hard drive

let us know how that goes

Solved Hard Drive - Unable to Select or Delete during Installation - Vista Forums

Follow this tutorial.
Good luck.

If the MBR is messed up, when you boot from the W7 disk and do the install it will rewrite the MBR. As it does this, there will be scrolling message on the screen that says something like "writing to index......". This may take 5-10 minutes so don't think it is not going to work. Juse wait it out.

Welcome to Seven Forums.

It's not really clear what you have done so far.

Read through this Seven Forums tutorial:
(Click here=>) Clean Installation with Windows 7

In step #7 click on 'Drive Options (advanced)' you should see the HD in this step.
Continue as per the tutorial. Make the partitions as you would like them and format.

If you can't see the HD in step 7 above, tell us what you see there.
Give us a step by step of what you have done to that point.

With details we can help get this issue solved.

Why would you toss perfectly good HDD"s because the rewritable MBR is borked?

In the future, you can fix that by booting into the Win 7 installer Repair console and running Startup Repair 3 times.

If you have a question about the HDD's integrity, download GWScan bootable and run a full diagnosis/repair of the HDD. It is WD's Data Lifeguard but works on most makes.

But the MBR is written at install, or rewritten using Startup repair.