Win 7 - no disk error

fafhrd · 08 Apr 2011

Here's the manual way it should be done, I think:

Boot from the Windows 7 DVD, SHIFT-F10 from the first menu to bring up a command prompt window
Type DISKPART
from the prompt:
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free
-------- --------------- ------ -----
Disk 0 Online nnnnn GB nnnnn B
DISKPART> select disk 0
Disk 0 is now the selected disk
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size
------------- --------- -------
Partition 1 Primary nnnnn GB
DISKPART> select partition 1
Partition 1 is now the selected partition
DISKPART> active
Partition 1 is now active

Reboot, startup Windows 7 DVD again and at the Windows Recovery console, shift-F10 at the first dialog again.
Now for the Boot Sector:
The Windows installation is on C:\Windows on an active partition. There is no boot information, no master boot record (MBR) and no Boot Configuration Data (BCD.)
From the recovery command line prompt, type:
BCDBOOT c:\windows
Then
BOOTREC /FIXMBR
BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD
reboot by typing SHUTDOWN /r
That should get you going.

Shootist · 08 Apr 2011

richdave said:

Is there a solution?

well YES actually and an easy one too.

I booted with the VISTA drive in place and selected Win 7 from the boot menu

Then I installed EasyBCD2.02 and used it to resolve my problem.

From the main menu, I clicked on BCD Backup/Repair, then selected change boot drive, Then selceted "C" (the Win 7 drive)

and viola! The HDD was made bootable. After a shut-down and removing the VISTA drive I rebooted and got the boot menu again and selected Win 7 and booted OK

I then used EasyBCD to delete the VISTA entry from the boot menu via the Edit Boot Menu option.

Right. Glad you got it fixed. But you needed that Vista drive in the system to do it.

richdave · 08 Apr 2011

Shootist said:

But you needed that Vista drive in the system to do it.

Correct - I needed to boot "normally" so that I could get the Win 7 OS running so I could install EasyBCD.

Final tidy up was to use EasyBCD to skip the boot menu altogether - edit boot menu and tick the skip boot menu box and then to set the appropriate HDD as the first boot device in BIOS and then remove the VISTA drive altogether

I figure there may (must?) be another way to do this... what would I have done if the VISTA HDD had died or something...

I'd be interested in knowing IF there is a way to do it with just the Win 7 disk installed

richdave · 08 Apr 2011

fafhrd said:

Here's the manual way it should be done, I think:

hey thanks fafhrd for the detailed reply. I had already installed EasyBCD when you posted. But I guess you have answered my last question about a manual way to do the repair with only the Win 7 disk available.

I'm guessing your answer will come in handy for someone else though