Solved edit registry w/o Win 7?

[GranPaSmurf]

I killed my Win 7 installation. Big time! I used a partition utility to extend the size of the active partition, to give Win 7 a bit more breathing room.
Then it would barely start, got worse until it would not start at all. Nope not Safe Mode either.
Post disaster research turned up a suggestion of tweaking the registry to delete the value for

HKey_local_machine\system\mounted devices
​

so that windows could take advantage of the additional space.

1. is this a reasonable trouble shooting step?
2. is there a way to start machine from another drive I know works (xp) then get to registry settings on the (now slave) Win 7 installation I managed to kill?

Moderator, if I chose the wrong sub-forum, please move my post.
thanks,
GranPaSmurf

 

[richc46]

If it were may machine I would do a system restore. If not possible I would try from safe mode
Then leave it alone.

This is all that should be done to Seven
http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...uggestions-proper-maintenance.html#post764471

 

[karlsnooks]

Granpa Smurf,

Now you know to come here and ask for suggestions before you stump you toe on a Win 7 problem.

First, we have to get you system working correctly again.

The easiest way is, as Rich suggested, choosing a System Restore point from a time before the problem occurred.

Read this tutorial completely, from start to finish, and follow the procedure given therein.
System Restore - How to use

If after that, you still don't have a stable system, then there are more drastic actions we can recommend.

AFter your system is stable, then we can approach the desire to change partition sizes.

 

[GranPaSmurf]

Hey! I left it ticking while I went off for shower, came back to the log-in screen! First time in days! Gotta' leave for the day, I will leave it running. Maybe you guys can pace me through getting it more stable now that W 7 is running. Yeah!

 

[1Bowtie]

Now that it's up and running i would use your Win 7 disk and do a repair install and then we'll tackle the extend partition

 

[GranPaSmurf]

Thanks, but the partition holding the W 7 installation does not have enough space for repair install. Only 1.27 GB free.
dk

 

[karlsnooks]

Please post your disk management output.
Follow this procedure:




HOW TO POST A SNAPSHOT OF DISK MANAGEMENT DISPLAY

Run disk management:
WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER
WIN is the key with the wavy flag.

Maximize the output of Disk Management:
ALT Spacebar key combo | X key
Drag the field separators (such as between Status and Capacity) to show entire field.

Make a snapshot:
WIN | type SNIPPING | ENTER
Click the New button.
Drag the cursor around the area you want to snip.
File | Save as | select save location and name | Save button

Post the snapshot:
Screenshot - How to post

 

[GranPaSmurf]

karlsnooks,
Thanks for your patient guidance. Disk Management .png is attached. Disk 0 is an older IDE 80 Gb. Disk 1 is a new SATA 1 Tb. The plan was to copy/move the partitions from Disk 0 to Disk 1, ultimately leaving Disk 0 unpartitioned as C: I used a EASEUS utility to copy D: to J:, then I expanded C: into a bit of unallocated space. That's when my project started to go south.
You will also see the 300 Gb external Maxtor, I plan to use it for backups for the 4 computers in my network.
Thanks again.
dk

 

[karlsnooks]

Good the snip explains much.l

Now If you remove all disks except for disk 0, that is disconnect all drives except for your old disk 0,
Does the system boot?

Your problems can be solved. Just do me a big favor and stay away from partitioning and formatting software until the problem is fixed.

I'm back online now so you will receive immediate responses.

karl

 

[GranPaSmurf]

back where I was earlier

Karl,
I shut down and pulled the power on the drives other than disk 0. I seem to be back where I was earlier; it won't boot. I have tried start-up repair several times this afternoon and it says cannot repair. When I try to reboot, it gets to the pulsing logo for a couple of minutes, then flickers BSOD & starts over. Safe Mode still hangs at classPNP.sys. I guess I have done it a dozen times this afternoon with the same result. I work all day Sunday so I will be back to it Monday morning.
dk

 

[karlsnooks]

OK. We will have a go at it on Monday.
Karl

 

[karlsnooks]

Do you have access to a Win 7 64bit system (your system specs say that you havea 64bit system)?

If you do, then make a system repair disc. That will make our life easier for fixing your system.

​

​

[FONT=&quot]DISC - CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC[/FONT]​

START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

​

​

 

[GranPaSmurf]

No, sorry. I only have one machine with Win 7 64. I am using XP Pro laptop to troubleshoot with you the Win 7 machine. I cannot boot, regular or Safe Mode. I have been working thru repair possibilities. Deleted and replaced BootCache, downloaded a hotfix from MS that I cannot figure how to use. It is a zip file.
So right now, all I can see is the Win7 Start-up repair.

 

[GranPaSmurf]

I will be here, fretting, at noon today.
Startp error messages are:
StartupRepairOffline
01: 6.1.7600.16385
02: 6.1.7600.16385
03: unknown
04; 21200785
05: SystemDisk
06: 5
07: 0x6b
OS Version 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Local ID: 1033
Details after Startup Repair:
all successful except Bugcheck analysis:
Unknown Bugcheck: Bugcheck 6b, Parameters = 0x0,0x0,0x0,0x0
dk

 

[karlsnooks]

Do you have a Win 7 DVD?

 

[GranPaSmurf]

Yessir, I do

 

[karlsnooks]

Excellent.

What you can do is:

Boot from the win 7 dvd into a command prompt.

Once there, then copy or move your important data to one of your unused drives.
The reason here is that you will be performing some operations which may have bad sad effects.

We may get lucky and be able to do some of the normal startup repair operations with no loss but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

When you get to that command prompt, you will find that your disks have other letters than the ones normally shown by Win 7. That's oK but you need to be forewarned.

You will be running a Windows Pre-execution Environment from a ram drive which has been assigned the drive letter X:

After you get to that command prompt, you can remove your Win 7 DVD. Everything needed is already in ram.

The quick brute-force way to determine the new drive letters is simply to go down the alphabet, skipping letters A and B.

For example:
C: to change to drive C
DIR to list the contents of C

Just keep going thru the letters till you locate all your disks.

Move everything dear to you from to an unused drive.

To move, you will use the XCOPY command.

Let's say that you want to move everything from D to G

XCOPY D:\ G:\ /E /C /I /H

​

​

[FONT=&quot]COMMAND PROMPT - GO TO A COMMAND PROMPT USING YOUR WIN 7 DVD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]​

■Boot up from your Windows 7 DVD.
■At the first dialog window, press SHIFT + F10 key combo
■You will have a X:> command prompt
X: is a ram drive created by Windows 7.

​

​

 

[karlsnooks]

After that I need you to disconnect all drives except for your drive that is causing problems, your main drive.

 

[karlsnooks]

Oh heck.

I just noticed that your Disk 0 is a Dynamic drive.

What Operating System do you have installed on which drives?

Why is that a Dynamic drive?

Hold off, if it is not too late on doing anything more until I get the answers to these questions.

 

[GranPaSmurf]

copying to backup in progress. looks like it might take a while. Don't know about Dynamic. XP is on what is now D: partition, Win 7 is on c: partition, the second partition on the drive. I am available until I crash & burn tonight, what is your schedule?