Windows 7 Boot Help

[dhlogic]

I could really use some help. I've been troubleshooting this problem for several hours now and don't know what to do.

I had Windows 7 installed on a laptop. It has one drive. I shrank the volume size and created some free space for Ubuntu. I then made a serious mistake #1 when I was done with Ubuntu. I booted into Windows and deleted the partition it was on, making it allocated space. I then expanded my Windows partition to regain the space.

Upon rebooting the system GRUB wasn't there, but a "grub rescue>" prompt certainly was. Looking for a quick fix I made serious mistake #2, I googled quickly and ran some commands like these that I found in a random youtube video:

set boot=(hd0,msdos6)
set prefix=(hd0,msdos6)/boot/grub
insmod normal
normal

This didn't work for me. So I used a Windows 7 recovery disk. I tried quite a few things:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

and

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

This hasn't worked either. What did happen is the "grub rescue>" prompt went away and I got a bootmgr is missing message. I did some more messing around and now that message is gone, but all my system does is endlessly boot into system recovery.

System recovery finds my Windows 7 operating system, sometimes its on the wrong drive though. D instead of C: My System Reserved partition is assigned a drive letter. DISKPART is sometimes contradictory to what drive System Recovery says my Windows installation is on. I've attempted to remove the drive letter from the System Reserved partition and change the Windows partition back to C:, but the changes never seem to save.

After system recovery tries its automatic attempt to fix, there is a link to run advanced utilities, which brings you to the screen that allows system restore, system image recovery, command prompt, etc. It asks me for my username and password before letting me continue and at the command prompt all my files of my windows installation are there albeit on the wrong drive letter and unbootable.

From DISKPART here is where I stand:

One disk, Disk 0

Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
Volume 0     C   System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy
Volume 1     D                NTFS   Partition     74 GB  Healthy

Partition ####  Type              Size     Offset
--------------  ----------------  -------  -------
Partition 1     Primary            100 MB  1024 KB
Partition 2     Primary             74 GB   101 MB

Detail Volume 0

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : No
Installable            : Yes

Volume Capacity        :   99 MB
Volume Free Space      :   71 MB

Partition 1
Type   : 07
Hidden : No
Active : Yes
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Detail Volume 1

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : No
Installable            : Yes

Volume Capacity        :   74 GB
Volume Free Space      :   35 GB

Partition 2
Type   : 07
Hidden : No
Active : No
Offset in Bytes: 105906176

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[vailr]

One method would involve removing the laptop drive and use a SATA-USB adapter cable to allow repair work using a 2nd machine. You could then make a backup copy of the Windows partition. Replace the drive back in the laptop, boot from a Windows install medium, delete all existing partitions, create a single new partition, format it, and then fresh install Windows.
Note: for future reference, Ubuntu can be made to boot and run from a USB thumb drive, so that the internal Windows drive is left untouched by the grub bootloader.

 

[postmortemIA]

Something to try, it is not pretty or easy. It would been better if you made backup before you made this change
1. Delete system reserved partition, use 3rd party tool to move C: to be on the beginning of the disk as you will have 100MB of empty space at the beginning
2. Clear the restored booloader by deleting Boot directory
3. now try again with Win 7 install disk. Let it try to repair the installation. Don't type commands yourself; rather let it automatically recreate the boot loader entries. It should detect Windows 7 on C: and offer to create bootloader. You will need to run it twice, as once it will restore bootloader entries and in second will recreate the bootoader itself.
No guarantees

 

[ninaholic37]

I then made a serious mistake #1 when I was done with Ubuntu. I booted into Windows and deleted the partition it was on, making it allocated space. I then expanded my Windows partition to regain the space.

I don't see why deleting the Ubuntu partition would mess up your Windows partition?

 

[pcgeek11]

I don't see why deleting the Ubuntu partition would mess up your Windows partition?

It didn't mess up the Windows Partition. GRUB was installed on the MBR and the GRUB Files were on the Linux Partition, the Linux Partition no longer exist.

 

[corkyg]

Have you tried a repair MBR using Windows media?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392

 

[ninaholic37]

It didn't mess up the Windows Partition. GRUB was installed on the MBR and the GRUB Files were on the Linux Partition, the Linux Partition no longer exist.

Grub4Dos installs the files on my first partition. Grub4Dos FTW :biggrin:

 

[dhlogic]

Thanks for the replies. After running CHKDSK it reports this at the end:

failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50

From what I've read, this pretty much means there's no hope. I'm going to transfer my files off onto an external disk and start over!

I'm sure there is a lesson to learn here, but I'm not sure what. What should I have done to regain the space from the unbuntu partition and maintain use of Windows 7 as my primary and only operation system?

 

[postmortemIA]

Thanks for the replies. After running CHKDSK it reports this at the end:

failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50

From what I've read, this pretty much means there's no hope. I'm going to transfer my files off onto an external disk and start over!

I'm sure there is a lesson to learn here, but I'm not sure what. What should I have done to regain the space from the unbuntu partition and maintain use of Windows 7 as my primary and only operation system?

just running the auto repair option from windows 7 DVD disk should have worked. Without typing all these commands.

What Ubuntu did is to 1. inject its bootloader on top of windows own and 2. make Ubuntu partition active.

Windows repair would automatically fix both of these problems.

 

[pcgeek11]

For me I have booted from a Windows 7 DVD and used these commands bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot to restore the Windows boot. Then afterwards from Windows delete the Linux Partitions.

 

[embalmer]

For me I have booted from a Windows 7 DVD and used these commands bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot to restore the Windows boot. Then afterwards from Windows delete the Linux Partitions.

This always worked for me as well. But I use LiLo not Grub.

 

[silicon]

For me I have booted from a Windows 7 DVD and used these commands bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot to restore the Windows boot. Then afterwards from Windows delete the Linux Partitions.

yes this works as I have done it many times. just google for the step by step instructions.

 

[pcgeek11]

This always worked for me as well. But I use LiLo not Grub.

Makes no difference LILO or GRUB...