Solved Help please, bootmgr missing' and 'windows cannot find a system image'

[jessemcm]

Yep, Ive done a number on the laptop, just in time for the Australia 2014 Tax cut off. Any advice would be appreciated!

I tried to reinstall from my operting system disk and I guess I am a fish out of water here. I formatted or deleted the wrong spot along the way and now I'm having issues starting it.

I've followed an online thread advice, I've used the DBAN nuke to completely erase any corrupted boot files, but no joy.

I've made a copy of Hiren's and I can load up in the mini XP, but then I don't know the next step.

When I've tried to load of the operating system disk it keeps telling me 'windows cannot find a system image on this computer'.

I've tried rebooting of a System Repair Disk I made from a working windows 7 laptop but I get the same 'windows cannot find a system image on this computer' problem. Any suggestions short of throwing it into Sydney Harbour would be appreciated.

 

[jessemcm]

This is what I get when I run the minXP off Hirens.

So, I am assuming my partitions are the problem and am running partition magic. Currently I have drives as per the image.

 

[jessemcm]

If I boot using the operting system disk and go through the enlish/keyboard options and select 'repair your computer option' I get this:

 

[jessemcm]

SO there is no operarting system to repair using the recovery tools. So I've tried the following options, but that doesn't seem to be where I need to go.

 

[jessemcm]

Now I've got this screen and startup repair sat it cannot repair this computer automatically.

System restore is not good as I don't have an operting system.

System image recovery is no good as windows cannot find a system image on the computer.

Windows memort diagnostic has an error preventing it from checking for memory problems.

So I am left with command prompt. NO CLUE HERE.

Any suggestions from out there?

 

[jessemcm]

Is there any point to me burning a systems restore point from my wifes laptop (both windows 7 OS) and copying it across to mine when it is running using the Hirens miniXP. Will this work, seems way too easy.

Why would it not let me install an operating system on it?

 

[jessemcm]

The Syndey harbour option is looking good about now!

Not sure my next move other than drink this bottle of red wine.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Don't select "startup repair" there now. Select "command prompt" instead. You enter a black kind of DOS window. Then do:

diskpart
select volume c
detail part

Post the output. Now you can type exit.

 

[Kaktussoft]

I tried to reinstall from my operting system disk and I guess I am a fish out of water here. I formatted or deleted the wrong spot along the way and now I'm having issues starting it.

Did you encounter any problems during reinstall of win7?

 

[jessemcm]

Yes, when trying to reinstall it is when I think I formatted the wrong drive and that is when I started getting error messages. I think the first error code I got was 'error code 0x80070017' but it was a week or so ago. That is the one I googled at the time so, I certainly had that one early in this ordeal, just not positive it was the first one.

Thanks for taking the time to look at it!

 

[Kaktussoft]

You must remember all you do. Especially if you're not experienced with installation. It's difficult to help people that tell half the truth. But let's continue. In command prompt:

attrib c:\bootmgr
attrib e:\bootmgr

post output

dir/od e:\windows

Do you see files? Old stuff? Or stuff just created?

dir/od e:\users

You see old or new stuff (look at the date)

 

[Kaktussoft]

'error code 0x80070017' =>this is usually cause by bad media.
Did the installation ended succesfully? Or it just broke in the middle?

 

[jessemcm]

Here is the first code part

 

[jessemcm]

Hi, I really don't remember how far through I go with reinstalling it, but from the best of my memory not very far. I think I got into the bit where you see the C & D drives and some partitions, I formatted it without realising what I was doing and then the hurt began.

 

[jessemcm]

'Do you see files? Old stuff? Or stuff just created?
Code:
dir/od e:\users
You see old or new stuff (look at the date)'

I'm not sure what I am looking for here, where will I see the date?

 

[Kaktussoft]

I see e:\windows (it's called E now... doesn't matter. Don't tell you why now). No windows folder at all!. No windows installation. It has bootmgr file.

"system reserved" is ACTIVE. It is the bootpartition. That should hold the bootmanager (bootmgr) but hasn't.

Reinstall did close to nothing! Let's start over.

diskpart
select disk 0
clean

post screenshot. After that you can type exit. physical disk 0 (the internal physical disk drive) : it's partition table is now zeroed... so no partitions anymore. It's just totally empty.

 

[jessemcm]

Ok, here goes

 

[Kaktussoft]

After doing my previous post successfully you can do a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html again. Now follow these instructions in tutorial. If questions .... mention the step you're in. And post relevant camshots and errors.

 

[Kaktussoft]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html step 2 is boot from win7 install DVD. Please do that. Or already done?

 

[jessemcm]

Ok, I'm here, what do I do about getting another drive? Shouldn't this be where I have a c-drive with 50 odd Gb and the rest on a D-drive?