Windows 7 Repairing MBR

DonBanettone · Feb 11, 2013

Hi guys

I have the following problem:
I had a Win7 x64 installed on my SSD. Now this week I installed a Win7 on my mothers Pc, sadly the install screwed up. I could not boot her System anymore even the RecoveryCD failed to load. Now thinking I could install her Win7 on my Pc I took out her HDD, hooked it into my Pc, formated it, installed Win7 and put it back. It didn't work on first try but after a bit of fiddling around I got it to work.
I noticed my Pc had now two boot options. I found out the second one was my original install, booted it installed some tool and removed the other option.

Now today I start my Pc and suddendly I can't boot anymore. It displays a boot option in the windows boot manager but does not boot. I tried to fix my mbr with my RecoveryCD but nothing works. If i try "bootrec.exe /rebuildmbr" it dilplays an entry but if I continue it says "Element not fount". I don't know what to do. Is it possible to create an entry that is pointing to the right sector/path/whatever manually?

I hope you can help me. Thanks in advance.

Saltgrass · Feb 11, 2013

Did you leave the other hard drive in your system during the install, and is it still there?

The BCD store holds the info about boot information, which is not on the MBR. If you only have the one drive, a Startup Repair run from the Recovery Environment should repair the install, after running a few times. But a command such as Bootrec /rebuildbcd would be more appropriate for your situation. If you did anything to change the original drive configuration, you should let us know.

Anytime you install or repair an OS, it is always best to remove any unnecessary drives to keep the system from using the wrong drive.

DonBanettone · Feb 11, 2013

Thank's for the quick answer.
During the install on my moms HDD I left all of my drives in (1 SSD, 1HDD and 1 Ext-Usb-HDD)

If I do a "bootrec.exe /scanos" there is one result: "[1] E:\Windows" wich is odd, shouldn't it be C: not E:?. On /fixmbr it says it finishes successfully. On /fixboot and on /rebuildbcd it says "Element not found".

Also why does the System Repair have to run "a few times"?

Saltgrass · Feb 11, 2013

DonBanettone said:
Also why does the System Repair have to run "a few times"?

Because some needed repairs may need a prior repair to succeed. For instance, if something had wiped out or corrupted the BCD store, the repair could not see any installs. Once the BCD store is replaced, the repair can then continue.

Again, remove all unnecessary drives when doing repairs. Can you boot into anything right now, and if so, can you get us a picture of your Disk Management window and make sure all the partitions are labeled. Use the snipping tool to take the picture, then attach using the paperclip on the advanced replies.

DonBanettone · Feb 11, 2013

Ok, now everything works fine again.
I don't know how and I don't know why.

After one restart it said "MBR is missing" then another almost 20 system repair runs it found the right drive and repaired it.

Thank you SaltGrass for helping.

Windows 7 Repairing MBR

DonBanettone

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Saltgrass

Excellent Member

DonBanettone

New Member

Saltgrass

Excellent Member

DonBanettone

New Member

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