“No boot device found” & accidentally deleted Reserved Partition

[amirasyraf]

“No boot device found” & accidentally deleted Reserved Partition

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Background information

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L50-B with Intel Core i7 and AMD Radeon R7 M260. It came with Windows 8 pre-installed when I first bought it, but I soon wiped the disk to install Windows 7 instead. I also installed Ubuntu on a separate partition so I could dual boot. So the GRUB bootloader replaced the MBR. This isn't the issue though, just want to inform the laptop is running in CSM mode(or legacy) instead of UEFI.
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First of all, before you assume, the hard drive is working perfectly. I can still boot to Windows and it works fine. More on this at the end.

Now the issue is, I removed the Ubuntu partition, and I've really no idea what I did wrong with restoring/fixing the MBR. Now, whenever I try to boot, it displays "No boot device found". I've tried:

- Windows Recovery
- Windows Recovery using disk
- Parted Magic (Hiren's BootCD)

Mainly, I tried to restore and fix the MBR using bootsect and bootrec (fixmbr, fixboot and rebuildbcd). Also automated repair using the recovery.

As I mentioned above, I don't think it's a problem with the hard drive, since I'm posting this very question from this problematic laptop, on the main Windows installation.

I can still boot into windows, but only using either:

- Windows recovery disk (without booting into the disk, just have it in
the drive when booting)
- Hiren's BootCD Boot Manager

I've no idea how to proceed further with this. I think the last resort would be be to completely format the hard drive and install a new Windows.

Please, if anyone has any idea, at all, on how to solve this stupid problem, I'd appreciate it very much.

Thank you.

UPDATE
So by using GParted, I can clearly see the hard drive, only that it is unallocated. What the hell? I can still boot into Windows 7 and access my files with no problem. And Disk Management in Windows shows it correctly as one partition. What's going on?

 

[Lance1]

Welcome to WSF amirasyraf. Seeing that you have the Win7 disk I would go for a Repair Install "No Data will be lost in this process"

 

[amirasyraf]

Thanks Lance1,

Oh wow, I didn't know that actually existed. If I read it correctly, in order to Repair Install, I would need more free space than the currently used disk space? My system is currently using around 800GB, so I'd need more than 800GB of free space to perform Repair Install?

 

[bigmck]

Thanks Lance1,

Oh wow, I didn't know that actually existed. If I read it correctly, in order to Repair Install, I would need more free space than the currently used disk space? My system is currently using around 800GB, so I'd need more than 800GB of free space to perform Repair Install?

No, the Repair Install does not require any extra Disk Space. We will get to it, but first since you can boot into Windows, do so and post http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html This way I can tell what is causing the problem for you. We can go from there. Be sure and spread the columns of Disk Management so that all of the print can be read.

 

[AddRAM]

Never a good idea to dual boot windows and Linux, problems, problems, problems. Installed on Separate drives while each is unplugged is fine, other then that dual booting is more trouble then it`s worth.

Did you mark your windows partition Active and run startup repair yet ?

Create a Partition Wizard Boot CD, boot from it, use a camera and take a clear full shot, upload the picture, we`ll take a look and go from there.

Bootable Partition Manager| MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

 

[amirasyraf]

Here's the screenshot from Disk Management:

Never a good idea to dual boot windows and Linux, problems, problems, problems. Installed on Separate drives while each is unplugged is fine, other then that dual booting is more trouble then it`s worth.

Did you mark your windows partition Active and run startup repair yet ?

Create a Partition Wizard Boot CD, boot from it, use a camera and take a clear full shot, upload the picture, we`ll take a look and go from there.

Bootable Partition Manager| MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

I actually didn't know that. From the various tutorial I've read, none of them discouraged dual-booting Windows and Linux. None of them warned of any potential problem one may encounter with dual-booting.

I have marked my Windows partition active and have ran startup repair...

And here are a few screenshots from Partition Wizard, sorry it isn't very clear:

I ran a quick scan using the Partition Recovery Wizard, and it actually found a deleted partition. I'm not sure if I should proceed or not (in fear of losing data/Windows installation)

Thanks...

 

[bigmck]

Your Disk Management looks OK. You made the statement in your post == "I have marked my Windows partition active and have ran startup repair.." == Was it not marked active before you started this thread? If it wasn't, it should boot OK now. Have your tried it? == Just a suggestion, You have all of your files on one partition, C:. If you ever have to reinstall Windows, you will have to reinstall all of your other files also. That would be a job. When you get this problem corrected, you should consider making a D: partition on your HD. Have C: for Windows 7 and your Programs. Have D: for documents, pictures, anything else. Make your Windows about 100 GB, bigger if you have a lot of Programs. == Let us know if your PC boots now.

 

[amirasyraf]

Your Disk Management looks OK. You made the statement in your post == "I have marked my Windows partition active and have ran startup repair.." == Was it not marked active before you started this thread? If it wasn't, it should boot OK now. Have your tried it? == Just a suggestion, You have all of your files on one partition, C:. If you ever have to reinstall Windows, you will have to reinstall all of your other files also. That would be a job. When you get this problem corrected, you should consider making a D: partition on your HD. Have C: for Windows 7 and your Programs. Have D: for docurments, pictures, anything else. Make your Windows about 100 GB, bigger if you have a lot of Programs. == Let us know if your PC boots now.

Oh no sorry, must've worded that wrong, that was done and out of the way much earlier. It was never inactive anyways and startup repair didn't do anything.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll keep in mind when I'm doing a clean install in the future.

 

[RolandJS]

"...Thank you for the suggestion, I'll keep in mind when I'm doing a clean install in the future..."
If you're doing weekly to bi-monthly full-image backups, you'll have some protection.
A superduper +1 to bigmck! I've had C and D partitions for years, and, thankfully so. I've had to restore OS partition numerous times over the years for my computers, some my fault, some Windows fault, some San Andreas fault.

 

[amirasyraf]

I just want to inform I'll be away, thus not be able to check this thread until next week. It's Eid, and in Malaysia, we all 'Balik Kampung'.

Please, if anyone have any solutions at all to my problem, share your ideas in this thread.

Thank you!

 

[bigmck]

Could you boot your PC and tell us if anything has changed since this thread started.

 

[amirasyraf]

Could you boot your PC and tell us if anything has changed since this thread started.

Hi, nothing has changed. Still using Hiren's BootCD to boot into Windows.

 

[bigmck]

Go back to message #6. You had posted a Screen Shot of Disk Management. It is the top thing in #6. I just can't believe there isn't a problem with it. Would you mind posting your Disk Management again so I could compare the new one you will post to the one in message #6

 

[jumanji]

Hi amirasyraf,

It looks like you have a completely empty sector 0 - no MBR code, no partition table in it.

Partiition Recovery Wizard did find the lost partition. Just put a tick mark against the found Partition in the square and then look down into the preview map. Does it show your drive as before? If yes, just click on Finish and then Apply in the main screen menu bar. This will write the partition table into Sector 0. ( You need not worry . It is going to write only the missing partition table in sector 0.Your data which begins after sector 2048 will not be affected in anyway)

After doing that on the left pane of the Partition Wizard click on Rebuild MBR to write the MBR code into sector 0. Click on Apply again.

You have now restored the missing MBR code and partition table in sector 0. Hopefully your PC should be able to boot now.

If you want to be very cautious you may check your sector 0 in the present condition using bootice before restoring the Partition table and MBR code in it. If you want to do that, install bootice for your bit version of Windows and post the screenshot of sector 0.

Using bootice: http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/310295-lost-partitions.html#post2584426

( Remove all other USB connected storage devices - pendrives, external HDDs)