Multi-Boot Nightmares

[Bare Foot Kid]

It would really help to see a snip of disk management.


In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that, it should look similar to this.

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

 

[Hopalong X]

Barefoot

It won't boot.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Maybe that'll teach me to skim a long thread to help.



Your suggestion to try to only boot the original HDD sounded the best idea, did he try that?

 

[Trailerman]

Bare Foot Kid

More than happy to post a snap of Disk Manager, but only have one drive in the system at the moment, which only has one partition on it (original Windows 7).

Plus, despite running all the suggested fixes I unfortunately still can't boot into it - no luck: after 3 Startup Repairs I'm still getting:

'autochk program not found - skipping autocheck'

I'm crashing for the night (I'm in the UK). Back in a few hours to tear my last few remaining hairs out.

Thanks again

Jules

 

[Hopalong X]

He is trying to get the main HD booted so the clone is disconnected.

Mike

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again Jules, we'll be here; just come back to this same thread so we'll know where to start.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you mark the Win7 partitions Active first as suggested earlier?

Without the Disk Management screenshot, you'll need to plug in a Win7 HD, mark it's partition Active using Diskpart from DVD or Repair CD Command Line, then run Startup Repair repeatedly.
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Start by booting the Install DVD or Repair CD, press Shift F10 at first screen to open a Command Line, then use these Diskpart commands given here: Mark as Active

Once you bring the Win7 partition into focus you can "Detail Partition" to see if it's already marked Active, or just write "active" to do it again. Then run the Repair.

When one starts up, do the next one with the first one unplugged.


Once you get one Win7 HD started up, plug the others in and post back a screenshot of your full Disk mgmt drive map with listings. They may already be able to individuall boot via BIOS Boot Order or BIOS one-time Boot Screen.

 

[Hopalong X]

Greg

OP ran the Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times
Still wouldn't boot in to Windows.

Plus, despite running all the suggested fixes I unfortunately still can't boot into it - no luck: after 3 Startup Repairs I'm still getting:

'autochk program not found - skipping autocheck'

I'm crashing for the night (I'm in the UK). Back in a few hours to tear my last few remaining hairs out.

Thanks again

 

[gregrocker]

Hi Mike -

Did he mark the partitions active first? I clearly stated that had to be done first and provided the link which shows how to do it from the Install DVD or Repair CD Command line.

Ted was told that OP couldn't boot to post the screenshot but in Post #1 he says he could boot into one Win7, so a screenshot with all disks connected would have allowed us to sort it out quickly.

I've just asked again. I'll ask again later if it will help. There are other steps if these fail but knowing if the steps already given were completed or providing a screenshot we can't proceed.

 

[Trailerman]

Did you mark the Win7 partitions Active first as suggested earlier?

Without the Disk Management screenshot, you'll need to plug in a Win7 HD, mark it's partition Active using Diskpart from DVD or Repair CD Command Line, then run Startup Repair repeatedly.
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Start by booting the Install DVD or Repair CD, press Shift F10 at first screen to open a Command Line, then use these Diskpart commands given here: Mark as Active

Once you bring the Win7 partition into focus you can "Detail Partition" to see if it's already marked Active, or just write "active" to do it again. Then run the Repair.

When one starts up, do the next one with the first one unplugged.


Once you get one Win7 HD started up, plug the others in and post back a screenshot of your full Disk mgmt drive map with listings. They may already be able to individuall boot via BIOS Boot Order or BIOS one-time Boot Screen.

Hey Greg et al - back in the saddle

I'm just going through the first stage of your fix - marking the OS partition Active. I've done that, and have also checked using Detail Partition, but I'm not seeing an active flag at all - can you tell me where/how it would be marked active when I detail it? It does have an asterisk in the far left of the list, but no mention of active anywhere else.

I will then re-run the startup repair 3 times again, and see where that leaves us. As you probably saw, last time I did that, the first run was fine, the second/third found driver errors, but I will retry.

Sorry if this process has been more complicated than it should have been - I'll take full responsibility for not being systematic. I'm now down to one drive and will stick with tests on this until I get this OS up and running, then move from there.

