Solved I can't boot

[kayax]

Hi,

This help guide sounds good but on my pc it doesn't work at all!
Of cource I can't boot.
Win7 x86-64 bit, HW-RAID1.
When I boot from Ubuntu Live CD I can see everything (SYSTEM Partistion and DATA Partition).

When I boot from the Installation cd into Command line the
bootrec /fixmbr command says success! (but still can't boot)
bootrec /fixboot and /rebuildbcd both say "Element not found"
bootrec /scanos finds C:\Windows correctly.

When I use (from the same command prompt)
bcdedit it says "the requested system device cannot be found"
and also C:\boot doesn't exist at all (just like as on my notebook with w7 home).

What can these all mean?

Any Ideas?

Thanks

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Be very careful if you go with this.
How to fix your Windows MBR with an Ubuntu liveCD | ArsGeek

You could always give it a go & see what's what without making changes.

There are quite a few guides on how to do it.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The Windows Startup Repair won't run and/or fix the problem?

 

[mgp1964]

I see you have raid 1 setup, with raid 1, if you lose or have problems with just one HD in the array you have then lost all the data. The data in a raid 1 array is broken up into blocks and written across all the disk in the array, if one disk in the array goes bad all data is gone. Raid 1 is used by many gamers for the speed increase but the drawback is the total lost of data if something happens to any drive in the array.

 

[gregrocker]

All boot repair commands are automated in Win7 Startup Repair along with other tests and fixes which may also be needed.

Does Win7 Repair console find an installation to repair when you boot into DVD or System Repair Disk?

 

[metalmania31]

I see you have raid 1 setup, with raid 1, if you lose or have problems with just one HD in the array you have then lost all the data. The data in a raid 1 array is broken up into blocks and written across all the disk in the array, if one disk in the array goes bad all data is gone. Raid 1 is used by many gamers for the speed increase but the drawback is the total lost of data if something happens to any drive in the array.

I thought Raid 1 is the mirror of each drive. So what you're describing is Raid 0.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Isn't RAID 1 Mirroring?
Losing a RAID 1 HDD shouldn't cause a loss of data.

If you lose a RAID 0 HDD (Striped) you are in trouble.

 

[mgp1964]

I stand corrected, raid 0 is stripping.

 

[gregrocker]

We see nothing but problems here with Win7 and RAID.

You'd think we'd have at least some good reports, out of thousands. :huh:

 

[mgp1964]

@gregrocker, tell me about it. I just got done working on a guys Dell that decided to put in 3 HD in raid 0 in his Dell desktop, I have seen to many folks try using raid 0 with Windows 7 and sooner than later they have all come crashing down. The guy went out and got a 4 HD and I just got done today setting him up with 1+0 array and reinstalling Windows 7 for him, we will see how long this last.

 

[kayax]

With RAID1 (mirroring) you definitely lose all data if all of the disks go bad at the same time.

@gregrocker, (@lehnerus2000)

I don't have a SysRepairDisk but I think this functionality is also available with the Install-DVD where you can choose the automatic repair what I did as first thing.
But it said that the partition table had been repaired wich wasn't destroyed since I could access both partitions from the Ubuntu Live DVD. Therefor I used the specific commands...
I'm not sure if HW-RAID1 is really a problem with win7, which doesn't realize at all that it deals with a RAID system. It justs uses a different driver as for a normal single disk drive. That's what I think at least.



@Hipster Doofus,

Thanks for the link, it looks interesting and I'll go through it in more detail.
I couldn't find any guide mentioning the detailed differencies between the normal Bios and EFI /UEFI which might be the point due to different booting methods.

I'm thinking of another way to save my installation.
I allready copied my system partition from the Ubuntu Live DVD on a USB drive twice, once with dd thus making an exact raw copy from the whole partition and additionally with the tar command thus having only all of the data from the system partition.
Next I'm going of installing win7 on my system partition (overwriting the old installation).
This way the booting environment should be healthy again.
Then I could copy all of the tar-copied data onto the system partition...
I think it should work. Any opinions on that? Or experiences?

The other possibility would be to copy back the exact raw copy (dd) of the partition...

 

[lehnerus2000]

That's obviously true

With RAID1 (mirroring) you definitely lose all data if all of the disks go bad at the same time.

If all of your storage devices and backups fail (simultaneously) you lose everything, it can't be avoided.
No RAID type can save you from that.

It shouldn't happen unless you experience a disaster (e.g. fire, flood, lightning, etc.) or a power surge.
That's why you need off-line external and off-line, off-site, external backups.

It's probably the only real benefit of "Cloud" storage.
Of course that introduces a bunch of other potential problems.

 

[kayax]

@lehnerus2000,

that's true, RAID1 doesn't replace backups and one should keep making them.
What I wanted to say is, it's better then having just one disk and only for the time between backups of course,
if say one of the disks gets damaged.

 

[kayax]

Success - At last!

Thank God I could save my installation!

I think the key action was to set the boot flag at the system partition using the GParted LiveCD (graphic mode).

Next the normal boot said (a different error message!): "bootmanager missing".

Then I booted from the installation cd (this time it showed up the installed OS correctly)
and setup the command "bootrec /fixboot" which earlier said "element not found", but this time it said "...successful".

Next normal boot said again "bootmanager missing".

Again booting from the install CD and tried the "bootrec /rebuildbcd": failed! No OS was shown up, Hey???!!!
Also "bootrec /scanOS" couldn't find the OS - The "repair disk" program recognized the OS(!).

Next I tried automatic repair and this time it could repair the correct things! I don't know why and what exactly happened.

The next thing I'm going to do is create a Recovery CD!

The Problems lasted 1 week but it paid not installing the whole shit from scratch.

Thanks for your help!

 

[gregrocker]

Glad it got fixed.

I'm not sure why users insist on sticking with old XP-era bootrec and bootsect commands when Win7 Startup Repair automates these as well as many other repairs which may also be needed. Lehnerus and I posted this a day ago along with a specific question which was not answered.

The procedure to repair Win7 is to mark the System Reserved or Win7 partition Active, then run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts on its own. This works in about 80% of cases, while another 20% require extra steps.

Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times
Partition Wizard