Solved Drive prefixes changed by windows - can't boot

[CaptCrunch]

This is pretty wierd.. Turning on the PC this morning takes me into startup repair, where it can't find any problems.

After a bit of exploration in the command window, it seems my c: drive (40GB SSD) is now called F:, and my data drive (500GB HDD data only) is now called c:
From looking at some of the diagnostic traces, I believe that Windows thinks the system drive is f: (technically correct now), but can't boot from it.

This system has been working fine for several months, and was shut down with no issues last night.

:banghead:

The BIOS can still see both drives, and the boot order is still correct (SSD, HDD).

How do I change the drive letters back to what they were yesterday - without botting into Windows? I've tried the recovery disk, but that couldn't see any problems. Thanks..

 

[carwiz]

Could be you lost power overnight and your CMOS battery is dead. How old is the PC? I assume your drives are SATA. Do you have your C drive plugged into SATA port 0? If not and you lost power, the BIOS will assign port 0 as the C drive. Don't know any other way it could happen.

And for sure, I don't know how it booted off your data drive.

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Have you checked to see which partition is active? Obviously it should be your Windows drive and not your data drive.

You can change it with this free software.

Also, are you able to change the drive letters in Disk Management?

 

[CaptCrunch]

Thanks, guys,

carwiz: I built the machine about 8 months ago. I'll try and check the CMOS battery.
Yes, drives are all SATA. I originally had the SSD (C: in some random port (5, i think), but it is now in port 1( ports are numbered from 1 to 6, rather than 0 - 5). I reordered the boot order in BIOS because of the new port scheme, but the same issue happens.
Interestingly, after pulling out the DVD (also SATA), and having nothing else on SATA bus, the SSD (original boot drive) has been assigned D:, from f: before. I can't see why it wouldn't be c:/.
Agree with how it could boot at all without realising it was the wrong drive.. :shock:

seavixen32: I can't boot into windows to run anything. I get through the boot process until mountmgr.sys, then I get kicked into the repair installation mode.

 

[CaptCrunch]

More info:

When I go into System Recovery Options and choose command prompt and do some exploring, I find:

• My C: drive is now called D:
• There is something called C: with a label System Reserved and a size of 73MB. I have nothing of that size on my system. Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
• There appears to be a RAM disk (learned after further reading) called X: (label Boot), with some windows-looking folders in it (Program files, Users, Windows). Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

Any ideas?

 

[CaptCrunch]

Hi AceInfinity,

I've followed your instructions, and it seemed to go well. I moved what was sitting in C: out of the way (to p), and then changed D: to C:.
Everything seemed to be fine, but on the next reboot, P: had moved back to C:, pushing C: back to D:, and preventing boot.

Whatever is C: now is 100MB - is that the Windows RAM disk I've heard about?

Have attached photo of diskpart view: Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

 

[CaptCrunch]

I'm now getting

BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

even before all my windows sys files are loaded.

A very fine sheen of sweat is now lightly resting on my brow..!

 

[seavixen32]

I think your problem is being caused by the fact that the System Reserved partition is grabbing drive letter C, which it shouldn't be doing vis my DM screenshot.



Once you can remove it, drive letter C will be available for your Windows partition, which is currently D. Also, the System Reserved partition needs to be Active, because that's where the boot record is. If you have your current drive D active that'll be why Windows is complaining it can't find the bootloader.

 

[MacGyvr]

System Reserved is SUPPOSED to be the boot drive, the active partition, but it should NOT have a drive letter at all.

I can post a screenshot if need be, showing just that.

 

[seavixen32]

Yes, that's my take on the matter. I think I read somewhere you can get rid of the system reserved partition and have C as the active drive with the boot files on it.

Only trouble is, if you do that you lose the ability to invoke a startup repair by use of the F8 key.

Somehow we need to remove the drive letter off the system reserved partition and make that partition active. Once your D drive letter is then changed to C Windows should boot correctly.

 

[seavixen32]

System Reserved is SUPPOSED to be the boot drive, the active partition, but it should NOT have a drive letter at all.

I can post a screenshot if need be, showing just that.

I've already done that earlier in the thread.

 

[seavixen32]

I knew it was supposed to be hidden, so I don't know why it's showing up anyway.

It shouldn't be hidden, it just shouldn't be allocated a drive letter.

Don't know whether this will help:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71363-system-reserved-partition-delete.html

 

[CaptCrunch]

Also, the System Reserved partition needs to be Active, because that's where the boot record is. If you have your current drive D active that'll be why Windows is complaining it can't find the bootloader.

OK - this seems to make sense.
I have to admit just the title of the link you give "How to Remove the 100MB Windows 7 System Reserved Partition" gives me the heebie jeebies.

And "..you lose the ability to invoke a startup repair by use of the F8 key" doesn't sound entirely ideal.
I obviously don't know a whole lot about the partitioning technical stuff, but for something that happened so easily (ie with no human intervention), it seems like we have to take some major steps to rectify.. Bummer.

 

[seavixen32]

I'm rapidly running out of ideas as you tried Diskpart as suggested without success so unless anyone else has a better idea it would seem a clean install is on the cards...............unless you want to try this workaround to rebuild the boot record.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ool-how-use-windows-recovery-environment.html

You've nothing to lose and everything to gain.

As for it happening so easily, don't beat yourself up over it. It was probably something as simple as having two active partitions.

 

[CaptCrunch]

it would seem a clean install is on the cards...............unless you want to try this workaround to rebuild the boot record.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ool-how-use-windows-recovery-environment.html

There is hardly anything I would like less than to reinstall every single piece of software on my C: drive, and install updates, and change settings, and reconfigure associations, etc....

So - in the spirit of "nothing to lose, and everything to gain", and this other thread [SOLVED] system reserved Drive Letter problems - Tech Support Forum I will (very carefully) explore fixing the Boot record.

Thanks all for help so far - I'll report back on progress..

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome and I hope we've found a solution for you.

All I would ask is that when you're at the command prompt just take particular care to enter a space where required or the command line won't run correctly and it'll just pop you back to the prompt line.

 

[CaptCrunch]

Success!

After using the link you sent (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...vironment.html), I rebuild the boot config.

This still didn't entirely fix the problem, but it allowed the Win 7 repair disc to detect what the problem was in the Diagnosis and repair details section, which it didn't before:

Boot critical file "D:\Windows\System32\drivers\sfsync02.sys is corrupt.

I googled for that file, and found people where just deleting it without prolems, so I did that.

Next reboot - the drives were back in the right place, and no issues whatsoever with booting.

I wish there could have been a more explicit error message 11 hours ago.. [sigh]

Thanks so much, everyone. I truely appreciate it

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome and thanks for the feedback.

 

[seavixen32]

You're more than welcome and thanks for the feedback as it may well help someone else in the future.

Sorry about the double post, been having 'tinternet probs, but it's fixed now.

 

[carwiz]

I concur but don't delete the System Reserved Partition, just delete the drive letter assigned to it.

Good Grief. Don't know how this ended up so late. I must have missed a page, sorry.