Help! I'm Stuck Can't Boot my Windows 7 Laptop

[monsbob]

Hello,

I did a clean install of Windows 7 ultimate 32-bit on my laptop. It booted well and I thought of changing the harddrive letters. After shutdown the laptop could not load windows again. Going through the process to revive it I found out that the harddrive order changed making the back up drive to be drive C:. I am now stuck and cannot find a way around this.
Kindly help as I have data which I had already moved back & i wouldn't want to lose it.

Thank you.

Monsbob.

 

[Bill2]

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

 

[theog]

If you have a External HD, you could copy & paste your data.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93347-copy-paste-windows-recovery-console.html



Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

 

[monsbob]

@Bill2.. I had tried it earlier took a long time but without success. @Theog.. I am running the startup repair again.
Thank you all.

 

[Bill2]

If startup repair doesnt work, try bootrec.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

 

[monsbob]

@Bill2.. I had tried bootrec earlier but it doesn't hurt to try again with the guidance of the page. I'll Keep you posted.
It hasn't finished the startup repair. Thank you sir.

 

[alphanumeric]

After changing the drive letters, did you change the BIOS boot order? If you did, change it back to what it was originally before you messed with the drive letters. How did you change the drive letters and why? Normally windows won't let you change the drive letter of the drive/partition it's installed too, so changing drive letters won't normally prevent you from booting up into windows.

 

[monsbob]

@Alphanumeric i didn't change anything else. Actually I didn't change drive C:. I was changing the DVD drive and the backUp drive as the DVD was appearing before the backup & I normally prefer it the other way. I do not know how the backup took the palce of the OS drive.

 

[monsbob]

@Theog.. I have tried the startup repair 5 times without success.
@Bill2.. trying the bootrec process is not successful as when I input 'bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup' it says
'The store export operation has failed.
The system cannot find the file specified.'
Anyone please help!

 

[Bill2]

Can you get into safe mode by any chance? You could then try this.

http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/105727-need-change-drive-letter-outside-os.html

Otherwise, if you have a win7 install dvd or a system repair disk, you can use diskpart to check whether the windows partition is active and if not mark it active.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

Alternatively you can use the same diskpart to change drive letters. (be careful)

Hiding or Changing your Drive Letter using DISKPART

 

[monsbob]

@Bill2 I'm sorry I can't go past the BIOS coz remember it doesn't see the OS drive. I had tried all those yesterday I even backedup everything in drived D: 7 formatted it without success. that's when I came to this forum. before formatting I could not hide the partion even on another comp as it was an active partition.
Thank you.

 

[Bill2]

Have you tried the Diskpart methods I linked?

 

[monsbob]

@Bill2 there's only one partition on the harddrive now i.e. C: where I had installed the OS. It has all the folders created by the OS intact.
Thank you.

 

[theog]

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

 

[monsbob]

@Bill2..Do u think I should still try the Diskpart?

 

[alphanumeric]

I would have liked to see a disk management screen shoot before all this happened. It sounds like D: was the active boot partition, not C:. What ever you did to D: may have erased windows 7 boot loader and ability to boot up. One option is to slave that drive in another system so you can pull any files you need to backup off and have a look at the disk structure. If there is nothing on it you need nuke it and start over with a clean install. Delete all the partitions and create new ones with the advanced options.

 

[theog]

Where did you buy your Windows 7 DVD from?

 

[gregrocker]

You cannot change your System drive letter. It will always ruin your Windows. Copy out your files and reinstall: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

If you didn't change the Win7 drive letter, then boot free Partition Wizard bootable CD, post back a camera snap of the drive map with listings showing. Next make sure the 100mb System Reserved partition (preferred) or the Win7 partition itself (if you don't have 100mb) is marked Active. If not rightclick in PW to Modify>Set to Active, OK. Next highlight the Win7 HD by clicking on it, then from Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, OK, Apply all Steps.

If Win7 now fails to start, boot into Win7 DVD or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots in between. If Win7 fails to start, change the Active partition from 100mb to Win7 partition and try Rebuild MBR from PW disk tab, then if necessary Startup Repairs again.

If this all fails, you'll have to copy out your files and reinstall: Reinstalling Windows 7