Bootloader Issues

Tried the repair tool, rebooted it didnt work.

Then I did the repair tool, reboot (to dvd) repair tool, reboot (to dvd), repair tool, reboot. That didnt work.

Each and every time I tried to use the repair tool it'd search for a second or two then tell me it couldnt find a problem:

What else can I try?

The only idea I have is:
Maybe make a ~100gb partition on this hard drive, and install windows 7.

Then what I am thinking is if I were to delete this 100gb partition, I'd have the boot loader on my hard drive but it'd be looking for the necessary files in the 100gb partition to boot. It wont find them (after I delete the 100gb partition) so it will fail to boot. Now if I used the recovery disk, would it make the boot loader look in the right spot (my main windows 7 partition which will now be shrunken down to 650gb, I'd just expand it back to the full 750 after.)

Would the boot loader be installed in the 100gb partition I make or is there kind of a 'boot' partition on hard drives where the boot loaders are stored? Sorry, I dont know how all this boot stuff works... :S

I'm at the point where I might just move most of my data to my 320gb hard drive, reinstall windows on a 100gb partition, and move all my stuff from over once its all moved just use disk manager, and delete my 650gb windows 7 and expand my 100gb back to 750gb. (Essentially reinstalling windows...)

This is starting to get to be a pain, I need to use XP but have no access to it since the recovery disk overwrote the boot loader the first time I tried to recover it. (XP is stored on my 320gb HDD, and currently to get into windows 7 I need to boot my 320gb hard drive, it then starts up windows 7.)

HaGGardSmurf said:

Hey guy's I wanted to try out Ubuntu so I made a live USB, installed it, but I wasn't paying attention and I installed grub (ubuntu boot loader) over my windows 7 boot loader.

As you probably know bootloading is a little different in Windows 7 from XP.
Are you referring to the bootmgr in system reserved or winload.exe in
c:\windows\system\winload.exe

Well when you install ubuntu you can do it automatically or manually. I did it automatically, it resized my windows 7 partition down to about 600gb and made a new 150gb partition for ubuntu.

The install didnt work, or something I honestly cant remember, but I ended up using disk manager and formatting the ubuntu partition, and was going to reinstall. So I got to the install part and I was forced to manually install (otherwise it was going to shrink my windows 7 partition down again and make a new partition)

Anyways, long story short, I selected all the settings, and there was a setting about where to install grub (ubuntu boot loader) and I selected windows 7, when I should have just selected my 750gb hard drive. (I had an option for windows 7, windows xp, western digital 750gb, and seagate 320gb)

So anyways when grub would load up it lists the things to boot, ubuntu, windows 7, and windows xp.

When I would select windows 7, it would just reboot grub. (Which makes me think grub overwrote my windows 7 boot stuff) I used the recovery disk, and it said it fixed all boot problems. What it had done is overwrote my XP boot info (which was on a separate hard drive) with windows 7 boot info. So if I selected windows xp in grub my windows 7 would start.

Thats where I'm at now. To load windows 7 I need to boot from my 320gb hard drive. Which means I currently only have access to windows 7, and not XP...

Sorry for the long reply's but I'm just trying to explain my problem exactly to you guys, and how it happened.


Honestly I am wondering if It'd be easier to do a fresh install? I am building a new PC (just waiting for the ram to arrive at my house from newegg) Both hard drives are going in the new PC. (The only things I really need to save are my movies tv shows, apps and music, which amount to about 250gb)

GRUB will often corrupt Win7 if it is on the same HD. It is much better to install your OS's to separate HD's and boot via the BIOS Boot Order or one-time BIOS Boot Menu so there is no need for GRUB or Windows-managed multi-boot and all HD"s remain independent to come and go as you please.

If you want to recover XP now, you'll need to boot the CD to run a Repair Install. It will overwrite Win7's MBR but that appears to be toast anyway thanks to GRUB. Then copy out your files using XP, or the Win7 DVD or REpair CD using this method: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Tips to get a purrfect Win7 reinstall based on hundreds done here: re-install windows 7

Separate disks, of course...

