Simplest way to restore Windows 7 MBR?

cintra said:

If possible I would suggest upgrading the memory on your old box to at GB btw. old 2.5 Ghz P4 box has that, and it works quite nicely on W7.Mvh

trying to get hold of 1gb sticks of sd-ram (pc-133) is harder then finding rocking horse sh*t. i don't think it even exists!!

cintra said:

Well.. Windows 7 itself now makes image backups, which I have done.

Probably like Vista .. This will only come in the Ultimate version.
I'm wondering if the Ultimate version will be worth the inflated price ..
If we can get Acronis or Macrium to make the backups for us.
Now, it'll depend on what else the ultimate version provides .. and at what extra cost.

I've been hearing that Vista's backup isn't too reliable ??
I'm wondering if 7's will be better ??

noyb said:

Probably like Vista .. This will only come in the Ultimate version.
I'm wondering if the Ultimate version will be worth the inflated price ..
If we can get Acronis or Macrium to make the backups for us...

I'm using both Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal, and Macrium Reflect 4.x to image backup Windows 7, and they work well.

I received a reply from Macrium Support yesterday "Macrium Reflect should have no problems with recovery of the Windows 7 MBR" which is what I wondered about..

Mvh

Easy way to restore MBR with 7 is to use the recovery console and the new bootrec exe.

You can find more info here : How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Thanks for the tip :) Since my original post I've installed W7 Home Premium, and use both the inbuilt image utility and Macrium Reflect.

Haven't needed to make any restores yet, but it's helpful to have a link to your post in my Evernote notebook, just in case..

Mvh

All bootrec and bootsect commands are now automated in Win7 Startup Repair.

You need to run Startup Repair up to three separate times with reboots as it will attempt to repair before finally rewriting the MBR to Win7.

Make sure Win7 is marked active using free Partition Wizard bootable CD.

Thanks gregrocker

I've made a Partition Wizard CD and added your post to my notes :)

I have came across with this problem before and I've solve it.
W7 wont boot after ghost image restore on new harddisk

I'm using Hiren's Boot CD 10.1 (HBCD)

Download Hiren's Boot CD 10.1 and burn it into CD

Boot HBCD from a normal PC with Windows 7 installed.
Load into Mini Windows XP within HBCD.
Run MBRWizard to backup(copy) MBR into an image file to your USB Flash Drive.

Boot HBCD into your missing or corrupted MBR PC.
Load into Mini Windows XP within HBCM
Run MBRWizard to restore MBR into your PC from your USB Flash Drive.

Done! Your PC will restart as normal.


About Hiren's Boot CD: Hiren's BootCD 10.1 - www.hiren.info
Download Hiren's Boot CD: Hiren's Boot CD 10.1 and All Other Versions - HTTP Download

About MBRWizard & Turotial: MBRWizard! - The MBR Management Utility

Free Partition Wizard now has a Rebuild MBR function on its boot disk as well.

If it fails you can use it to mark Active Win7, or it's 100 mb boot partition - preferred since it places the Repair console on F8 Advanced Boot tools menu.

Then boot the Win7 DVD or Repair CD to Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

This method how to fix windows 7 MBR wokrs for me!