EasyBCD Killed HDD's Boot Capabilities?

[IIllytch321]

Hello and I'm scared to shut off my computer, heh. Before we start, I apologize for the length. It all started one day. . .:

I had an old IDE HDD that I had some bits on, so I used an IDE to SATA adapter due to my motherboard not having any IDE capabilities. This particular HDD had Windows XP Home Edition installed on it, and a seperate partition for other bits. No matter what I tried, the furthest I could get with both or just the IDE drive installed was something like "Please choose correct boot drive; boot unsuccessful; insert correct boot media" something to that end right before the Windows splash screen should normally appear.

I sat on the IDE HDD for a month, thinking the answer would come to me in a dream, perhaps - it didn't. But I wanted that darned data, so I looked on forum after forum in search of something of relevance and substance, alas, heir to no avail.


(WARNING, DO NOT INSTALL EASYBCD UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT THE %^&# YOU ARE DOING, OR YOU MIGHT WIND UP LIKE ME, HEH)
I then saw something about EasyBCD being used to force a boot menu, or at least I believe that was the case, so I installed the free, non-commercial v. 2.1.2 yesterday, went to the "Add New Entry" section, and attempted to click on things I thought would bring about the function that I so desired, heh, but nothing happened when I clicked on "Add Entry" after filling out the information it required. I thought it was a fluke, so I did it again with the same outcome. As I exited the program it prompted me with something like: "If you continue like this and reboot, you will not be able to boot anything at all, will you continue?" I thought it would be silly for a program to let you do something like that, so I didn't take it literally, fooled around a bit afterwards, I think I eventually forgot all about it, and restarted.

It gave me three choices to boot up to, (If I remember correctly) 1. Windows 7, 2. Windows 7 Home, 3. Windows 7 Home, or at least something similar. If I chose the last two, which probably had to do with my fiddling with EasyBCD, it would just quietly restart without any hint of Windows. But when I tried the first option, it gave me a similar read out as when I tried to boot with my IDE HDD, "No boot device selected" or whatever.. It erased the "Windows Boot"(?) option in the BIOS boot menu, instead only let me choose my SATA HDD that had Windows 7 on it and other basic choices such as my external drive and DVD drive.

I got all mixed up inside and scurried about frantically trying to figure out things I knew how to do to solve the issue, and what was eventually left was to erase everything on my SATA HDD and reinstall Windows 7, so I did. A while later, with Windows 7 installed and everything torn to pieces and all my beautiful work and music gone, I fiddled about, toying with this and that, then restarted due to a driver I installed, thinking nothing of it. It did the same thing!!!:shock: Yes, while Windows was installing and rebooting itself, it seemed to work alright, but when I manually restarted, it said the infamous, "No boot device selected". I cleverly thought to myself, "Mustv'e forgot to change the boot order back in the BIOS or something, a simple solution". NO, the "Windows Boot" option was still not there, again, only left with the SATA HDD, which when I booted from there, as before, got me to a dead end screen, without the three Windows boot up options.

I'm afraid to shut off my computer, and that is not normal. Please help me figure out if I can fix what I mucked up. I'm too afraid to try myself and find out that I'd have to reinstall Windows again, simply don't want to go through that monotonous process yet again.

 

[IIllytch321]

Update:

I checked around and found this, and it seemed to help to some extent, but not completely. The original "Windows Boot" option I had in my BIOS boot choices still isn't there, but I can boot up Windows, only if I have the Windows installation disc in the drive when I boot. When I take the disc out and reboot, I get the same error, "Please select correct boot device or insert bootable media".

Please help this poor soul.

P.S.: I'm also hearing, maybe every ten minutes, a "digital crackle" coming from my computer, seemingly random, even at idle. Assuming its the HDD, maybe that is a sign of something in particular?

 

[seavixen32]

Try a Startup Repair, as explained in this tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[IIllytch321]

That was what was included in the link I said I already attempted, so no go on that. But someone replied to that post with this (<<<I put links sprinkled in my text like this, sorry if you would otherwise miss it), and maybe I'll try that, too, but I have a funny feeling that won't do it.

I also just tried the last "Nuclear Holocaust" option for fixing the boot loader on the first link I put on here, and no go on that either.

 

[seavixen32]

Have a look at this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

 

[IIllytch321]

Will try out, thanks.

 

[seavixen32]

OK, let us know how it works out.

 

[IIllytch321]

No go. What if I vomit blood all over my computer at will, will that do it?

 

[IIllytch321]

I mean crap, can't there just be a way to rewrite the whole darned boot record and anything associated with it from scratch or something? This is driving me crazy. And this "zapping" or "crackling" I'm hearing since this happened isn't making me feel any better, either.

Would Seven Forums get mad if I posted in other sections of this site and pointed to this thread to try to get more traffic here?