Solved Invalid system partition

i am a newbie as far as computer hardware is concerned. after struggling for days to install windows 7 onto my new pc which came without and 0s installed,
specs are:

hp pavillion elite m9255.uk
amd phenom 9500 quad core
4gb ram
1tb hard drive ( comprised of 2 500gb hard drives)
note 1 of them i made a partition of 30gb where i installed the win 7 OS the rest of the 465 used as storage for my files.

the other 500gb i left untouced which on disk management is unused incase i do decide to dual boot a mac os on that one.

i was using my computer for almost 2 days installing all my files and softwares etc when suddenly it shut down on me and when i tried turning it on it said

Disk boot error please insert system disk and press enter

i tried changing the boot order in the BIos
open the cpu casing unplugging blowing and re plugging the cables to the hard drives in.
however on the bios both hard drives are listed and wen i check status says that they both okay

i tried booting using the installation disc trying start up repair no luck with that
went into command prompt option
tried typing in
diskpart (enter)
lis vol (enter)
it list the 465 which i use for storage but the 30gb where the 0s is installed dosent show. surely if the hard drive had a problem the 465gb wouldnt show as it an te 30gb makes up te 500gb?

i tried
selecting the 465 volume enter and then exiting diskpart
then it says

BOOT MGR IS MISSING PRESS CTRL +ALT+DEL TO RESTART

so basiclly i have read almost all forums concerning this and followed most of the steps listed above for however mine says boot manager missing or corrupt, wen ever i run start up repair its says

start up repair cannot repair this computer automatically.
sending more information can help microsoft create solutions.

please do help me out as i have seen that almost everyone you helped so fars problem has been solved.

SIW2 said:

Hi will,

Let's start from the beginning.

You already have 7 installed and are now unable to boot ?

What partitions did diskpart list, is there a small 100mb partition and your main windows partition?


Are you awake? LOL

Click to expand...

I am having a similar problem and I noticed you asking about the 100mb partition and I noticed that my system does not have that is that something that I need to create or what should I do?

Hi siw2 or anyone that can help

I have windows 7 installed into the only hard drive I have which is a 2tb, when I turn on my computer it won't load to windows instead I get a message: reboot and select proper boot device

In system repair it says root cause found: boot sector code for system partition is corrupt.....

After doing the what siw2 wrote I still can't seem to get the problem sorted please I have been sitting pulling out my hair someone heeelllppp!

Hello,

I'm having similar problems. I followed all the tips given in this topic but to no avail...

My windows crashed during install of software. I used the reset button and then the problems started.
First it asked if I wanted to safe boot, I chose no.
It tried to boot but during booting again halted. I used the reset button.

Then I got a message that I should use startup repair. I tried it, it restarted and then I got the message: Insert boot disk blablabla.
I got my windows 7 cd in, went to the repair section but it didn't see any version of windows installed. I tried to use startup repair but it didn't work.

I used DISKPART to make my windows disk active (it showed up as "healthy"). After rebooting i got the error: NTLDR is missing.
Again I followed instructions, using bootsect but now I'm getting the error
"BOOTMGR is missing"

When I use the repair CD I see a windows install that I can repair, but when I select it it gives the error:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to Repair".

I'm pretty sure it is the correct cd however....

Furthermore, when I goto DISKPART and use lis vol the order of the disks is incorrect. I have 3 harddisks, one of them a small SSD and I have windows installed on the SSD.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do about this? I would really appreciate help...

Anorionil said:

Hello,

I'm having similar problems. I followed all the tips given in this topic but to no avail...

My windows crashed during install of software. I used the reset button and then the problems started.
First it asked if I wanted to safe boot, I chose no.
It tried to boot but during booting again halted. I used the reset button.

Then I got a message that I should use startup repair. I tried it, it restarted and then I got the message: Insert boot disk blablabla.
I got my windows 7 cd in, went to the repair section but it didn't see any version of windows installed. I tried to use startup repair but it didn't work.

I used DISKPART to make my windows disk active (it showed up as "healthy"). After rebooting i got the error: NTLDR is missing.
Again I followed instructions, using bootsect but now I'm getting the error
"BOOTMGR is missing"

When I use the repair CD I see a windows install that I can repair, but when I select it it gives the error:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to Repair".

I'm pretty sure it is the correct cd however....

Furthermore, when I goto DISKPART and use lis vol the order of the disks is incorrect. I have 3 harddisks, one of them a small SSD and I have windows installed on the SSD.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do about this? I would really appreciate help...

Click to expand...

managed to fix it by copying bootmgr to the SSD disk... did some other things too, i dunno exactly what fixed it but my pc is booting windows again

SIW2 said:

Boot 7 dvd to system recovery options command prompt. Type:

Diskpart

lis vol

( find the vol letter e.g C or partition number e.g. 1 for the system partition )

sel vol C ( or sel vol 1 , obviously use the correct letter or number)

act

exi

see if that helps.

Click to expand...

