Win7 Repair CD problems

[Mark Phelps]

Sorry if these have been covered before ... but I've searched this and other forums and not found them.

I have two problems with Win7 Repair CDs that I built by creating and burning them on two different PCs running Win7 32-bit retail: Home Premium PC and Professional PC.

In both cases, when I booted from either PC, I get the Vista-like horizontal green bar, not the new Win7 orbiting thingies. I thought that might have been the case on one machine because I upgraded it from Vista. But the other machine was a clean install -- with no prior Vista on it. When I boot from either of the Win7 DVDs, I get the new Win7 orbiting thingies.

Second problem is that, in both cases, attempts to repair my PCs failed. I had installed Win7 to machines that had previous OSs. In one case, Vista, in the other case XP, and in both cases, Win7 wrote its bootloader files to the other OS partition.

So, this last weekend, I decided to "futureproof" my machine by migrating the boot loader stuff to the Win7 partitions on both machines. I tried using EasyBCD (latest beta), and in both cases, it left me with unbootable machines.

I booted each machine from the Repair CD I had previously made, and not only did I get the Vista-like boot, more importantly, neither was able to repair the boot loader setup.

I ended up booting each machine from the Win7 DVD -- and used Startup Repair to do the fixes.

So, is it a common problem to (1) have a Vista-like boot presentation using Repair CDs, and (2) not have those CDs work when trying to do Startup Repair?

I'm asking because I'd really like to keep my original Win7 DVDs stored away and NOT use them -- because if they get damaged in any way, I'm hosed. I'd much rather use the Repair CDs.

 

[Brink]

Hello Mark,

You might consider creating a ISO file from your orignal Windows 7 installation disk using a program like the free ISO Recorder, then burn the ISO to DVD to have a copy that you can use instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Mark Phelps]

Part of the reason I'm asking this is that I saw a thread recently on a tweaks site that mentioned a way to update the winRE image -- but it required you to be a member of the Windows Assurance support program in order to download the components needed. I was wondering if that was MS's way of documenting problems with the current WinRE that is written to the Repair CD.

 

[iseeuu]

Part of the reason I'm asking this is that I saw a thread recently on a tweaks site that mentioned a way to update the winRE image -- but it required you to be a member of the Windows Assurance support program in order to download the components needed. I was wondering if that was MS's way of documenting problems with the current WinRE that is written to the Repair CD.

Hi Mark!

I read through your post a couple of times. I have done some comparison of the features of both the CD and DVD, even made new "System Repair" CDs from my retail Home Premium to compare to the Ultimate RC I was using. I can see no difference.

It occurred to me you might have used the Vista "System Repair" CD?

Anyway ... I was able to combine the 32 bit and 64 bit isos into one bootable CD with lots of help here: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/55304-creating-2-os-thumb-drive-2.html#post519029

I also used the WAIK from Microsoft to open the .wim folder and examine the contents of the "System Repair" CD. So one can personalize the WinRE. One of the packages in the .wim lead me here: Windows PE Tools

And I am not "a member of the Windows Assurance support program".

Cheers!
Robert

 

[Mark Phelps]

... It occurred to me you might have used the Vista "System Repair" CD?

That's what's so strange -- I created and burned that CD from inside Win 7.

You think that because, at the time I did this, the bootloader files were on the Vista partition, that it burned a "Vista version" instead?

Now that I've moved the bootloader files to the Win7 partition, I'll create and burn another repair CD -- and see what that does.

Update: I created and burned a new Repair CD -- same problems as before!

 

[Brink]

Mark,

Strange. You might see if using the download in OPTION TWO below may work better for you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html