windows 7 lost after duo installation

I dont' think the Factory image partition should be deleted as it can still likely be used to recover your Win7 computer. Did you make the Recovery disks? Try doing that now using instructions in Manual or browsing Recovery options. Then see if Recovery will run using key(s) given on first boot screen or Manual for Start Recovery. It might not be a bad idea to consider full factory recovery to see if it sets it up the same way - back up your files!

It isn't necessary to delete System Reserved 100mb either since you can have 4 Primary Partitions and only have 3 now. If it causes problems with the dual boot once Serv2003 is correctly installed to a Primary partition, we can consider deleting it then. It could possibly mess up the System MBR which has somehow landed on Factory Image partition - do you know how that happened? It normally only becomes marked Active when Recovery is run.

Since you can have four Primary Partitions, I'd use Disk Mgmt to create a new one in the unallocated space for Server2003.

If you want it to be larger, use Disk Mgmt to shrink C some.

Once installed, use EasyBCD 2.0 beta to add it by Name, type and drive letter.

Post back a screenshot of Easy listings if there are any problems.

Use Method Two here as it applies to Server2003 as well: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Thanks for your help gregrocker .. happy not to delete them but I have problem creating new primary partition on Disk Management ... saying disk contains maximum numbers of partition etc..
I don't understand why my system can't let me create another primary partition? 1 HD allowed only 6 partitions?? I really don't know now!


If I can do the another primary partition then I will try install the 2003 server with that tutorial..
I've already have EasyBCD and dotnetfix so hopefully it will turn out perfect!

I don't know what I did having System MBR on System Factory Part.. Most likely of what I did on repair for win 7..Can I move back to right place? Under C?? or leave it like that??

Thanks for helping me...& God bless you:)

I;ll ask SIW2 to look at this.

Can you try formatting another Primary Partition using free Partition Wizard bootable CD?

Greg;

Looks to me like the Factory partition, D:, is now the "Active" partition.



Would it help, at least temporarily, to get stuff straitened out to mark the "Reserved" partition active and run "Startup Repair" again from the CD if 7 will not boot form the "Reserved" partition?

I had no trouble booting to these OSs in "Logical" partitions when I kept the "Reserved" partition as my "Primary" partition:



Cheers!
Robert

Robert-

If he is going to keep the Recov since it shouuld still be functional, then I'm myself hesitant to advise him to remove the System MBR from there to Sys Reserved partition where one would think it should be.

The only reason I can figure that Startup Repair would re-route MBR to Factory Image partition is if it was somehow marked Active, but am not sure how that would have happened since he didn't run Recov. Would System have been placed there at factory? Why then is there Sys Reserved 100mb?

Besides the option of returning Sys MBR to 100mb SysReserv partition, there is also the poss of deleting 100mb to recover MBR into Win7. Do you think it would manage 2003 better in SysReserv?

I was going by XP when postulating that 2003 can't be installed to Logical. If it can, I believe he already has it on one of his logical parts. Maybe you can guide him through attempts to add it now to Dual Boot. I believe he has tried using Easy 2.0, so maybe some help there might make it worik?

gregrocker said:

Robert-

If he is going to keep the Recov since it shouuld still be functional, then I'm myself hesitant to advise him to remove the System MBR from there to Sys Reserved partition where one would think it should be.

The only reason I can figure that Startup Repair would re-route MBR to Factory Image partition is if it was somehow marked Active, but am not sure how that would have happened since he didn't run Recov. Would System have been placed there at factory? Why then is there Sys Reserved 100mb?

Besides the option of returning Sys MBR to 100mb SysReserv partition, there is also the poss of deleting 100mb to recover MBR into Win7. Do you think it would manage 2003 better in SysReserv?

I was going by XP when postulating that 2003 can't be installed to Logical. If it can, I believe he already has it on one of his logical parts. Maybe you can guide him through attempts to add it now to Dual Boot. I believe he has tried using Easy 2.0, so maybe some help there might make it worik?

As you and I have said many times, the 100MB "System Reserved" partition is not a requirement, we can get along without it. Even the Windows RE can be put in the Windows partition, if MS is to be believed.

The only advantage I can see of keeping the "System Reserved" partition is that changes (even mistakes) to the other partitions will not break the boot loader (and you can boot to as many logical drives as there are letters in the alphabet). If the Windows 7 partition is to be the "Active" partition and something happens to it, how do you boot to the other partitions? And if Windows 7 has to be reinstalled or repaired what happens to the boot code?

I would think EasyBCD2 would have no problem adding the NTLDR entry to the Windows 7 bootmgr. How is he booting to Win XP, drive J:, now?

After creating the NTLDR entry with bcdedit, I was able to edit the XP boot.ini in the Windows 7 bootmgr to include both XP and 2000. If he is already booting to XP he should be able to add the server 2003 to the boot.ini? All the necessary files (boot.ini, NTLDR, and NTDETECT.COM) must be added to whichever partition is going to be the "Active" one, either Windows 7, or "System Reserved".

https://www.sevenforums.com/installat...wont-boot.html

BTW, I was surprised to see that the Vista / 7 bootmgr would boot to XP in a logical partition. Must be the new windows boot manager?

Cheers!
Robert

I think that is an old XP part he is using for data now.

So looking at his earlier screenshots of SysReserved and Factory Image partitions, do you see any problem with marking Factory inactive, Sys Reserved active and then recovering MBR to Sys Reserved by running Startup Repair 3 times?

Am I understanding you correctly that Server2003 can be installed to Logical Partition? Then config'd with Easy to boot via SysReserved?

I wonder why Disk Mgmt will not allow him to create a fourth Primary for 2003? Should he try Partition Wizard as I suggested?

gregrocker said:

I think that is an old XP part he is using for data now.

So looking at his earlier screenshots of SysReserved and Factory Image partitions, do you see any problem with marking Factory inactive, Sys Reserved active and then recovering MBR to Sys Reserved by running Startup Repair 3 times?

Am I understanding you correctly that Server2003 can be installed to Logical Partition? Then config'd with Easy to boot via SysReserved?

I wonder why Disk Mgmt will not allow him to create a fourth Primary for 2003? Should he try Partition Wizard as I suggested?

I do not see a problem there. You could have him mark the "System Reserved" active and see if it will boot to 7 before doing the repair, then if needed ...

I think the reason he can not make a fourth primary partition is because the "Extended" partition is the fourth partition.

And yes, if I can manually move the files and create the NTLDR entry with bcdedit, you should be able to guide him through using Easybcd2 to make the same entry.

Cheers!

There are sevral possible solutions.

If you don't mind keeping F as the system partition - all you need to do is add an entry for ntldr to the 7 boot menu.

If you would prefer C as the system partition:

1. Copy and paste all the files ( not the folders ) from F directly onto C.

2. D/l this .zip ( as usual , rt click it>properties>unblock>apply>ok ).

Unzip it , then just rt click and run as admin the sispar.cmd file.

sispar.zip

To release a partition slot - I would delete the 100mb partition. You will then need to edit the boot.ini entries, of course.

Worth finding out what is on the Recovery partition. You may find you can create a bootable.iso from the contents ( there may even be one on there already - which you can just burn to dvd ).

Have a look at the recovery partition using the Paragon File Transfer Wizard, available free in the Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition.

SIW2 said:

There are sevral possible solutions.

As always, I defer to my Professor