I know this thread is old, but I have to say that this method along with running startup repair 2x worked like a charm and saved me many hours of grief. For those who may be interested, my scenario was with a dual-boot system of the same OS:

Drive 1: Windows 7 Enterprise (new HDD)
Drive 2: Windows 7 Enterprise (old HDD)

I had no problems with dual booting and set up everything properly (so I thought). The intention was to get all of my programs and files installed on the new drive at my leisure and remove the old drive when I was done. Unbeknownst to me, the old drive was failing and finally started to cause issue. I noticed that my backups were indicating that the system reserved partition was not found, so that part of the backup would fail and after a little searching, I noticed that my old drive wasn't showing in disk management. I removed the old drive and upon doing so, could not boot to my new one. The system reserved partition was on my old drive! After Googling for hours, SIW2's solution worked for me perfectly and I am back up and running.

My only question now is, what about that system reserved partition? I've removed it from the backup, but is there a way to create a new one or move the old one? Is it even necessary in this case? Thanks for your excellent advice and any help you may provide us with in the future.

You don't need a separate system reserved partition.

It is perhaps better not to have one in your case - makes backup and restore much easier.

I don't have a separate one myself on basic mbr disk.

Pleased you are up and running agin - thanks for the feedback

My names karel and I have a problem. Listed below are the exact steps in which i discovered and tried to remedy the problems.

- Got my pc built at NCIX. Was impatient, I decided to install win 7 at home
- installed win 7. worked fine.
-installed all my drivers, asus gate and what not, antivirus. all the reboots are fine.
- install all my games and patches.
- shutdown comp for night.

Then booted comp to black screen after bios.
Check bios boot order is correct Cd/dvd>hdd

pop in windows 7 disk.
click repair. no os' found.
run windows repair. 6 times all said invalid system partition.
run cmd prompt type in exactly:
diskpart
lis vol
sel vol c
act
exi.

reboot. same problem so i do this 2 more times. there is only 2 partitions that show up. my 500g seagate and an external wd passport. both say healthy.

so what do I do. I need my WOW fix man...
thanks.

When you ran lis vol, what letter did it give for your windows partition ?

Probabaly a good idea to disconnect the external HD.

SIW2 said:

When you ran lis vol, what letter did it give for your windows partition ?

Probabaly a good idea to disconnect the external HD.

Click to expand...

so I unplugged all the external hardrives and it worked with 0 problems
so what the hell. but thanks for both the excellent advice and prompt help

Win7:-After partitioning shoiwng error ""PXE-E61: Media test failure"

Hi
My Brother's Laptop was having this same Issue
He has done Partitioning of the C: Drive (Only Drive in System, which was shipped. I strongly suggest DELL to have at least made 2 Partitions, before shipping the LAP)

After doing the partitioning using 'Partition Wizard' and rebooting System shows following Error.

"PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable"
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM

If you are getting this Error, don't try Reinstallation as 1st Option; Use it as Last Option

I have searched in NET and tried all options. Went through the almost every option in following site :- http://www.nocrash.com/ncbbs/msgs/3247.shtml

Tried, Hitting the Hard Disk Area of the Laptop, Changed the BIOS bootup in every Sequence to all possible combination, and tried to repair the Startup boot area using WIN 7 CD
WITHOUT any success.

Then i checked the Repair log (Windows 7 installation DVD and boot from your DVD drive-->Select Default Language etc. and Click Next-->Click on the "Repair your Computer" option -->Repair Startup Boot Area. After Finishing view the log and if you are seeing that some repair happened on the BOOT Area and its Successful, But when booting again, System not coming up then Follow the procedure below

Issue due to: - Windows 7 - Invalid system partition:-

Steps to Resolve
================
1) Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD and boot from your DVD drive. You may have to change the boot order through system BIOS to boot from your DVD.

2) Choose your default "Language," "Time" and "Keyboard Input" on the first window and click "Next."

3) Click on the "Repair Your Computer" option to gain access to the System Recovery window.
Now choose "Command prompt" to run the Bootsect.exe utility. Bootsect is located inside the boot folder so change your directory to boot.


% Diskpart (DO NOT Type %, Its Prompt!!!)
Press enter

Diskpart> lis vol

Press enter

Now Find the volume letter or Volume Number which contains any System Partition (It may be C: or D: or E: OR 1 or 2 or 3 )

Diskpart> sel vol D ( or sel vol 1 , obviously use the correct letter or number)

then press enter

Diskpart> act

next, type just these three letters,

Diskpart> exi

Then press enter - to leave diskpart.

Close command prompt. Take the DVD Out. Restart Lap/PC.

If you are getting the following Error during next restart

"NTLDR is missing crtl+ alt+ delete to restart”
Then follow the below procedure

Go to Command Prompt (Steps 1 -3, above)
Type following in Cmd Prompt.
% bootsect /nt60 ALL
then press enter
(This is Safest one, although you can use bootsect /nt60 C:\,bootsect /nt60 SYS etc.. )

Eject the DVD and restart your computer. Your computer should now boot Windows 7 again.
I have done this Procedure and it was Great Success after 5-6 Hrs of continuous Struggle
I tried it as last option and would have re-installed the OS , if this would have not been a success

Thanks a LOt Guyzzzz..... ..It worked Like Charm..

