Partition table lost after Hibernate

[nabilalk]

Take the time to read this entire tutorial.


Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Ok, running the sequence of startup repairs. Will post back.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

OK I'll be here.

 

[nabilalk]

OK I'll be here.

Startup repair is unsuccessful each time. Should I still run it 3 times?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

It takes at least 3 and sometime 4 successive startup repairs with a system restart between each repair to create a new set of boot files to the new location.

 

[nabilalk]

It takes at least 3 and sometime 4 successive startup repairs with a system restart between each repair to create a new set of boot files to the new location.

im getting BOOTMGR error sometimes when trying to get back into Win 7 install DVD. What does that mean?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Do you actually have more than 1 Hard Disk Drive (HDD) connected in the PC?

If so you may have to disconnect the other HDD and leave only the one you want to do the startup repairs to, then you may have to start over and mark that as "Active" and then do the startup repairs.

See why when a snip of disk management (if available) is so helpful?

 

[nabilalk]

Do you actually have more than 1 Hard Disk Drive (HDD) connected in the PC?

If so you may have to disconnect the other HDD and leave only the one you want to do the startup repairs to, then you may have to start over and mark that as "Active" and then do the startup repairs.

See why when a snip of disk management (if available) is so helpful?

lol yes. Although I did list a second HD in my first post titled Backup i think. I will give that a shot and post back.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Yes sometime that is necessary to get it to create the boot files to the new location.

Sometime a second partition/HDD gets marked active through some kind of error and having 2 actives makes life very difficult when this process is needed.



We'll be here, do remember to post back with an update.

 

[nabilalk]

Problem solved. Now, what the heck happened?

Yes sometime that is necessary to get it to create the boot files to the new location.

Sometime a second partition/HDD gets marked active through some kind of error and having 2 actives makes life very difficult when this process is needed.



We'll be here, do remember to post back with an update.

I'm into Windows woot and thanks!

Disconnected the 2nd HD and was able to reboot in Windows. I then reconnected the 2nd HD and restarted in Windows again.

This problem occurred after I Hibernated last night. The only thing I can think of is that Hibernate set my HDs to use really low power. When I woke up the computer, the BIOS got confused which HD to boot off of and it selected the 2nd HD (storage device) rather than the 1st with the System and Windows partitions.

The second thing I noticed is that the SATA cable I have has two branches. One was connected to each HD. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I switched the branches because one of them looks like the main trunk and the other looks like a branch off the main.

Maybe because the main trunk was set to the 2nd HD, my BIOS saw that as the Primary Master and the 1st HD which actually has Windows on it as the Slave. Is there a difference in the SATA cables like one branch is always supposed to be main and the other is slave?

Is my theory plausible or can anyone else offer a possible cause of this?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

First, I want to say I'm glad you got back in and thanks for the update.



Now I'm going to read the rest of your post to see if I can help with an explanation but if others have ideas be sure to post because I'm often clueless.

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map and listings. Use Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

It's possible your System partition was derailed to the data drive. It needs to be checked to see if it is still marked System Active.

Then we need to see what partition is now marked System Active on the WIn7 HD since its partitioning was unclear in DISKPART prior to repair.

 

[nabilalk]

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map and listings. Use Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

It's possible your System partition was derailed to the data drive. It needs to be checked to see if it is still marked System Active.

Then we need to see what partition is now marked System Active on the WIn7 HD since its partitioning was unclear in DISKPART prior to repair.

Drive map attached. Zenith (E: ) is active when it should not be, as it is a slave. Thanks for the followup.

How do I take care of the second step you are talking about with DISKPART?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

The way is shown in my snip below.

click to enlarge



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[nabilalk]

The way is shown in my snip below.

click to enlarge
View attachment 100242


​

Got it, thanks.

Any thoughts on my theory as to why this problem occurred after the hibernate in the first place?

 

[gregrocker]

It likely happened because Zenith was marked Active which confused or corrupted the MBR.

We see this here all the time with random partitions marked Active.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again mate, sorry I got side-tracked earlier.



As I mentioned earlier a lot of different people have a second get marked active quite often, I've even had one do so without my ever finding the reason as do a lot of others; just chalk one up and remember the remedy.

 

[nabilalk]

It likely happened because Zenith was marked Active and confused or corrupted the MBR. We see this here all the time with random partitions marked Active.

Ah, but Zenith wasn't marked active until after I followed your instructions.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

It likely happened because Zenith was marked Active and confused or corrupted the MBR. We see this here all the time with random partitions marked Active.

Ah, but Zenith wasn't marked active until after I followed your instructions.

How do you know, you couldn't boot into Windows?

 

[nabilalk]

It likely happened because Zenith was marked Active and confused or corrupted the MBR. We see this here all the time with random partitions marked Active.

Ah, but Zenith wasn't marked active until after I followed your instructions.

How do you know, you couldn't boot into Windows?

I assumed b/c startup repair said there was a partition table issue. I do believe that my BIOS thought Zenith was the primary. Hopefully that problem won't creep up again. I wish I could tell the difference in the BIOS b/w the 2 identical drives.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You were trying to do a startup repair to a system with 2 active partitions, active is the flag that tells the repair procedure where to create the "new" boot files and that caused the confusion.