Reformating computer without knowing linux was installed.

Hey guys.

A friend of mine gave me his computer to perform a quick reformat into.
It had two hard drives, and asked me to please reformat all of them. However One of the hard drives was not being detected with windows, so I went to disk manager, and formatted/shut it off.

Now whenever I try to boot back into windows I get the message Grub Rescue, and am unable to boot into windows.

I do not have a linux CD, and I only have a windows 7 professional installation disk which is not working since I get the message ''Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer''
Status 0xc00000e9

If I try to boot windows from an USB flash, it does not get recognized and it displays Grub rescue again.

What could I do to fix this?

Any help is highly appreciated.

To Remove Linux take look at this post:
Error 0xc0000225 on boot


You will need a working Windows 7 bootable disc, Repair or Install.

theog said:

To Remove Linux take look at this post:
Error 0xc0000225 on boot


You will need a working Windows 7 bootable disc, Repair or Install.

Please refer to ''I do not have a linux CD, and I only have a windows 7 professional installation disk which is not working since I get the message ''Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer''
Status 0xc00000e9''

You will need a working Windows 7 bootable disc, Repair or Install.

If you have not made your Startup Repair CD
System Repair Disc - Create

theog said:

You will need a working Windows 7 bootable disc, Repair or Install.

If you have not made your Startup Repair CD
System Repair Disc - Create

Theog.

Please read again.
'Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer''
Status 0xc00000e9

It throws me this message whenever I try to boot from a CD

A short round of Googling that error code found these (among others):
Unexpected I/O error 0xc00000e9 - Microsoft Community
Unexpected I/O error has occured. Status: 0xc00000e9 Windows 7 - Microsoft Community

I have no clue if they'll be of any help as I've never come across that error code, but maybe they'll get you off in the right direction?

Boot the Win7 installer, wipe both HD's with Diskpart Clean Command,
then follow these same steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If there's any interference, unplug the other HD. The target OS HD should be plugged into Disk0, set to boot first in BIOS.

gregrocker said:

Boot the Win7 installer, wipe both HD's with Diskpart Clean Command,
then follow these same steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If there's any interference, unplug the other HD. The target OS HD should be plugged into Disk0, set to boot first in BIOS.

Thank you all for your help.

Unfortunately the steps provided were either unusable, as the CD drive was not reading the windows CD. And removing the hard drives sepparately would make the system not boot at all since the configuration of linux had replaced the boot files completely.

So I managed to run ubutu from a FAT formatted USB, and restored everything back to normal. I managed to delete linux' boot manager, and make the system boot directly to windows. It's all like before.

However. When I pop in the disk, and windows 7 professional 64 bit USB, the system does not detect me therefore is not allowing me to perform a clean install.

The existing version is windows home premium 32 bit. Is there a workaround for this? Install home premium 32 instead perhaps?

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals,

Boot into BIOS setup to enable Legacy BIOS if present. Next check BIOS Boot order for an EFI Boot Disk and if present remove it, set DVD drive first to boot, HD second. Then set SATA controller to AHCI. Save changes and Exit.

Then boot into installer DVD or flash stick burned or written using tool and latest ISO for your licensed OS version here.

At first installer screen Press Shift + F10 to open a Command Box, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=102400 (for 100gb partition, adjust as desired)
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
ACTIVE
EXIT
EXIT

Next click Install Now, then Custom install to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you created. If it fails then report back at which step and the verbatim error message.

In addition read over these steps to understand the tools and methods which work best to get and maintain a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps are the same for retail.