Won't let me delete my old partition.

[Aveyax]

The repair disc isn't being recognized. Either the file is screwed up or it was burned right, but it tells me the same thing even when the boot order is set to the CDROM first. Just says to insert the system disk.

I don't know anyone around here that has Windows 7, I'm not sure how to download my .iso and what is the RTM? I sent a notice to the support staff asking how I could download the .iso from them, but haven't heard anything back yet.

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have a Vista install disk, or access to one?

You can boot into the repair console and run startup repair on WIn7 and Vista until it recovers your ability to boot one or the other.

What you want to do is get a bootable Win7 ISO, burn it to disk using IMgBurn at 4x speed with Verify, then install it from boot using Custom advanced tools to wipe and format the HDD.

If you still get problems, unplug all other drives and install directly to target drive. You can then plug back in and access your other drives via explorer, or boot into legacy OS using BIOS boot order shortcut key.

 

[Aveyax]

I do have my old vista upgrade disc, but when I set priority to boot from disc, it still gives me the disk boot failure error. I don't have access to a repair option anywhere. =\ Getting a hold of a bootable WIndows 7 iso has proven impossible so far and noone I know has Windows 7 yet, at least not around me.

I tried to burn the Windows 7 repair .iso, the 164 MB one and it still gives me the disk boot error.

What I have tried recently was accessing my hard drive itself through a USB HDD Docking Station and manually copy/pasting the BCD and bootmgr files where they should be on the hard drive and even that still isn't working. I thought for sure that would work, but I don't know if I'm doing something wrong.

I really don't want to wait for my Windows 7 backup disc to get here assumingly sometime later this week. =\

 

[SIW2]

BCD should be in D:\Boot.

That is not the same as D:\Windows\Boot.

If you are able to connect another pc running Vista/7 and see the HD on the sick machine, try this:


Replace ? for the drive letter you see for the 7 install from where you are now:


Open an elevated command and type:

cd /d ?:\windows\system32

Then press Enter

bcdboot ?:\windows /s ?:

Then press enter.

Close cmd prompt.

 

[Aveyax]

I do not have any other computers running Vista or 7 to connect to it. Only XP comps. I accessed the HD of my sick computer by putting it in a docking station and accessed it like it was a flash drive.

And BCD is in D:\Boot, not D:\Windows\Boot.

Anyways, for the hell of it, I went ahead and tried it anyways via the XP computer and the docking station and I think I see what you were trying to do, but it tells me that bcdboot isn't a valid win32 application. I assume because the boot process changed between XP and Vista. =\

Dead end after dead end, unfortunately. My only option otherwise it seems is to either haul everything over to a friends house who has Vista and work this out or just wait for my WIndows 7 back up cd to come in the mail and repair it that way, provided it's even recognized. At this point I won't even be surprised. ;_;

Also, out of curiousity, how would I go about just wiping everything and starting clean? I originally had XP installed and used the upgrade to Vista, and then used the upgrade to 7. How do I just wipe it all? Wiping doesn't seem as easy s it was for just XP. =\