So do you think what I suggested will work?

What I'm thinking:

1) Use disk management create a 300gb partition (only have 350 gigs of free space on this HDD)
2) Install win 7 on the 300gb partition
3) Whatever I want to keep move as much as possible to my 320gb hard drive
4) Boot into the new windows 7 install
5) Move whatever data would not fit on the 320gb hard drive to my new win 7 install
6) Delete the old partition
7) Expand my 300GB partition to the full size of my hard drive
8) Start moving data from my 320gb hard drive back onto this one
9) Fix my XP boot loader

Then I'd essentially have reinstalled windows 7 without disturbing any of my data, then just move the data into my new partition, and remove my old partition. Will this work, or is it not possible to access another partition on a currently active hard drive?

You really need to wipe the HD which had GRUB on it as remaining code can itself corrupt Win7.

You can copy out your files using WIn7 DVD or Repair CD: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

If you don't have space to move all data off the HD to wipe it before reinstalling Win7, then use free Partition Wizard to Resize the HD partition from the left, create New NTFS Primary partition, rightclick>Wipe the partition with zeroes. Install Win7, then copy data into Win7 and to other HD until the remaining space is empty, then wipe it with zeroes before copying data back in if desired.

Here are the steps to repair XP: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operat...txprepair1.htm
If it won't run Repair Install, use Command Line to run bootrec.exe /fixmbr and /fixboot

Well I have about 60 gigs free on my 320gb hard drive right now, and can clear another 160gigs

Which would give me about 220gb
I have about 250gb of stuff I'd like to keep.

I guess I can copy about 200 gigs worth of stuff to the 320GB hard drive, then boot into the new win 7, move it all. Then copy the remaining stuff once done delete the first partition.

Is Free partition wizard better than windows 7 disk manager? Seems like I can do the same thing with just the disk manager.

If you can boot into Win7 to use Disk Management then why would you need to reinstall?

If you're unable to boot into Win7 then use Partition Wizard bootable CD to shrink existing partition to install Win7. If you do this, then I would shrink the existing partition from the left so your new install is in first position.

You also need to wipe the HD with zeroes but if you can't move all the data off externally or to another computer on your network, then I suggested you use PW CD to wipe the new partition before installing Win7, then after install move the rest of the data off to wipe the remaining space.

Well like I've said multiple times in this thread.

My repair disk over wrote my windows xp boot loader. Thus I boot my 320 gig hard drive and it boots my windows 7 install which is on my 750 gig hard drive.

If I fix XP, then I have no way to boot win 7. Thus why I want to reinstall win 7 on my 750 gig hard drive, and fix my xp boot loader on my other hard drive.

My brother has an external hard drive but I'm fairly certain he has all his stuff backed up onto it because his macbook pro died on him the other day. I'll see if I can borrow it for a little bit to backup all my stuff, then completely wipe this hard drive.

If Win7 is booting with the XP HD plugged in, then it can be repaired.

You need to mark Win7 partition Active in XP Disk Management, then power down to unplug the XP HD, change the cable to Win7 HD or set Win7 HD in BIOS setup to boot after DVD drive, then boot into DVD Repair console to run Startup Repair 3 times.

If this fails, open a Command Line from the DVD Recovery Tools list, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (replace # with Win7 #)
LIST PARTITION
SELEcT Partition # (replace # with Win7 partition #)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Now return to tools list to run startup Repair again 3 times.

If these Repairs fail, as a last resort I would boot free Partition Wizard bootable CD, post back a screenshot if you can of the drive map, confirm Win7 partition is marked Active, then from Disk tab select Rebuild MBR on the highlighted Win7 HD.

When Win7 starts, plug back in XP to run a XP Repair install with Win7 HD unplugged.