Thanks to SIW2 for posting this procedure and the following Websites/links

1) How to Repair the MBR on Windows 7 | eHow.com
2) http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/36367-invalid-system-partition.html

Regards,
-Joice

Just like to post a massive thank you to SIW2 - i was having the same issue around Win 7 not booting, the system partition missing from my C drive, and the system recovery tool not finding the drive and being unable to solve it!

Had been searching around for the last couple of hours, this solved it perfectly! Thanks again!

Hi Zazantaka,

Thanks for the update.

Glad it worked for you.

Hello SIW2, First off, thank you for the help. This happened to me recently. I followed these instructions and the fix worked great about a week ago. Since then, my wife was using the computer. She had Google Chrome up and running, and she plugged in our digital camera. At that point, Google Chrome crashed, and then the whole computer crashed shortly after that.

I have tried to follow these steps, but after doing the Diskpart commands, I continue to just get the "BOOTMGR is missing" notice.

When I try to run system repair from my Windows 7 DVD, it won't work because it says:

"If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or portable device, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator (You've just been dubbed my 'system administrator' by the way, congratulations! lol jk) or computer manufacturer for assistance."

We unplugged the camera immediately upon the crash. In addition, we unplugged any other USB connected devices such as the printer and web cam as well.

When I run the lis vol command, I get the following volumes, and part of me thinks the computer is holding onto the camera as a drive that shouldn't be there or something, wondering if maybe I should try deleting the drive. Here is my list of drives:

Vol 0 - G - DVD-ROM
Vol 1 - C - System Rese - NTFS - Partition - 100 MB
Vol 2 - F - "Blank" - NTFS - Partition - 111 GB
Vol 3 - D - Backup Driv - NTFS - Partition 596 GB
Vol 4 - E - Files Drive - NTFS - Partition 596 GB

Originally, Drive E was my "Files Drive" and drive F was my "Backup Drive", but it looks like now Drive D is the Backup Drive and F is now considered blank with only 111 GB or whatever. Any thoughts or direction of what to do at this time?

Ok, I have an update that seemed to fix this problem very quickly. I just booted up into the BIOS settings. I went into the BOOT orders, selected the Hard Disk Drive selection.

From there I noticed it had re-ordered my hard drives, so that my primary boot hard drive was listed as number 3, instead of number 1. I then selected F5 I believe on my computer, telling the computer to restore my boot order to its previous settings, and it restored the boot order, and my computer fired up immediately after saving.

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future.

could'nt find windows system partition

I had cloned my windows 7 partitions to a new 1 TB drive from an older 250 GB drive that was beginning to fail.

(I also have Linux Mint on another drive.) Windows C drive had a boot sector, and no matter how many times I ran the Windows 7 repair disk, it could never find the system partition and repair the boot sector.

Finally, I hit F8 when the Win7 system disk was loading and I was able to select "Last Known Good" because there was a point when the Operating system when it was on the 250 Gb older drive that Windows 7 had loaded succesfully.

I was even using the command prompt and doing BCD repair commands.

Lo and behold, the boot sector was found, and upon reboot and the Windows Repair Disk repaired the boot files on the system partition..... yadda yadda yadda, I was able to boot into Windows 7 successfully.

I had to rebuild the ACLs, but basically, Win7 x64 is running smoothly - aside from a few problems with my graphics card drivers.

Although perhaps I could have prepared the cloning target drive with sysprep so I would have a new SID. However, I couldn't boot into the cloning source (old Windows 7 installation) drive.

I am not sure the problem I am having but I believe it is similar. My PC is running 2 HDD in raid 0 and a third HDD for storage. The raid drives are split into 3 partitions. 1 has WinXP, 1 has Win7 Ultimate, and the other is storage. When I went to wake up my computer the other morning nothing happened. So I hit restart. When it booted it went into the please put in system disk and repair thing. I put in the disk and go past the language settings then I load the drivers for my raid controller. No operating system is listed. So I click next and went into command prompt and diskpart and made sure the partition with Windows 7 is active. I then ran the startup repair and rebooted and I am not getting the

BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

Any ideas on what I should do next? When I ran the repair cd again it still not operating system is listed after the language settings? Do I need to keep selecting the correct partition and then keep running the startup repair utitlity? Everytime I do it gives me the same results "The partition table doesn not have a valid system partition" as the root cause in the results

Update. So I went back into diskpart and selected the partition with WinXP on it and now it will boot. Unfortunately I still get the same results with running the startup repair utility. "The partition table does not have a valid system partition" I have run the startup repair a bunch of times. Do I just need to keep loading it over and over and not try booting windows in between attempts? I have it set to boot from the cdrom first then hdd second. So after I run the startup repair I am removing the disk to see if it will boot. Is this the correct procedure?

So I figured it out. I was using the storage hard drive to load the RAID drivers because startup repair would not recognize my thumb drive. I used a different thumb drive and plugged it in before starting up the computer. I also unplugged the storage hard drive to make sure win7 would not find it. Loaded raid drivers, startup repair then found my Win7 installation and fixed it first run. I think it erased my WinXp dual boot though. I am guessing that may not be to difficult to fix.

Thank you, had this issue and solve it thanks to you guys!