Simplest way to restore Windows 7 MBR?

[cintra]

As long as this "recovered" HDD is the only HDD in my computer ... I'm locked up.
It won't boot from the Acronis Boot CD .. or .. the W7 install DVD ???
My HP boot manager won't work ... and I can't even get to the bios Setup ??

If the commercials weren't so long on this Sit Com ...
I might have been able to remember how I got past this problem the last time.
L8r

Correction .. As long as the Recovered HDD is anywhere in my system .. I'm locked up

How about 'restart' from a W7 Recovery CD?

No, come to think of it, that didn't work for me.. tough! Besides my old faithful Grub Boot floppy I did manage to Boot using Paragon's Recovery CD.. probably available on a trial.

The menu has a line 'Hard disk 0 MBR' "Press enter to boot from your hard disk" that worked!

 

[noyb]

NOPE .. nothing works as long as this HDD is anywhere in my computer ..
I have it installed as a USB device right now .. so I can boot from another HDD...
And delete the partitions.

 

[cintra]

NOPE .. nothing works as long as this HDD is anywhere in my computer ..
I have it installed as a USB device right now .. so I can boot from another HDD...
And delete the partitions.

See my Edit above

 

[noyb]

My problem appears to be that this HDD had another Data partition …
And I wanted to replace just the 80 gig system partition ..
that was W7-7100x86 .. with the ATI backup .. W7-7127x86

As long as this HDD had the Data partition .. I was dead .. and couldn’t boot from any HDD or Optical.
So .. I deleted the data partition with the HDD connected as a USB device.

Then I restored W7 from the Acronis Image.
Then .. It wouldn’t boot .. But my computer was functional .. So I did a repair install from the W7 DVD.

All is well now .. But I lost the Data in the Data partition.

The text in this reply came from my XP Computer ..
the picture was added from my new W7-7127x86

 

[cintra]

My problem appears to be that this HDD had another Data partition …
And I wanted to replace just the 80 gig system partition ..
that was W7-7100x86 .. with the ATI backup .. W7-7127x86

As long as this HDD had the Data partition .. I was dead .. and couldn’t boot from any HDD or Optical.
So .. I deleted the data partition with the HDD connected as a USB device.

Then I restored W7 from the Acronis Image.
Then .. It wouldn’t boot .. But my computer was functional .. So I did a repair install from the W7 DVD.

All is well now .. But I lost the Data in the Data partition.

The text in this reply came from my XP Computer ..
the picture was added from my new W7-7127x86

Great! At least you got it up again

 

[noyb]

But, if this problem remains ...
And one can't Replace/Recover the System drive independent of other partitions easily ...
I'll be buying another Copy of XP.

All this hassle because I wanted to try to hack the registry to see if I could get W7 to do Thumbnails of psd files .. and wanted another play HDD to practice surgery on.

 

[cintra]

But, if this problem remains ...
And one can't Replace/Recover the System drive independent of other partitions easily ...
I'll be buying another Copy of XP.

All this hassle because I wanted to try to hack the registry to see if I could get W7 to do Thumbnails of psd files .. and wanted another play HDD to practice surgery on.

Yes, but look at what you learnt (thats what I always tell myself)

 

[noyb]

One advantage of getting older ...
I don't have to watch as many repeats on TV anymore ...
I just wish the commercials weren't so long.

I'm rebuilding the Data partition now ... Will start hacking around in the registry soon.

Let's see how bigga picture this forum will hold ??

 

[tw33k]

i'm thinking about switching to ATI2009 home but after reading this i'm unsure about it. I have an old xp box that has a decent cpu but only 1 gig ram (it's old sd-ram with only 2 slots in the board so i can't increase it anymore) but that should be enough to run seven on (without aero etc). i need to be able to make a reliable image of the hdd after install for emergency recovery.

 

[cintra]

i'm thinking about switching to ATI2009 home but after reading this i'm unsure about it. I have an old xp box that has a decent cpu but only 1 gig ram (it's old sd-ram with only 2 slots in the board so i can't increase it anymore) but that should be enough to run seven on (without aero etc). i need to be able to make a reliable image of the hdd after install for emergency recovery.

Well.. Windows 7 itself now makes image backups, which I have done. I just haven't tried screwing up my system and restoring yet...

If possible I would suggest upgrading the memory on your old box to at least 2GB btw. My old 2.5 Ghz P4 box has that, and it works quite nicely on W7.

In fact it has awakened my interest for MS out of a long hibernation

Ref. 3rd party backup software.. my vote goes to 'Macrium Reflect'. Their forum has a thread on W7 Beta right now, so they're aware of differences in the Boot sector area and are no doubt working on it.

Mvh

 

[tw33k]

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!!

 

[noyb]

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 ??

 

[cintra]

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

 

[Pacaman]

Fix MBR

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

 

[cintra]

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

 

[gregrocker]

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.

 

[cintra]

Thanks gregrocker

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

 

[mjb]

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

 

[gregrocker]

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 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

 

[campusr5]

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