Windows 7 wont boot after install,not even a bootloader

[AdyCarter]

Hi

I currently have a Vista/XP dualboot on my system.

I attempted to install Windows 7 as an upgrade over Vista, thereby keeping my XP.

The install runs fine however on the final reboot the PC no longer boots correctly.

It displays the "Press anykey to boot from CD" timer and then instead of showing the bootloader (as it has been all the way through setup (Choose XP/Win7/Earlier Windows)) It simply freezes.

The only way I have been able to make my sytem work at all has been to boot from the Win7 dvd attempt to install it again and wait until it forces a reboot at which point the bootloader is visible again and I can get back into XP.

Ive tried the repair option on the DVD and no joy either.

Any ideas please?

 

[torrentg]

This is a simple fix.

Boot into your bios and choose the other of your (I'm guessing) two hard drives as your default boot device.

When you are booted into 7, use Easybcd to add XP as a boot option.

If XP doesn't boot well after (from this drive - you can still change the boot drive back to what you had previously to get into XP always), you may need to edit it's boot.ini file.

Let us know how it goes and we can guide you if you need further help. Good luck.

 

[AdyCarter]

Thanks, doesnt seem to make any difference

Theres only one hard drive, partitioned into two.

C: contained Vista and now the 7 install
H: contained XP

Was previously booting fine and booting fine all the way through the install, it seems to be once the install completes nothing boots.

 

[torrentg]

Try a startup repair then. This should do it. (Or I hope so I can be 1 for 2 on this lol.)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[AdyCarter]

Thanks again for your help, sadly as mentioned in my earlier post I gave the start up repair a shot only to be told it found no problems what so ever. :/

Its a really curious problem as everything seems to be working absolutely spot on until the very last reboot of the install (after choosing User Accounts/Passwords etc) at which point my machine just doesnt want to boot from the hard drive at all.

Its my guess that one of the final steps of the process it to change the bootloader to go from

Windows Setup
Windows XP

to
Windows 7
Windows XP

and its somehow just failing this and completely decimating the boot loader.

Using http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html has sprung to mind however I'm doubtful i'd have any way to get back to XP if that failed

Any further ideas?

 

[Dave76]

Thanks again for your help, sadly as mentioned in my earlier post I gave the start up repair a shot only to be told it found no problems what so ever. :/

Its a really curious problem as everything seems to be working absolutely spot on until the very last reboot of the install (after choosing User Accounts/Passwords etc) at which point my machine just doesnt want to boot from the hard drive at all.

Its my guess that one of the final steps of the process it to change the bootloader to go from

Windows Setup
Windows XP

to
Windows 7
Windows XP

and its somehow just failing this and completely decimating the boot loader.

Using http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html has sprung to mind however I'm doubtful i'd have any way to get back to XP if that failed

Any further ideas?

Welcome to Seven Forums.

Try running Startup Repair three times.
It will only fix one thing at a time.

If that doesn't work Start EasyBCD.
Select Manage Bootloader.
Under Bootloader Installation Options, select Reinstall the Vista Bootloader, then click Write MBR.
Reboot when done.

Let us know if it helped.

 

[myzr7]

Hello Ady Have you tried this? Run from inside win 7. You have removed xp like you think when you installed over vista. 7 needs help adding it back. good luck to you.
EasyBCD – Third party software
EasyBCD, by NeoSmart Technologies, is used to tweak the Windows bootloader. You can use it to setup and configure Windows boot entries, and to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows bootloader. You can also add an entry to your old XP partition or create a duplicate for testing purposes, debug the Windows Kernel, or setup multi-booting to have multiple operating systems.

 

[AdyCarter]

Sadly no joy.

Further googling points to my issue perhaps been better described by Windows 7 Ultimate x64 hangs at "Verifying DMI pool data" - Windows 7 Forums

Infact the post by NovaEddie is using exactly the same system as me. He seems to have solved it via a full reformat which I kinda of what to avoid.

Looks like im stuck as google returns a lot of hits for this problem, all of which seem to be summed up with "Haha you're stuck"

 

[myzr7]

Ady, Could you go into win 7 and give us a snip of your disk managment. And indicate which is your xp partition. Like in mine the c is 7 and so on. thanks
Path to manage. start/right click computer/manage/disk managment.I am looking for your active partition.

 

[AdyCarter]

I cant actually get into Win 7, it doesnt get that far myzr7.

It gets as far as when the bootloader should trigger and then just hangs

 

[myzr7]

Thats ok can you then run managment from xp and lets look from that.