Windows 7 Invalid Partition Table

Tjcrazy

New Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Basically while I was running Windows 7 I wanted to clone my 149GB Hard Drive to a 500GB partition on my 1TB HardDrive, with Ubuntu taking up the other 500GB.

I coulnd'nt clone using Windows tools because I always had an error of some sort. I then tried cloning using various Ubuntu tools on the Live CD - these didnt work either. I then tried dd if= of= command and it copied about 50% before an I/O error.


After the dd failed I tried booting Windows 7. The boot manager gave me 2 options. Win 7 ultimate and win 7 ultimate (recovered) win 7 ultimate never booted, because it was the new-er, half-cloned HD. The other windows loaded but was bugged, had to manually run explorer etc.

I then formatted my newer HD and tried booting from the old HD. I must of done something down the line, because I have all the data etc on the drive but:
Code:
There is no bootloader
diskpart cannot see the volume
bcdedit doesn't work
bootrec /fixbbot says element caanot be found
bootrec /scanos cannot find installations

I then went back into the recovery console and deleted the Windows 7 volume in diskpart - Which I don't think helped.

I load up my Ubuntu Live CD and look at gParted. I am shocked when it says both Hard Drives are 100% un-allocated. I then try sudo fdisk -l which returns:
Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c56bc

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

/dev/sdb = Old 149GB Hard Drive - should contain Windows 7
/dev/sda = New 1000GB Hard Drive - should be empty.

Now I am stuck - I wouldn't mind re-installing Windows 7, but NEED some of the stuff on the Hard Drive.

Maybe a dd would help, but could make things worse?!?!?

Thanks in advanced
 
Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
 
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c56bc
 
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
 
Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
 
Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

/dev/sdb = Old 149GB Hard Drive - should contain Windows 7
/dev/sda = New 1000GB Hard Drive - should be empty.

Now I am stuck - I wouldn't mind re-installing Windows 7, but NEED some of the stuff on the Hard Drive.

Maybe a dd would help, but could make things worse?!?!?

Thanks in advanced

from what i can see here, your partition table is f'ed up
and what you need to do is a manual reconstruction of the partition table

an old tool that i can remember is ranish partition manager which i used back several years ago
but i don't know if it supports the new harddisk and controllers.

link: Link Removed due to 404 Error

alternatively you can reconstruct it in linux using parted/fdisk

good luck!
 
Thanks for the advice. I fixed the corrupted table by using linux's testdisk function. Very usefull!

Now I have the problem when booting into windows:- winload.exe failed to load (0xc000000e). Anyadvice?
 
I coulnd'nt clone using Windows tools because

....Beause windows has no cloaning tools. That's why Acronis True Image is so hot. Norton Ghost may also Clone.. but I'm aftaid to test anything Norton puts their name on.
 
Thanks for the advice. I fixed the corrupted table by using linux's testdisk function. Very usefull!

Now I have the problem when booting into windows:- winload.exe failed to load (0xc000000e). Anyadvice?


I do't give advice but I will comment....

I *think* that message is related to a failure of BCD. It may be reparied by booting to the command prompt from your install cd. Shift + F10

then runing these three commands-- repairs the bootstore

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /rebuildBCD

If you have more than one hard drive in your system you'll need to unplug the ones that do not host your OS. This command looks for the first hard drive in the system, setting boot priority does not have anything to do with this order.
 
I'm so close to fixing it, after spending two full days non-stop working on it.
Windows StartUp Repair on the DVD now says that there are no errors and that the OS should boot.

Now there is no option for me to select an OS, it just boots to Win 7. But I am getting an autochk error (Autochk program not found - skipping autocheck), which reboots my computer.

I have tried all of (Disable Autochk on Startup | Pcman.net) and nothing works.

THis is the last thing getting in my way of a succesfull boot!
 
Problem is, I cannot boot into Safe Mode.

I shall try renaming it using the cmd, but doubt it will do anything. The error says: "Autochk program not found." So I doubt removing it will be make it easier to find!

I just had a though, which I havnt though yet. Maybe the autochk.exe is not there.. If so, how could I get it back? Does the DVD have a copy?
 
Problem is, I cannot boot into Safe Mode.

I shall try renaming it using the cmd, but doubt it will do anything. The error says: \"Autochk program not found.\" So I doubt removing it will be make it easier to find!

I just had a though, which I havnt though yet. Maybe the autochk.exe is not there.. If so, how could I get it back? Does the DVD have a copy?


Isn't autochk calling chkdsk? Here are two ways to turn it off if you can get the system to run

Open a Command Prompt and issue the following command:

chkntfs /d

Here is the way to disable it with Regedit

How do I keep CHKDSK from running on every start up?


Something else to check out
Chkdsk Runs Each Time That You Start Your Computer

and several more solutions here

Link Removed - Invalid URL
 
Back
Top Bottom