Win 7 cannot start, restore or repair possible damage to MBR

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  1. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #21

    figured I'd be safe if I made a 64bit recovery myself .... appears I was wrong !
    Toshiba are doing some odd installs.

    Why can you not use the 64bit Recovery diisks?

    How to use Toshiba Recovery.
    How to use the Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 16
    windows 7 home premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #22

    well I can of course but when this first happened it appeared that a virus had merely 'deleted' the Mbr and it might be fixable by simply replacing that and not having to do a complete fresh install.

    really I was hoping to do it without losing all the personal data on my c:

    I havent backed it up since last week and there are a number of projects on there I really need.

    I can use dos prompt to recover them to my ex HDD.

    Was really just hoping wouldnt come to that
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 16,132
    7 X64
       #23

    Not very clear what the issue is here.

    When startup repair said it was unable to repair - did you scroll down to see the reason ?

    It might say there is a possible corrupted registry.

    If so - you should be able to replace it by copying the hives from the backup in windows\system32\config\regback

    to

    windows\system32\config - just overwrite the existing hives in the config folder.

    The hives are called Default, Sam,Security,Software,System

    Have a look and make sure the backup hives are not 0kb first.

    You might find it easier to use notepad:

    at cmd type notepad

    when notepad pops up, select FILE>SAVE then choose ALL FILES instead of .txt files in notepad dropdown box.

    You can navigate about with that.

    Open 2 instances of notepad to make copying easier.



    nb - if that doesn't work for you , what o/s are you using right now to post up here?
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 16
    windows 7 home premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #24

    Hi SIW,

    Most of the diagnostics return no errors then right down the bottom it says:

    root cause found

    unspecified changes to the system configuraion might have caused the problem,
    result : Failed. Error Code = 0x490

    I'm using my sons laptop to post atm.

    I also have now managed to get acess to my files using ubuntu on a usb stick.
    I can see the reg files your referring to you but not sure how I can copy those accross using ubuntu
      My Computer


  5. aem
    Posts : 2,698
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
       #25

    Well this is going on long enough kilkennycat. Lets do a reinstall, and this time do a system repair disk, PLUS a full system image.

    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 16,132
    7 X64
       #26

    Yes, that's registry corruption.

    See if you can replace the hives the way I posted earlier.

    I do it all the time.

    I don't know much about Ubuntu - but I believe you can use it to copy Windows files from one place to another.

    You want to copy them from system32\config\regback to system32\config

    I don't know the precise mechanism for that with Ubuntu -is there some kind of Copy on context menu or something similar?
      My Computers


  7. aem
    Posts : 2,698
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
       #27

    For Registry issues, i use RegistryFix.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 16
    windows 7 home premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #28

    thanks for all the help guys, no matter what I try It looks like the os is screwed.

    I used ubuntu to restore ll the backed up registry files

    I tried diskpart to identify and make sure the correct drive was active
    used bootrec to do all the neccessary there but still it returns with

    Total identified windows installations: 0 The operation completed successfully.


    so I hold my hands up and admit defeat. Luckily the Toshiba HDD recovery will restore to the 64bit fingers crossed I won't have to downgrade to the 32bit on the disk provided !
      My Computer


  9. aem
    Posts : 2,698
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
       #29

    A 32bit reinstallation CD will get it back to 32Bit which i assume was the oem OS, not 64bit, if it's successful that is.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 16
    windows 7 home premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #30

    The Laptop has never had 32bit on it !

    which is why Im baffled by toshiba supplying the 32bit installation disk !

    The laptop was preloaded with 64bit and I can confirm that the HDD recovery that came on the 2nd partition also restored to factory settings of 64bit ..
      My Computer


 
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