Solved Windows 7 HDD won't boot but I'm able to access through W8 SSD

[civiltribe]

After some messing with boot priority, I am able to detect my HDD in the bios but even after disabling every other device and trying to boot to it specifically, I get an error that there is nothing found. I'd figure it's a loose cable but I'm able to access everything on the drive fine through my Windows 8 SSD installation.

Can anyone throw out any suggestions, I know this sounds pretty vague but please help me and feel free to ask any questions.

I've tried clearing CMOS and restoring windows to an earlier point when things were fine and dandy, no luck so far

One thing I can think of is I removed 2 100mg partitions of my current drive? Not quite able to pinpoint something specific I did but I was able to boot to either drive earlier this evening.. upgrading my bios firmware actually resolved a BSOD issue I was having earlier so I've already attempted that

 

[Carl Lawrence]

Please complete/update your pc specs, so we can help you.

 

[Kaktussoft]

exact boot error please

 

[civiltribe]

Intel i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz (4 CPUs) 3.80GHz
Gigabyte-z77x-ud3h Mobo
500gb HDD Windows 7 64bit
128gb SSD Windows 8 64bit
8 GB Ram
GTX 670

When I disable all drives but my 500gb W7 one, I get this message when I attempt to boot
"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device or press a key"

 

[Kaktussoft]

Intel i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz (4 CPUs) 3.80GHz
Gigabyte-z77x-ud3h Mobo
500gb HDD Windows 7 64bit
128gb SSD Windows 8 64bit
8 GB Ram
GTX 670

When I disable all drives but my 500gb W7 one, I get this message when I attempt to boot
"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device or press a key"

Change boot device order to DVD then 500GB disk
Boot into win7 recovery environment http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

Does it see your win7? If so select it. Then enter command prompt
then:

bootrec  /fixmbr
bootrec  /fixboot

Both commands succesfull? Now try boot normally again

 

[Mark Phelps]

... One thing I can think of is I removed 2 100mg partitions of my current drive?

If that is the drive you are using to boot -- your removed the partition containing the boot loader files -- so, of course, it will not boot.

You shouldn't just blindly remove partitions without first determining what's in them and their usage.

 

[Kaktussoft]

please post full blown screenshot of disk management. Can be taken from within win8

 

[civiltribe]

!

Intel i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz (4 CPUs) 3.80GHz
Gigabyte-z77x-ud3h Mobo
500gb HDD Windows 7 64bit
128gb SSD Windows 8 64bit
8 GB Ram
GTX 670

When I disable all drives but my 500gb W7 one, I get this message when I attempt to boot
"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device or press a key"

Change boot device order to DVD then 500GB disk
Boot into win7 recovery environment http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

Does it see your win7? If so select it. Then enter command prompt
then:

bootrec  /fixmbr
bootrec  /fixboot

Both commands succesfull? Now try boot normally again

I love you

Windows 7 HDD working again.. it wasn't detecting Windows 7 in the Startup repair and the bootrec /fixboot command didn't work (bootrec /fixmbr did) but whatever else I did managed to recover my primary operating system so I appreciate your assistance very much.

Now I can get to work today and won't have to do it from Windows 8 SSD

Thank you so much! Surprised how fast and simple it was, I had the W7 startup repair in my list of options to try but you helped guide me in the right direction

Disk management on my W7 shows 2 small partitions, I must have just hid them on this drive somehow but the other one I full blown deleted them when I just wanted to hide them, I need to look into howto do that

 

[Kaktussoft]

I love you

Windows 7 HDD working again.. it wasn't detecting Windows 7 in the Startup repair and the bootrec /fixboot command didn't work (bootrec /fixmbr did) but whatever else I did managed to recover my primary operating system so I appreciate your assistance very much.

Now I can get to work today and won't have to do it from Windows 8 SSD

Thank you so much! Surprised how fast and simple it was, I had the W7 startup repair in my list of options to try but you helped guide me in the right direction

Disk management on my W7 shows 2 small partitions, I must have just hid them on this drive somehow but the other one I full blown deleted them when I just wanted to hide them, I need to look into howto do that

bootrec/fixboot didn't work because win7 wasn't detected (don't know why) so recovery doesn't know what to fix!

bootrec/fixmbr works because he knows what drive you selected to boot from. Did you do more to solve the issue, for example startup repair?

