How repair Win 7 that doesn't start but keep files ??

Hey fellow geezers with Win 7 --

My Dell Optiplex 7010 MT dual-boots Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit. The Win 10 starts, but the Win 7 doesn't. The Win 7 gets as far as the four glowing MS flags but no further (although they continue to pulse and glow, forever).

Is there a way to repair my Win 7 Pro 64-bit while preserving apps and files, when I can't start it?

If not, if I boot up into my Win 10, is there anything I can then do to fix/repair the Win 7 while preserving its stuff?

If not, then FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE WHAT????

Thanks.

Samuria - thanks for good news. A few Qs -

1. Is it possible to make a new Win 7 install disk or the equivalent from a download from somewhere?
2. Can I put it instead on a bootable USB stick?
3. How can I run it if I can't start Win 7 now? Or does it take care of itself?
4. My PC is actually dual-booting Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit. How do I run the repair so it fixes only the Win 7 and doesn't touch the Win 10?
5. Is there a tutorial?

Thanks!

You can use Rufus to download the Windows 7 ISO file and use it to make a bootable flash drive.

1. Run Rufus
2. Insert blank USB flash drive
3. Select this drive for Device
4. Select DOWNLOAD
5. Select Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
6. Select Download
7. For Partition scheme/Target system select as appropriate: MBR/BIOS or GPT/UEFI
8. Select START
9. When Status says READY you are done creating the bootable flash drive

MisterEd - many thanks. It's the first time anyone has shown me HOW to run rufus. Very helpful.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work to boot my PC into anything. I ran rufus twice from scratch very carefully and can see the resulting USB key's files look good. See attached pic for the error message I got consistently. And I get that after maybe one second of my PC starting to show lines being run from the USB key.

The only difference between your instructions and my rufus settings is that I selected UEFI, not MBR. My PC is fully UEFI-GPT.

Any ideas?

Hi

W7 does not like Secure Boot and Fast startup please dissable them

All - I've tried a lot of things, and I can't get my dual-booting PC to start in Win 7. I get the four glowing MS flags but it gets stuck there and the flags just glow all night.

My default OS is my Win 10, and I can start into the 10 just fine.

Questions -

1. while in Win 10, is there a way to set msconfig so the next boot will be Win 7's safe mode?
   But only once, NOT as a default boot (or then I'm in big trouble). If I mistakenly set 7 as the default boot, I'll never be able to start my PC again!
2. while in Win 10, is there a way to use EasyBCD to add a third boot entry that is Win 7's safe mode? (EasyBCD alrrady shows both my Win 10, which is the default, and my Win 7. So could I add a Win 7 safe mode?)
3. while in Win 10, is there a way to set the startup parameters for Win 7 so that it does NOT use Fast Mode?

Thanks.

glnz said:

All - I've tried a lot of things, and I can't get my dual-booting PC to start in Win 7. I get the four glowing MS flags but it gets stuck there and the flags just glow all night.

My default OS is my Win 10, and I can start into the 10 just fine.

Questions -

1. while in Win 10, is there a way to set msconfig so the next boot will be Win 7's safe mode?
   But only once, NOT as a default boot (or then I'm in big trouble). If I mistakenly set 7 as the default boot, I'll never be able to start my PC again!
2. while in Win 10, is there a way to use EasyBCD to add a third boot entry that is Win 7's safe mode? (EasyBCD alrrady shows both my Win 10, which is the default, and my Win 7. So could I add a Win 7 safe mode?)
3. while in Win 10, is there a way to set the startup parameters for Win 7 so that it does NOT use Fast Mode?

Thanks.

If you can't boot to Windows 7 then Safe Mode won't work either.

Let's back up to see how your computer is set up. I will show how mine is set up in Windows 10 as an example.

Disk0: Partition E: has Windows 7. (Note when I boot Windows 7 this is shown as C:)
Disk1: Partition C: has Windows 10

Note both disks are MBR. This is an old computer that doesn't support UEFI. I had to select MBR/BIOS when I created the USB flash drives for Windows 7 and Windows 10.