Solved Startup Repair Missing Boot Drive

[firemedichunter]

Hello all. First post here but have utilized sevenforums for years for many issues. Anyway....

I did a windows update yesterday and the notification to restart was popped up on the desktop when I left for work. I get home this morning and the PC was shutdown. Upon startup, I would just get a blank screen after BIOS.

After many attempts, I then was able to actually get to the menu for SafeMode. When attempting to boot into safe mode I would actually get the Windows emblem for a few moments and then the black screen reappears. Sometimes the logo shows up and sometimes it does not. Either way, it won't go past the logo.

System repair on the boot menu would not do anything.

I inserted Windows 7 DVD and attempted to follow this tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html

Startup problems could not be prepared so I moved on to step 6 for comman prompt.

Now, once at this step I changed the drive to C:. Now, I know that this is my boot drive. But when I go to DIR of this drive it is showing my files from D: All my drives are reduced by one letter. All my drives including my proper C: are showing up okay in BIOS. Also, I know that System Restore has made save points but they do not show up as the C: is not showing

So, to get to the point....Where is my C:? This is obvioulsy related to why the PC will not boot. Any thoughts? Thanks so much

 

[Kaktussoft]

In normal win7 and in recovery mode the drive letters can be different. Very normal. How can the recovery mode know what drive letters you gave to the partitions???

"After many attempts, I then was able to actually get to the menu for SafeMode."=> what did you do to be able to boot to safe mode?

Did you try "Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery"? Not needed as far as I know in this situation.

 

[firemedichunter]

Thanks for the quick reply!

It was stuck in startup repair for several boot attempts. I just kept restarting with F8 and then finally the SafeMode menu appeared. I did not change anything to make this happen.

I cannot complete the infinite loop recovery as I have to be able to access the DIR on the drive that holds windows. This drive is not there in the command prompt.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Boot to the recovery environment from win7 install dvd (select repair computer). Do you see something like this?

It shows the drive letter!

 

[firemedichunter]

When I get to that screen there is nothing listed under Operating System.

 

[Kaktussoft]

When I get to that screen there is nothing listed under Operating System.

That means there's a real severe error. It isn't able to find the windows partition.

Press NEXT anyway. Select Command Prompt. Then:

diskpart
list vol
exit

Which volumes do you see? I'm not interested in DVD rom stuff. Nor interested in usb drives.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Still in command prompt:

attrib  c:\windows
attrib  d:\windows
attrib  e:\windows

Post results

 

[firemedichunter]

So, the commands you gave me did not show the boot drive nor could they find a windows file on any drives.

Although the drive was showing up in the BIOS and RAID utility it was not showing up after that such as in DOS view or during the system repair as I have already mentioned. I attempted to run my WD diagnostics CD and found that it could not see the drive either. So, swapped the SATA cables between two of the drives with no success. Then,,, I set the SATA cables back where they originally were and then the PC booted properly.

Once it started to boot it started to install the remaining windows updates that I had previously mentioned.

Although the machine is now booting properly I cannot help but think the windows updates had something to do with this. Maybe something with the RAID controller or possibly the JMicron drivers or something. Anyway, the issue is solved but I do not know why. The case and cables had not been touched or moved prior to the shutdown. I feel comfortable ruling out loose connections. Any thoughts?

Thanks again!

 

[gregrocker]

I would continue to test the HD with the maker's HD diagnostics extended CD flash stick scan: WD Data Lifeguard CD ISO WD Diagnostics for Flash Stick or the WD windows version.

If these fail try the Seagate Seatools .

If the HD is good you may need to replace the cables.

 

[firemedichunter]

I ran the WD diagnostics on all the drives and they all came back okay. I understand that there is a possibility that the cable was bad but it just seems very coincidental that this was during the restart of a Windows Update.

 

[gregrocker]

Look in Windows Update>View Update History, click on Date column heading to order by date, to see which were installed.

You can uninstall any that you suspect are causing problems there by clicking at top on Installed Updates.

An alternative is to run System Restore for the date - it sets a Restore Point for every update.

But if it works now then I wouldn't worry about it. Just be sure you have everything backed up.