Windows 7 doesn't boot after moving partition

NOTE: Basic problem (not drawn out story) at bottom.

So heres my problem: I installed Win 7 on a drive a while back and earlier today I decided that I needed more hard drive space. I saw that I had 100gb of unallocated space on the drive, but it was behind my Win7 partition, making it impossible to resize that partition. So I defragged with Perfect Disk 10 which moves all the files to the back of the partition, cleaned up, disabled all the usual things, ran defragger again, and then booted into a live cd of GParted. I then proceeded to move my Win7 partition behind the unallocated space so I could extend the volume. Unfortunately, something went wrong and now I get the error message "Disk boot failure, please instert system disk and hit enter." So I followed the directions and ran startup repair, tried manually creating the bootmgr, and ran all the tests, but it still doesn't work. Luckily for me, I was able to reinstall win7 on the unallocated space so I can at least get to the files on my other drive, which I discovered are all perfectly fine. I'm hoping this will be a quick fix since it seems like all the files are ok. What should I do so that I can boot back into that partition?

Long story short, I tried moving the partition, and something went wrong, and now I can't boot into that drive. I installed another copy of Win 7 on another partition and all the files are ok. What do I need to do to the original partition to get it to boot again?

hello,

can you attach a screenshot of your disk management?

sup3rsprt said:

hello,

can you attach a screenshot of your disk management?

I'm really confused as to why this happens. If it was a simple bootmgr issue, I would have been able to fix it in cmd prompt, but that didn't happen. All of my files are safe and intact. Is it possible that I just need to tell the boot loader/mgr/whatever its called to boot from a different physical area of the disk?

That "System Reserved" partition is where the boot manager must exist (because it's the partition that is set "active"). If your system is booting from your new Windows 7 install, then you'll need to fix or create a boot entry for the old one. Open an elevated command prompt and show us the output of bcdedit /enum ALL command

do you want a picture of the elevated cmd? or a text file?

just mark copy/paste is fine. maybe enclose it in [ code ] tags when you post it, to keep it legible

I did the C: partition (current, temporary, backup partition) first and the D: drive (the one that doesn't boot) second. D Starts about halfway down. I'm not sure if there's any difference between the two, but I thought I'd post both just in case.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /enum ALL
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {14292510-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {14292510-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
nx                      OptIn
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
device                  ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140
f0\Winre.wim,{14292513-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
path                    \windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Recovery Environment
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140
f0\Winre.wim,{14292513-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
systemroot              \windows
nx                      OptIn
winpe                   Yes
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier              {14292510-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description             Windows Resume Application
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice              partition=C:
filepath                \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled      No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier              {memdiag}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \boot\memtest.exe
description             Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess         Yes
EMS Settings
------------
identifier              {emssettings}
bootems                 Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier              {dbgsettings}
debugtype               Serial
debugport               1
baudrate                115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier              {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier              {globalsettings}
inherit                 {dbgsettings}
                        {emssettings}
                        {badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier              {bootloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}
                        {hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier              {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype     Serial
hypervisordebugport     1
hypervisorbaudrate      115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier              {resumeloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}
Device options
--------------
identifier              {14292513-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
description             Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice        partition=C:
ramdisksdipath          \Recovery\14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0\boot.sdi
C:\Windows\system32>D:
D:\>bcdedit /enum ALL
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {14292510-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {14292510-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
nx                      OptIn
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
device                  ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140
f0\Winre.wim,{14292513-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
path                    \windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Recovery Environment
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140
f0\Winre.wim,{14292513-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
systemroot              \windows
nx                      OptIn
winpe                   Yes
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier              {14292510-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description             Windows Resume Application
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice              partition=C:
filepath                \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled      No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier              {memdiag}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \boot\memtest.exe
description             Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess         Yes
EMS Settings
------------
identifier              {emssettings}
bootems                 Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier              {dbgsettings}
debugtype               Serial
debugport               1
baudrate                115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier              {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier              {globalsettings}
inherit                 {dbgsettings}
                        {emssettings}
                        {badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier              {bootloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}
                        {hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier              {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype     Serial
hypervisordebugport     1
hypervisorbaudrate      115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier              {resumeloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}
Device options
--------------
identifier              {14292513-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0}
description             Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice        partition=C:
ramdisksdipath          \Recovery\14292512-aa2b-11de-9bbc-c349484140f0\boot.sdi

the output from c: and d: are the same. That much is normal. Because the BCD doesn't exist on C: or D: but rather the "System Reserved" partition (the bcdedit command is not looking in C: or D:)

You only have one entry for Windows 7 (the one on C:) so what you'll need to do is create another boot manager entry for your other install.

It will be something like bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows old"

or to make life easier use some tool like EasyBCD or VistaBootPro which has a graphical interface to add boot entries.

So by merely adding another boot partition, I'll be able to boot my original drive? I wonder if I accidentally erased a previous boot partition when I moved stuff around.... Thanks a TON for your help! I'll post back in a few mins when I'm done creating a new boot partition.

Also, will these two apps work with Win7? I would assume so since the architecture is very similar to vista, but I just want to make sure.

I'm also running 64 bit. Will these work?

no I'm not talking about creating a new boot "partition". I said boot manager entry. Boot manager entries go into the BCD.

edit - nevermind maybe I just misunderstood what you meant.

Yeah those apps will work in 64-bit