laptop only boots with usb stick

[GwenKillerby]

In short: I can't boot my laptop.
It will ONLY boot when I stick a Rescue USBstick in it, it then shows the normal bootmenu.

Longer description of the problem: After moving/resizing the partitions, the laptop didn't boot anymore.

Setup is four partitions:
1-Vista (original partition when I bought it)
2-WinXP
3-W7
4-Recovery partition for Vista (doesn't work now. Never tested it when thing ran smoothly, actually)

My goal was: I wanted to switch from vista to w7, but i mucked about with the partitions and I guess I damaged the bootloader and/or the mbr??? (what's the difference between these 2?)

Situation before: It was a triple boot system. Each OS was installed on it's own partition.

Situation After: I can only boot with the rescue boot usb attached to the laptop. I get the same bootmenu with 3 OSes as I always did.
Funny thing: The rescue-USB does NOT offer it's own extensive boot options (it's the well-known H?????15.2.iso) AT ALL. (not promoting anything here, hence the "?????"). It just shows me the old bootmenu. It almost seems as if it repaired my boot menu, but on the usb, not on the HDD.

I did too, muck about with the Vista Rescue ISO too.

MY Question: How do I get my normal boot menu back, without having to use an USB??


Hardware: HP Pavilion DV2, 298 GB HDD
specs: HP Pavilion dv2 Laptop specs
Getting a new HDD or formatting my drives aren't options for me. And no offense meant, but you should see the stuff that gets said on other sites. Sorry. Not everyone on the interwebs is a serious, polite person.
I realize that I have an entirely workable situation, but I still like to get things back to normal. Thank you.

 

[Layback Bear]

This little goodie should brings members in flocks to help.
Do you know what forum you are on?

PS
Please DO NOT give NON-ANSWERS like: get a new laptop, a new HDD, do a format, and all of those "ashtrays-are-full?-get-a-new-car" type of trollings. Thanks!

You have a nice day.

 

[whs]

You are on a serious forum with serious people. Your PS is uncalled for. I suggest you remove it if you want to proceed.

 

[gregrocker]

Now, post back a screenshot of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...nt-post-screen-capture-image.html#post2261610 exactly as specified in link.

 

[GwenKillerby]

Not cos of 1 thing or another, but wouldn't it be faster to hit WinKey+R, then
type DISKMGMT.MSC then hit OK, then hit the PrintScreen key, the one that's labeled PrtScrn or PrintScreen?

Your method is very .... pretty though.

I will try to get that pic asap, but in the interest of speed, I can tell you that
- all my partitions are

• Layout: Simple
• Type: Basic
• FS: NTFS
• Status: Healthy
• Capacity and Free Space are
  • Vista: 143 GB, 8%
  • WinXP: 132 GB, 1%
  • Win7: 12 GB, 5%
  • Recovery: 11 GB, 3%

 

[gregrocker]

Useless. We need to see the flags.

If you Print Screen the columns are not all revealed unless you follow the steps given. Any reason you don't want to use our methods at the top tech forums on the web to give us what we need?

 

[GwenKillerby]

which flags?
overhead is zero, and the other thing is at NO, for all 4 partitions.

 

[gregrocker]

Stop alienating everyone here and start cooperating without argument or no one will help you.

We've solved this exact problem countless times here.

If you'd posted the screenshot it would probably already be done. Now you can wait til morning.