Windows 7 from Vista, now boot problem

[antiparadigm]

I recently got windows 7 so that I could do away with vista on my computer, (got tired of having to use 2gb of ram just to Idle) and I can't boot. Here is what Happened:

I already had WinVista installed and wanted to upgrade to Windows 7(x64) but out of caution I dualbooted Win7 and Vista on two separate hard drives. after getting all of my info over to windows 7 I decided to get rid of vista. I looked at several things on the internet that said the easiest way to get rid of it (in hind sight was a mistake) was to wipe the hard drive. That worked to get rid of vista, but I think that it wiped out my windows 7 boot file, because now I can't boot. When loading it says something like "cannot load boot file or disk i/o error".

I tried inserting the CD and reinstalling win7, but I don't want to overwrite all of my files, and it wont let me repair anything. It shows the hard drive and all of my files, but acts as if Windows 7 is not there... Any help please!

 

[antiparadigm]

I looked at several things on the internet that said the easiest way to get rid of it (in hind sight was a mistake) was to wipe the hard drive. That worked to get rid of vista, but I think that it wiped out my windows 7 boot file, because now I can't boot.

(just for clarity, I wiped only the harddrive with vista on it. Win7 was fully installed on a completely separate partition on a separate harddrive.)

 

[natekolvek]

I would say the bootloader is damaged. If you still had a valid install I would have suggested using EasyBCD to rebuild the bootloader but now youll have to run a repair on the OS.

for future refrence, you can dual boot off the same drive on separate partitions. upgrading to win7 on the same partition will move contents of old install (entire drive actually) to a folder in your c: called Windows.old (smart move on MS part this time). If you run the repair you wont lose your current install but fix the bootloader.

 

[surfasb]

You'll probably have to copy over the necessary bootfiles. They are in the boot folder on the Win 7 disk.