The partition table does not have a valid system partition

Thank you all very much for your help and the suggestions.

This is by far the most helpful forum I have ever been on.

Glad to help. Let us know if you have any other issues.

Actually I seem to be having a lot of problems with one of my new hard drives.

It started last night when I was attempting to back up my e: got to about 60% then froze.

When I rebooted my pc I got this message. Despite a number of formats it still keeps coming back.

Run the WD Data Lifeguard CD diagnostics Extended Scan. Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

Run Disk Check from the OS or DVD/Repair CD Command Line.

Call WD Tech Support to RMA the HD if necessary, as it has a 1 year warranty.

I have one WD Cavier black. Will not boot same problem as above. 2 partitions on the drive partition 1 is 100 mb partion 2 is the rest of the drive. I set partition 2 as active and ran the repair 3 times (4 actually) and no luck in the diagnosis and repair details the last line always says . The partition table does not have a valid system partition.
Repair action : Partition table repair
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 2590 ms

This is the same result each time I click finish and the computer just reboots to the cd even though it is not first in the boot order. I cannot see the main (WD 1gb) disk in the Bios setup but it is seen under the SATA6 Marvel controller during post. I can see it now it was listed as disk 2 (after the USB drive) not sure how that happened. BOOTMGR is missing.

Plug the WIn7 HD in a port where BIOS registers it.

Boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, access a Command Line to Mark the 100mb System Reserved partition Active: Partition - Mark as Active

Now return to DVD/Repair CD Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

You can also boot free Partition Wizard CD to see if your partitions are intact, mark 100mb Active, Explore files, and attempt to Rebuild MBR on Disk tab. If you post a camera snap of the PW drive map we can help you better.

If all fails, you can copy out your data using DVD/Repair CD: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Then wipe the HD to clean reinstall Win7: re-install windows 7

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crashed my computer last weekend and finally after following this post, Im back up!!!!!!!!!!!! However, posting snippets of my management screen cause I still have 1 drive that seems to be dynamic and it shouldn't be. Also, I have more than one partition active which I dont believe I should. OS is on the c: drive. Windows 7 Ultimate x64




And Once again, YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you repaired Win7, you must have marked C active to recover the System boot files back into it succesfully. But in doing so you cut out the 100mb System Reserved partition which had been originally created to hold these files and the System Active flags. So it is now sitting useless unless you want to repair it by marking Active, then running Startup Repair x3 to transfer the boot files over to it and regain its functionality. It's major asset its putting the Repair Console from the DVD Repair console and Repair CD onto the F8 Advanced Boot Tools menu. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

If you choose not to recover the System Reserved partition as boot partition, then you can use free Partition Wizard to remove it using Option Two here: Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

You can also use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to convert the Dynamic disk back to Basic, but you'll need to use the older version of PW CD to get this in the free version: partition wizard 4.2 free.zip - Windows Live#

To mark H Inactive, rightclick in PW CD on H>Modify>Set to Inactive, OK, Apply.

Thanks for the quick reply. If I do the start-up repair 3 times, do I need to disconnect my other drives first like I did before?? And using the procedure above to change the dynamic disk, will I loss any files from the disk? Also, there is a old windows xp operating system that doesn't work on one of my drives. Anything special to delete it or just select and delete??? Thanks!!!

As long as the only drive partition marked Active is the 100mb System Reserved partition then Startup Repair should work correctly within three tries to write the System MBR to it without disconnecting the other HD's.

If not, then try disconnecting them.

The only method I know to non-destructively convert Dynamic to Basic is PW version 4.2, which download is linked above. But I would back up my files anyway.

Other methods: Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk