I thought you were following BareFootKid's tutorial to Recover Space Used by an Older OS , but you left XP on the HD? The steps were not followed correctly.
From XP access EasyBCD, click "Useful Utilities" then Power Console for a Command Box, or from the Win7 DVD Repair Command Line type:
bootsect /nt60 <whatever the 7 drive letter is>:
then press enter, Mark Win7 partition Active, Restart.
If Win7 will not start, try Repair from DVD again.
I actually was following BareFootKid's guide. I was stuck at step 1 though. But now that I set the Windows 7 partition to active, it won't even let me get into Windows XP, just gives me a bootmgr is missing message. Startup Repair just gives me the same cannot repair this computer automatically message.
Run the command I gave above and report back whether Win7 starts.
If you want to start XP we can give you the command for that next.
It would be helpful at this point if you could post back a clear camera snap of PW drive map with listings, or at least type them all out.
Running the command from the Windows install DVD returns that it could not map the drive name to a volume or something. The drive map for PW looks like this, since I don't have a digicam on me.
The first NTFS partition is Windows XP, the second is 7.
Partition_____File System_____Capacity_____Used_____Unused_____ Status_____Type
Disk 1
-------------
*: ____________FAT________62.72 MB____9.26 MB___53.46 MB_____Hidden____Primary
*:OS__________NTFS______200.04 GB____49.27 GB__150.77 GB_____None_____Primary
*:_____________NTFS______249.99 GB___232.15 GB__17.84 GB_____Active_____Primary
*:__________Unallocated_____15.67 GB________0 B___15.67 GB_____None_____Logical
The System boot files have been removed from XP but not yet written to Win7. Have you run the three Startup Repairs with reboots between each from the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD? Try them again. Then boot PW CD, rightclick>Wipe the first two partitions and Unalloc space, then run the Repairs again to eliminate any code that might be blocking Repairs. Make sure Win7 remains Active.
Next follow these steps in order and report back what occurs after each:
Here is a possibility.
When you mark the win 7 partition active that's where the BIOS goes to find the boot manager but there isn't one - hence the boot manager missing message.
When you try a repair a BCD probably already exists on the XP partition so you don't get anywhere.
Therefore, if there is a folder on the XP partition called [Boot], delete it. Set Win 7 active and run the repair x3.
You can try this after the last suggestions.
Edit: you should delete the bootmgr as well if it exists on the XP partition.
I thought XP had been wiped until just above.
Last edited by mjf; 06 Mar 2011 at 15:34.
Had assumed the XP partition was deleted all along using BareFoot's tutorial since it is the first step.
Wiping everything up to Win7 partition should give a cleaner slate for running Repairs.
Tried doing what SIW2 said, with Partition Recovery Wizard, but after selecting which partition I wanted to scan/recover, it asked if I was sure twice, said yes twice, then it just doesn't do anything.
Then I do the next method, installing Windows 7 to the new primary partition, marked as active. But after clicking Install Now, it says something about a necessary device is missing and takes me to a load driver screen where it says "select the driver to be installed" and it's all just blank.
Is this the Win7 installer you used to originally install on this HD? Did it have any problems then? Do you have another HD to try the install upon?
I am guessing you have corrupt boot sector requiring wiping the HD.
Yes this is the same installer I used to install Windows 7 before. I do not have any other HDs to try installing upon. I honestly hope that it does not come to wiping the HD. Also, checking the Windows 7 compatability site, I notice that even though my hard drive is listed on there (WD5000AAKS) it is listed SATA, while mine is SCSI. Does that make any difference at all?
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