Error accesing c drive

Hi

I have a problem with w7 and the c drive. I will try to explain a little bit the situation:

I have a Dell xps l501x with a home edition windows 7 licence.

Since I prefer to use linux, I resized the Windows7 and create another partition for the linux distribution when I bought. So I had w7 and linux (arch linux) working together for some months.

I barely used w7 so I decided to use virtualbox to use windows7 (the raw device as a harddrive). And here started the problems, because I ended with a black screen and the mouse pointer in windows7 (the probably was due to a resolution problem)

After many months (as I said, I barely used it), yesterday I decided to fix the problem and I managed to do it. But now I have another problem that I don't know how to fix it (I'm not using virtualbox anymore).

When I start windows 7, the wallpaper is black with the infamous "compilation 7600" and many advice that "is not a genuine copy" (actually it is), and a lot of errors at start.

Trying to use the OS:
- Many application don't work. Even diskmgmt.msc doesn't work.
- I can't access C drive, if I tried prompts an error about permissions, even if I change the permissions I can't access. And If I try to see the properties all the values in the c drive are "0 bytes" (size, free space...). Regarding that, I can't download anything.

It seem the c drive is not recognized and I suppose that is the main problem.

If I boot with the option "Directory Services Restore Mode" I can acces to C and everything seems to work better. And in the properties the values are correct (the size, free space....) .

I don't know too much about windows7 so I will be glad if someone can give me any tips about how to fix this problem.


Sorry if my english is not perfect at all.

gregrocker said:

I would Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 following the steps in tutorial to get a perfect reinstall.

In the future use this method to Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux - Windows 7 Forums

You can also first try working through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

It sounds like GRUB corruption of WIn7 we saw regularly before GRUB2 was released. The only remedy then was to wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command before reinstall, using GRUB2 or Dual Boot Ubuntu with EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Hi

I will reinstall but first I wanted to know if there is any other option. Actually, as I said, I barely use windows so I'm not in a hurry to solve the problem. And I hope that reinstall is not the only possible solution (at least I want to learn a little bit about how windows7 works and how to solve this problem)

I think the problem is not grub2, since windows7 was working perfectly with grub2 before I tried virtualbox (I mentioned in my post), actually grub2 points correctly to windows7 and the partitions are the same as when was working. I installed linux with windows many times so I'm not newbie doing that.

Thank you for your answer