MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record

karlsnooks said:

Excellent tutorial with easy-to-read snapshots.

A suggestion would be to modify so that people understand that they also do this using a System Repair Disc.

Thank you Karl, that is an excellent suggestion. I will add that option right away.

Your input is appreciated!

Cheers!
Robert

And I thank you. Very quick.

First, I've read through a lot of these posts and I'm sorry if I missed the answer to my questions. Second, I'm glad I found this place. TONS of great and highly informative information here. Thanks to all who put this site together.

My Question (as easy as possible):
I started with Windows Vista 32 bit. I added a dual boot for Ubuntu. Screwed the pooch (not literally) by accident and killed the partition Ubuntu was on. Unable to restore the partition, I recreated it. Did not reinstall Ubuntu as that is what cause my little fiasco to begin with and is an even longer story best served for another forum. :)

Okay, So back to Vista 32bit, no Ubuntu. System of course still wants to dual boot. Not a big deal, I can handle the extra keyboard slam to get to windows.

Down the road, upgraded to Windows 7 32bit to test it out and make sure I was going to like it. Dual boot of course didn't go away.

Recently decided to go to Windows 7 64bit. As expected, dual boot stayed.

Now I want to rid myself of the dual boot option but of course 'msconfig' boot tab only shows Windows 7.

So, if I follow the tutorial at the beginning of this threat and delete the code for Ubuntu, will that cause an issue with booting? I did read that it shouldn't be a problem but I wanted to make sure that my particular situation wasn't far off the beaten path of what had already been said. I hate dealing with my DVD drive simply because it likes to stop responding in the middle of reading discs and I don't have a replacement for it at this time so using the Windows 7 CD to rebuild the boot records would probably result in additional problems.

I'll leave the dual boot and change the boot time to 5 seconds if I have to but I'd rather just get rid of the dual boot all together. If you think there will be a high percentage that I won't have to fuss with the rebuilding the MBR from the Windows 7 CD then I'll take a chance. Otherwise, like I said, I'll just change the boot time to 5 seconds or 0 if that'll work.

Thanks and I eagerly await your replies.

sbus,
Welcome to SevenForums.

Could you help us out and start a fresh thread stating your problem.

Thanks

sbus1976 said:

First, I've read through a lot of these posts and I'm sorry if I missed the answer to my questions. Second, I'm glad I found this place. TONS of great and highly informative information here. Thanks to all who put this site together.

My Question (as easy as possible):
I started with Windows Vista 32 bit. I added a dual boot for Ubuntu. Screwed the pooch (not literally) by accident and killed the partition Ubuntu was on. Unable to restore the partition, I recreated it. Did not reinstall Ubuntu as that is what cause my little fiasco to begin with and is an even longer story best served for another forum. :)

Okay, So back to Vista 32bit, no Ubuntu. System of course still wants to dual boot. Not a big deal, I can handle the extra keyboard slam to get to windows.

Down the road, upgraded to Windows 7 32bit to test it out and make sure I was going to like it. Dual boot of course didn't go away.

Recently decided to go to Windows 7 64bit. As expected, dual boot stayed.

Now I want to rid myself of the dual boot option but of course 'msconfig' boot tab only shows Windows 7.

So, if I follow the tutorial at the beginning of this threat and delete the code for Ubuntu, will that cause an issue with booting? I did read that it shouldn't be a problem but I wanted to make sure that my particular situation wasn't far off the beaten path of what had already been said. I hate dealing with my DVD drive simply because it likes to stop responding in the middle of reading discs and I don't have a replacement for it at this time so using the Windows 7 CD to rebuild the boot records would probably result in additional problems.

I'll leave the dual boot and change the boot time to 5 seconds if I have to but I'd rather just get rid of the dual boot all together. If you think there will be a high percentage that I won't have to fuss with the rebuilding the MBR from the Windows 7 CD then I'll take a chance. Otherwise, like I said, I'll just change the boot time to 5 seconds or 0 if that'll work.

Thanks and I eagerly await your replies.

Hello sbus1976;

Would you clarify something for me? Installing a new OS, ie Windows 7 x32 or x64, should have rewritten the MBR boot code each time. So what "boot manager" is in place now? Did the Ubuntu boot manager (Grub) get installed in the MBR? Is it the Windows 7 boot manager, and what menu choices (dual boot) does the menu offer?

As this tutorial will overwrite the boot code with Windows 7 boot code, it does not seem that is what you need? Can you post a screen shot of your Windows Disk Management drive map?

Cheers
Robert

Excellent suggestion, TeYuMi.

Thank you!

iseeuu -

Thanks for posting this tutorial, it is very straightforward and easy to follow. I am having a problem, however, first a background...
My laptop was dual boot Win7Ultimate and Ubuntu Linux. I decided to remove Linux as I never use it and it was taking up 30GB of space. So I googled on how to do this and followed another website that said to first go into Disk Management in Windows and delete the partitions that have no file system listed. I did this then rebooted and ran from a Windows Vista ISO the fixboot and fixmbr commands. I did not have a Windows 7 ISO handy at the time. When I rebooted, I just got a cursor in the upper left corner - no errors or anything. I then downloaded a Win 7 OEM ISO and ran the repair options in your thread. Everything went through, no errors but when I reboot I still get the cursor that just blinks in the upper left corner and nothing is displayed.
I feel that my data is still safe and there has to be someway to fix the boot record. Any thoughts/suggestions would be helpful .

pinto4598 said:

iseeuu -

Thanks for posting this tutorial, it is very straightforward and easy to follow. I am having a problem, however, first a background...
My laptop was dual boot Win7Ultimate and Ubuntu Linux. I decided to remove Linux as I never use it and it was taking up 30GB of space. So I googled on how to do this and followed another website that said to first go into Disk Management in Windows and delete the partitions that have no file system listed. I did this then rebooted and ran from a Windows Vista ISO the fixboot and fixmbr commands. I did not have a Windows 7 ISO handy at the time. When I rebooted, I just got a cursor in the upper left corner - no errors or anything. I then downloaded a Win 7 OEM ISO and ran the repair options in your thread. Everything went through, no errors but when I reboot I still get the cursor that just blinks in the upper left corner and nothing is displayed.
I feel that my data is still safe and there has to be someway to fix the boot record. Any thoughts/suggestions would be helpful .

Hello pinto4598 and welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

If the commands you executed were successful in restoring the Windows Seven boot manager, then possibly it cannot find the "Active" partition with the proper boot code? What partitions does "Diskpart" display? Which partition is marked "Active"?

If you cannot resolve the issue with "Dsikpart", a temporary solution is to restore the Grub bootloader using the "Live" Ubuntu CD:
Fixed Windows - But Now Grub is Gone?

Once you have restored the boot manager, you should be able to boot into Windows again and post a screen shot of your disk management hard drive map?

You can also use the Ubuntu "Live" CD and the program "GParted" to take a screen shot in Ubuntu, then log in to Seven Forums with FireFox to post the screen shot. With the additional information, we may be able to offer other suggestions.

Cheers!
Robert

Very definitive and helpful guide! Great thanks!