Jules
TRAILERMEN Home - Film, Commercial, Trailer, Game Music and TV Composers

 

[Trailerman]

First run through of Startup Repair I get the same issue as before:

Problem event name : StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: Unknown
Problem Signature 04: 157
Problem Signature 05: ExternalMedia
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: BadDriver

When I check the Startup Repair log, all tests completed successfully (including Boot status etc.) except for:

Root Cause Found:
------------------
A recent driver installation or upgrade may be preventing the system from starting.

Repair action: System files integrity check and repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x57

I'll try and rerun after reboot and will then try the 'bootmgr is missing' fix mentioned previously, unless I should try asomething else. I'm starting to wonder if, on this particular disk the issue might not be boot/MBR related, but I'm no expert.

Jules

 

[Trailerman]

OK - after 2nd and 3rd run throughs of Startup Repair, it tells me Startup Repair could not detect a problem.

However, when I then try and boot into Windows the situation is exactly as before: I get the Windows logo, short wait and where I would normally get my login screen I get:

'autochk program not found - skipping autocheck'

Followed by a blue screen.

Will try the bootmanager is missing fix, and then perhaps a system restore from the Windows boot page, I'll also try booting in safe mode, but I doubt any of these things will make a difference.

Wondering if I should give up on this volume for now, and see if I can get my clone to work properly on its own.

Jules

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If you can get to safe mode see what this turns up, sometime if it funds integrity errors it takes a couple runs to fix them all.


How to Repair Windows 7 System Files with System File Checker

 

[Trailerman]

Thanks Bare Foot

A couple of things:

1. When I run Bootrec /RebuildBcd, it says:

'Total identified windows installations: 0'

Does this mean it's still not seeing my Windows volume propery?

2. When I run sfc /scannow (using the command prompt from the recovery environment), I get:

'There is a system repair pending which requires a reboot ....'

And the same message reappears after each reboot. Should I keep running it?

Thanks again

Jules

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

No I don't think the sfc is helping; I'm at a loss for now and have to go to work, be back later.

 

[Trailerman]

No worries Bare Foot - appreciate all your help.

Safe mode doesn't help - same blue screen, with classpnp.sys the last thing on screen. 'Last known good configuration' gives me the same autochk error.

Time to try the other disk I guess.

Jules

 

[Trailerman]

I removed my original Windows 7 drive and replaced it with the drive which has the clone on it.

After running Startup Repair 3 times I was able to boot into Windows (prior to that I got a Boot mgr missing error). However, it looks like my Windows 7 clone volume is corrupt. I get 'preparing desktop' for an age, and then a blank blue desktop with no taskbar and no icons. Maybe Norton's 'copy disk' function doesn't create a proper bootable OS volume.

I suppose I'm pretty much hosed, but if anybody thought it was worth me trying to clone my original Windows volume again, to replace the new volume which is corrupt but does at least boot, it would save me about 4 days of installation work. Then again, maybe the original volume is broken too.

None of it makes much sense to my addled brain.

Thanks for any help.

Jules

 

[Trailerman]

Hold on - looks like the new volume has called itself Drive H - that's probably why it's not working.

Is there an easy way to change the drive letter back to C in the recovery environment?

Thanks

Jules

 

[Trailerman]

Mmm ... used diskpart in the startup recovery environment and it was already set to C, yet when it boots into windows it's set to H. So I reset it using 'assign letter=' but it's still booting up as H.

Also tried changing it from the command prompt which I can just about get to in my dodgy windows volume, but it won't let me change drive letters on the current boot volume.

Please forgive my ongoing ramblings.

Jules

 

[Trailerman]

OK - found a registry hack which changed Drive H to Drive C. Windows on this cloned volume now appears to boot correctly. Not totally confident about how robust it is as an OS but will try and give it a spin.

Now need to replace my other drives and make sure this doesn't screw up the boot sequence. Presumably if I leave the other drives out of the BIOS boot list for now, I should be safe. Feel like I'm in partial solution wilderness, but I guess a seemingly working clone is better than nothing at all.

Jules

PS. Any tips on absolute failsafe cloneing of the OS volume, to use as an alternate boot partition?