Post screenshot of disk management please

 

[Kaktussoft]

When booted in win7, start an http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

bcdedit/enum all

Post that output as well please

 

[civiltribe]

Yea, I believe it was just start up repair and then it asked me if I wanted to boot to Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit/enum all

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {ae4c7bcf-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
displayorder {current}
{ae4c7bd5-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {ae4c7bd1-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {ae4c7bcf-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
nx OptIn

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {ae4c7bd1-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
device ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\ae4c7bd1-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f4
8a\Winre.wim,{ae4c7bd2-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\ae4c7bd1-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f4
8a\Winre.wim,{ae4c7bd2-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {ae4c7bd5-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
device partition=G:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 8 (recovered)
locale en-GB
osdevice partition=G:
systemroot \Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {ae4c7bd6-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
device ramdisk=[E:]\Recovery\d8a70743-3e47-11e2-889c-ca2bca03a3
3e\Winre.wim,{ae4c7bd7-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
locale
osdevice ramdisk=[E:]\Recovery\d8a70743-3e47-11e2-889c-ca2bca03a3
3e\Winre.wim,{ae4c7bd7-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
systemroot \windows
winpe Yes

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {ae4c7bcf-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}

Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Device options
--------------
identifier {ae4c7bd2-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
description Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\ae4c7bd1-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a\boot.sdi

Device options
--------------
identifier {ae4c7bd7-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
ramdisksdidevice partition=E:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\d8a70743-3e47-11e2-889c-ca2bca03a33e\boot.sdi

C:\Windows\system32>

 

[Kaktussoft]

Was disk 2 system reserved already present when you had the problem? Was is marked active (I don't think so)?
Startup repair marked it active and then it can boot from it

 

[Kaktussoft]

In bcdedit output I see:
identifier {ae4c7bd6-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}
and
identifier {ae4c7bd7-dda1-11e1-9fe7-ee660779f48a}

Have references to E!! I think it's the recovery environment for win8(?) Leave it the way it's now.

 

[civiltribe]

Probably not, I possibly had both the system reserves but they were hidden on W7... when they weren't hidden on W8 I foolishly deleted them and that's around when the problem started .. won't be messing with deleting them again
God bless startup repair and your effort to assist me either way, thanks

 

[Kaktussoft]

Probably not, I possibly had both the system reserves but they were hidden on W7... when they weren't hidden on W8 I foolishly deleted them and that's around when the problem started .. won't be messing with deleting them again
God bless startup repair and your effort to assist me either way, thanks

You didn't delete them!! They are still there as you can see on disk management screenshot

 

[civiltribe]

You didn't delete them!! They are still there as you can see on disk management screenshot

They didn't just recover? I did delete them on W8 SSD but maybe not permanently? and then I'm wondering what caused the issue.. I thought they were just there for containing error information but it seems they're boot related

 

[Kaktussoft]

You didn't delete them!! They are still there as you can see on disk management screenshot

They didn't just recover? I did delete them on W8 SSD but maybe not permanently? and then I'm wondering what caused the issue.. I thought they were just there for containing error information but it seems they're boot related

I didn't make them! win7 startup repair didn't make them!

On which partition did you delete them?

 

[civiltribe]

I deleted them on Windows 8 SSD partition, that disk management is my Windows 7 HDD if it makes any difference
Perhaps it got reset when I restored Windows 8 to an earlier time last night though things still weren't working then.. I tried restoring Windows 7 from start up repair to an earlier date but it didn't seem like it found anything to restore it to.

 

[civiltribe]

I'm starting to wonder if when I messed with EasyBCD that might've caused this conflict. I tried added Windows 8 to it but couldn't get it to load it from the boot menu so I removed the Windows 8 entry and uninstalled the program.

Now that I'm done with work, I tried to boot into Windows 8 and it brought me to a boot menu (this seems to happen every time I load the Windows 7 drive now.. any idea howto disable?) I tried to load Windows 8 from it (it was titled Windows 8 (recovered)) and I received a message about a problem with system32\winload.exe status 0xc0000428
"Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file"

In my Bios Boot Option Priorities I did not see the Windows 8 drive, so I went under HD BBS priorities, set it as the primary and then I was able to see it under Boot Option Priorities (though now I don't see the Windows 7 drive under that list)

So I'm able to boot to both Windows 8 and Windows 7 drives now but the Windows 7 drive gives me that bootloader menu (where the Windows 8 choice in it does not work) mainly I just want to resolve removing this screen

 

[Kaktussoft]

win7 boot disk has a bootmenu. It has win7 and win8 in it. win8's winload.exe has not the expected signature because it's newer. I'll tell you how to remove that entry later