Solved Windows 7 doesn't boot anymore.

[rory4ever]

So I have 2 SSD in my PC and I used to have Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on SSD 1 and Windows 7 PRO x64 on SSD 2. I didn't use GRUB to boot Windows, instead I used F12 at boot and could select SSD2 and using the windows bootmanager I could boot Windows 7 without any problem. I installed Windows using EFI.



However, I needed to reinstalled Ubuntu and accidentally chose "legacy" and this broke things apparently. I ditched the SSD with linux and I only want to use Windows 7.



I created an official Windows 7 install USB and tried the default boot recovery to no avail.

Apparantly the SSD has 2 partitions.

here's the setup:


Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: E74ED6F9-B728-4E83-8DF0-E4B6B04A77E5

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 264191 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda2 264192 468860927 468596736 223.5G EFI System



both drives are formatted as NTFS

However, I cannot seem to boot them. I mounted the first partition and it says that there's 11 MB of files on it
but I cannot see a single file (also checked hidden files)

I am sure the installation itself is still fine and my data is too, but something is off
concerning the boot part. Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!


some extra info:



File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows 7/2008: NTFS Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files: /Windows/System32/winload.exe

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. are you trying to boot with just the 1 drive connected? is it possible some boot files were on the other drive?

 

[rory4ever]

Welcome to the forum. are you trying to boot with just the 1 drive connected? is it possible some boot files were on the other drive?

Thank you



I tried with only 1 drive connected as with the 2 drives connected. The boot files are not on the other drive.

I see that the windows 7 harddisk contains 2 partitions, and both have the boot flag set but the boot files are on the 2nd partition (the biggest partition) but it doesn't do anything with it (?)

 

[torchwood]

Hi

Legacy (MBR) Bios uses a different boot process installer
from your post


Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: E74ED6F9-B728-4E83-8DF0-E4B6B04A77E5

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 264191 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda2 264192 468860927 468596736 223.5G EFI System

Reset your Bios to EUFI so its the same as your SSD partitions


Roy

 

[rory4ever]

Hi

Legacy (MBR) Bios uses a different boot process installer
from your post


Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: E74ED6F9-B728-4E83-8DF0-E4B6B04A77E5

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 264191 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda2 264192 468860927 468596736 223.5G EFI System

Reset your Bios to EUFI so its the same as your SSD partitions


Roy

Hi,


I've tried that, boot mode is UEFI but that doesn't solve the issue.

I think this issue might have to do with the 2 windows partitions. The small 128MB partition was overwritten and I recently formatted is as NTFS and tried to copy the boot files onto it using bootsect but that didn't help (?) Also, the system tries to boot the bigger windows partition?

 

[torchwood]

Hi

OK, i didnt look far enough its looking like you still have Ubuntu boot info, (dev/sda) not an Ubuntu user.

Try this solution

boot - Uninstall Grub and use Windows bootloader - Ask Ubuntu


Roy

 

[rory4ever]

Hi

OK, i didnt look far enough its looking like you still have Ubuntu boot info, (dev/sda) not an Ubuntu user.

Try this solution

boot - Uninstall Grub and use Windows bootloader - Ask Ubuntu


Roy

That unfortunately didn't help as well

The Windows 7 pro x64 installation is a confirm EFI installation but the boot files which are loaded is
/Windows/System32/winload.exe

which is IIRC only for non-efi installations?

I also have 2 partitions, the small SYSTEM partition is empty so it cannot load anything from that. I think I need to rebuild some stuff?

 

[SIW2]

It is looking for winload.exe because that is the entry in the bcd store. The bcd store is on the ESP partition.

Suggest you create the correct entry in the bcd store.

Try booting win7 repair/installation media in efi mode, then run startup repair .

 

[rory4ever]

It is looking for winload.exe because that is the entry in the bcd store. The bcd store is on the ESP partition.

Suggest you create the correct entry in the bcd store.

Try booting win7 repair/installation media in efi mode, then run startup repair .

Thanks, but that didn't help.

It states that it cannot fix my issue. i think I need to have to use the terminal?

I now have the 0x000000f error \EFI\Microsoft\Boot



I can access the 100MB system partition and see those files sitting there...
bootrec /scanos gives me a identified windows 7 instalation.

bootrec /rebuildbcd returns an error stating " the requested system device cannot be found "

 

[rory4ever]

UPDATE:



Apparently the last step I needed to take was to make sure the Win7 installation USB, created with Rufus, needed to be GPT (EFI), and it was MBR before, hence the weird stuff going on.

So in short, the solution was to delete all partition except the data(windows+programs) partition, create 1 new EFI partition of 100mb (formatted as FAT32), 1 recovery partition of 128MB and copy the bootfiles using bootsect to the EFI boot partition. After that it still didn't work but after creating the correct Windows 7 repair USB, the repair utility already stated that there were some errors with my Windows 7 installation when it was scanning for Windows installations. I clicked on "repair" and after that my problem was solved. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Snick]

rory4ever

Thank you for posting your solution!

Happy Computing!

 

[SIW2]

UPDATE:



Apparently the last step I needed to take was to make sure the Win7 installation USB, created with Rufus, needed to be GPT (EFI), and it was MBR before, hence the weird stuff going on.

So in short, the solution was to delete all partition except the data(windows+programs) partition, create 1 new EFI partition of 100mb (formatted as FAT32), 1 recovery partition of 128MB and copy the bootfiles using bootsect to the EFI boot partition. After that it still didn't work but after creating the correct Windows 7 repair USB, the repair utility already stated that there were some errors with my Windows 7 installation when it was scanning for Windows installations. I clicked on "repair" and after that my problem was solved. Thanks everyone for the help.

Yep


Windows 7 doesn't boot anymore.

Try booting win7 repair/installation media in efi mode, then run startup repair .

Glad it is fixed