Windows 7 HELP!!!! C drive not accessiable

wt.pm

Senior Member
Last night I was surfing, when I lost my internet connection, so I opened my network folder and my homegroup had changed from home to work. So I was attempting to find the place to change it back, (which I never did). Anyway all of a sudden everything I tried to open stopped responding. So I tried to use the troubleshooter, it would not start. Then I decided to do a system restore, I got a message that the C drive was not accessiable. I also use Avenquest Fix-it, which does a more indepth restore, it gave me the same message about the C drive. I went to "MY Computer", C drive was listed, but did not show the size information. I clicked on it, got the same **** message. I grabbed my restore disk, I made when I installed 7, it said that it could not find the OS. I got the original install disk, and tried to do a repair. It said that there were no System Restore points on C. Which I have allocated 10% of the drive for these, and do a restore point at least once a day, and every time before, and immediately after I make any changes, such as installing a new program etc... I then booted to XP, it also said that the drive with 7 was not accessiable. I can boot to 7, I have access to any OS related folder, such as Control Panel, the Network folder, Help and Support, however none of the links inside any of these folders work, (H&S "service not available", troubleshooter, user accts. admin prog. "service not available"). I was just surfing the internet, no other programs were running, except Avast Antivirus, which it did not show a pop-up that it detected a virus.
What happened, and how do I fix it, short of reinstalling?
 
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Hello,

I would think that your best bet would be is to perform a System Restore to a date prior to the problem.
 
Reghker you must sit in front of your pc, 24/7, no matter what time of the day or night I post you are always the first to answer lol.

The problem is that from inside the OS, Restore will not start. If I use the install disk to restore it says that there are no restore points saved, even though I know there is. So I can not do a restore.
 
Reghker you must sit in front of your pc, 24/7, no matter what time of the day or night I post you are always the first to answer lol.

Yes I do and my girlfriend is really getting pissed off. Luckily she works two jobs:)

I won't be posting as much in the summertime as I love being outdoors, going to the beach and car shows.

Try going to Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc

Let us know the partitioning scheme, such as System, Boot, pagefile, etc.
 
Of course it is dual boot with 7 primary. Check the attachments, I tried to include everything I could think of that might help, and let me know if you need anything else.
 
I'll take these one at a time.

Feel free to post back as I'm looking these over.

Obviously I totally missed something here. Are you using Windows 7 homegroup to connect to the XP machine? If so, Windows 7 can only connect through Homegroup with other Windows 7 PC's only, no other OS.

Do a search on your computer for msconfig.exe.

If found, move it the the c:\windows\system32 folder

Msconfig.exe is located in a different directory than Windows 7. (the system32 directory as I pointed out above) Are you running these tests while in Windows 7?

If you find it, go to Start > Run, and type msconfig, click the Startup tab and uncheck everything temporarily

see if these files exist in the system32 directory also:
msdt.exe
conhost.exe
spoolsv.exe.

No go to Start > Run, and type services.msc

Scroll down to Print Server and make sure it's set to Automatic and that it's current

also go to Start > Run, and type eventvr.exe, expand until you see Windows Logs, then System >look for entries marked critical or error. they should be at the top of the list,. Post back with the EventID

check the attachment. i have never seen this before. It's saying Local Disk C, yet it has a drive letter of D.

And there is no Boot partition which leads me to believe then is a 100MB partition with no drive letter when Windows boots from.

Did you change your pagefile to the D: partition?

or just explain which OS is on what partition.

In your last document I need the event ID.
 
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check the attachment. i have never seen this before. It's saying Local Disk C, yet it has a drive letter of D.

And there is no Boot partition which leads me to believe then is a 100MB partition with no drive letter when Windows boots from.

Ok this is simple even though it looks complicated, XP was located on "Drive C", when I partitioned, and installed 7, it defaulted to being on the "C" drive, and added a "D" to the end of the drive name. In xp 7 is listed as being on drive "D". Each OS consideres itself to be the primary, which is always located on the C drive, so it places the other on D. I did not change either primary label because I figured the OS would try to locate all system files on C, and if the actual path was on D, it would not be able to find them. I also figured why would it matter if 7 called xp drive D, as long as when I booted into xp, it considered itself to be on C.

Did you change your pagefile to the D: partition?

No I left everything as it was installed.

Obviously I totally missed something here. Are you using Windows 7 homegroup to connect to the XP machine? If so, Windows 7 can only connect through Homegroup with other Windows 7 PC's only, no other OS.[\quote]

That is what I was trying to do, so How do I connect to my son's pc? (Different pc, not the same one). As I our external hard drive is attached to his computer, I use it not only for certain files, but mainely for backups, and full disk copies, so I can just recopy if needed.

Do a search on your computer for msconfig.exe.

If found, move it the the c:\windows\system32 folder
see if these files exist in the system32 directory also:
msdt.exe
conhost.exe
spoolsv.exe.

No go to Start > Run, and type services.msc

Scroll down to Print Server and make sure it's set to Automatic and that it's current

Unable to access drive.

As far as the other, I'll have to boot back into 7 to try this, and I am in the middle of something right now, so I'll get back to you ASAP
 
Booted back into 7, msconfig, msdt, conhost, spoolsv, services.msc, all got the unable to access drive, or unable to start error. Opened control panel, unable to open any other folder to find event id. It keeps getting worse.
 
If you can access the command prompt............

Hit the Window key +R, and type cmd

Now type sfc /verifyonly
 
I click on run, and no matter what I enter, I get an error msg. I have about decided that I am going to have to Do a fresh install (*&#$%*#@&#*$&#@^#*$)(@#_@*&$). I just spent 3 1/2 weeks installing programs, and hardware drivers, and personalizing.
 
Can not access command prompt, however I pulled up the task manager, clicked on the Services tab, and over half the services are stopped, and will not start. I wonder, if this is a cause or an effect. I also wonder what can be done to get them to restart.


BTW: you don't know how much I appreciate your help!! Tell your girlfriend that she can have you back when you have finished giving me what I need. lol
Don't feel bad my wife is getting jealous too.
 
Yeah,

It's seems we've covered all bases.

I've had to do the same thing ever time I downloaded a newer build. I got used to keeping a list of all my programs that I wanted to re-install and saved the zip files to another location.

HAHAHA, she' out with the girls, that's why I'm hanging around.;)
 
I had enough sense to keep all the downloaded program files on a dvd, so that will just be popping it in, and spending several hours reinstalling. I just wish I had, had the sense to backup my system files onto a dvd. 7 won't let me backup to a local disk, and I have not been able to find a way to network with the external HD, on the other pc running xp.

Well, I guess you can call this thread closed, as I am now going to go to bed and then tomorrow I will format and reinstall.
 
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