Windows 7 boot mgr missing and repair utility doesn't work

red913

New Member
I had Xp on one hard drive. Used Gparted to make a partition. Left the XP partition active and installed 7 on the second partition. I could then only get XP to load. If I booted with the 7 install cd, then it would load. So I tried the repair utility on its cd and that did nothing. I eventually deleted the old partition and combined them so now Windows 7 is the only thing on my hard drive, but the problem still remains...I can only get the OS to load if I use the cd. I've tried the repair utility multiple times. I even tried doing it from the command prompt. It doesn't do anything. What can I do to fix this?
 
Not really a solution here. Delete everything and start from scratch...I don't think so. I want to fix the problem, not start over again.
 
Just tried it and tried to rewrite the bootloader and it didn't work. Is there a certain option I'm supposed to be using in it?

There shouldn't be anything special you have to do.. ;) Bare with me as I'm at work right now.. I didn't forget about ya.. :)

To make this a little bit easier on both of us.. could you outline what happened in point form up to the point where the boot manager went south..
 
  • I was essentially locked out of Windows XP as it required me to activate it and it I wasn't able to
  • I heard about Win 7 and decided to download and install it
  • Used gparted to shrink my only partition and leave unallocated free space to then create a new partition for which Win 7 would be installed on.
  • Installed Win 7 on the new partition with the old one remaining active, new partition was NTFS Primary. Upon the very first restart during the install process(install was completed yet by the way) it was then that I realized the boot mgr was not working correctly as Win XP would automatically load unless I boot from cd.(The windows 7 install cd)
  • That leaves me where I'm at now. Win 7 won't load with out a boot cd.
 
Thanks for doing that.. that gives us more of an idea of what happened.. ;)

So, you've tried "Repairing" Win 7 already right? And that didn't work? The 3rd party apps didn't seem to work either.. Well I hate to say it, but it's starting to look like a reinstall might be the only option.. I realize you want to fix the problem and not start over but sometimes (especially when dealing with BETA/RC software) fixing the problem just isn't possible.. And this is starting to look like one of those times.. So far you've tried everything I would have suggested..

I'll see if my good friend Reghakr has any suggestions that we haven't already tried.. ;) If not, then you might have to start backing up your personal files and reinstall XP and Win 7.. Just give me a sec and I'll see if he can help us out...
 
red913,

You sated you were locked out of XP due to no activation?

When did you install XP?

I agree with Radenight regarding the use of 3rd party utilities for partitioning and formatting. it can be done easily enough using stand built-in Windows tools.

Used gparted to shrink my only partition and leave unallocated free space to then create a new partition for which Win 7 would be installed on.

So you shrank the XP partition, correct? and are you sure you picked the corr3ect partition on install?

Go to Start > Run, and type diskmgmt.msc. tell us what your partitioning scheme looks like......such as all visible partitions and how they are marked. As an example:
System, pagefile, Boot, etc.
 
Well i'm perfectly happy using just Win. 7. No need to put XP back on here. Backing up and reinstalling at this point should be fairly simple and straightforward. Yes, I was locked out of XP due to no activation. Someone gave me a cd and told me it was legit...but then again it was a copied cd. So iono how thats supposed to work. But ok, well I guess I will have to start fresh, format and reinstall. Also, I know I installed on the correct partition because I labeled it Windows7 so there would be no confusion. lol Btw, snipping tool in win7 is good stuff. :DLink Removed due to 404 Error
 
OK,

I see you only have one full partition. Is the C: partition now

I assume the repair disk I see is a DVD? Is it an XP repair disk?

I have some other options, or you can go ahead with the install.

Up to you
 
previous partition was deleted

You are correct, cd. Vista version, not XP. As I do not have any remnants of XP remaining.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for all the help so far. You guys are really awesome!
 
previous partition was deleted

You are correct, cd. Vista version, not XP. As I do not have any remnants of XP remaining.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for all the help so far. You guys are really awesome!

Sorry I wasn't able to help you further..

Reghakr, thanks for stepping in, much appreciated.. :)
 
Back
Top