could not repair W7 with install disk


  1. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
       #1

    could not repair W7 with install disk


    I have a Windows 7 machine that dual boots Linux Mint from the same 500G WD hard drive. What I want to do is delete Linux and dd the Windows 7 installation to it's own 500G ssd.
    I have dd'ed a copy of that drive to another WD500G (same model) so I can work on that. So I zapped the extended partition and Linux partition within it and moved the efi partition to the end of the drive so I could give W7 that space. After doing that and re-installing that drive it would only boot into grub rescue. I tried to repair the W7 boot files with the original install disk {startup repair}. Then command line with bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot. None of that worked.
    I gave up on that and dd'ed the original drive back to the copy so I could start over (dd was from a Linux CD live session as before). I started looking around and found some things that don't seem right.

    Msinfo32 does not state definitively the boot mode as bios or uefi. Gparted shows both a system reserved and efi partition. Looking at C:\Windows\Panther\NewOs\Panther ...... [Ctrl F > Detected boot environment ... was not found]. I can't find that file in one of my other dual boot (W7-Linux) machines. No idea why.
    Bcdedit /enum echoed back an error (see attached). Looking around with diskpart I think I see some things that don't look right
    (also see attached).
    This Windows 7 machine boots both Windows and Linux and seems to operate normally. But why can't I repair this W7 installation after
    deleting Linux.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails could not repair W7 with install disk-msinfo32.png   could not repair W7 with install disk-bcdedit.png  
    could not repair W7 with install disk Attached Files
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 7,217
    W7 home premium 32bit/W7HP 64bit/w10 tp insider ring
       #2

    you may have deleted linux, but most likely the "BCD" entries are still present
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I think I made some progress, at least the problem has changed. I started over and and nuked the extended partition, Linux partition and the efi partition. Then I booted from a rescue disk I had made back when this windows was installed. I had to mark the windows partition active and change it's drive letter to C (it was D), also removed the drive letter from the system reserved partition (it was C). I got these commands to say they completed successfully ... bootrec /fixmbr, /fixboot and /rebuildbcd. Now I'm getting BOOTMGR is missing. Don't know what to try next.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 16,500
    7 X64
       #4

    indicates that bootmgr is not on the active partition. Try marking the system reserved partition active.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
    Thread Starter
       #5

    That was it !!!! It turned out to be something simple. Surprising that in all my research for solutions, I didn't see prominently displayed "make sure the system reserved partition is marked active". Maybe so obvious there was no need to mention that? Oh well, live and learn :).... thanks so much
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 16,500
    7 X64
       #6

      My Computers


 

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