Windows 7 restoring windows 7 bootmanager

[lord_doom]

I think I've accidentally deleted the bootmanager for windows 7, and am struggling to restore it.

I recently installed windows 7 on one one of my hard drives (D), while already running windows vista on my other drive (C). Now, everything was was working fine, dual boot was working perfectly, until I decided that I didn't really need vista any more. I tried to format the C drive in windows 7, but it wouldn't let me. So stupidly I booted an ubuntu live CD and formatted it as a blank NTFS partition through the ubuntu partition manager.

Now when I restart the computer, nothing boots. When I boot using the windows 7 disc, it doesn't recognise the windows 7 installation at all in the system repair menu. However, when I use the command line, all the windows directories on drive D (the windows 7 drive) are still there. So is there a file, or something I can copy to the root of that drive to get windows to boot, or am I forced to simply reinstall windows again?

All help would be greatly appreciated

update: I just ran "bootrec /RebuildBcd" in the command prompt, and it recognises a windows installation on drive D, however when I try to add it to the bootlist, it responds "element not found". I'm assuming this is because there isn't a boot list to add it to. Maybe there is some way to generate an empty one?

update 2: I'm getting closer. I discovered you can use bcdedit to generate a new bootlist store. However, I need to be logged on as an admin, and the user generated by the windows 7 boot disc doesn't have the correct permissions. I have no clue as of how to change this though

 

[artriel]

i have the exact same problem and i can get into w7 by leaving the disc in. but i was looking in computer management and the drive that w7 is installed on doesnt show that it has an o/s on it. do you think that may have anything to do with why it wont boot without the disc in it? im trying to figure this out at work instead of actually working and i'll post any progress here. cheers

 

[lord_doom]

I managed to resolve the issue in a very roundabout way last night. I reinstalled windows 7 in a third drive of mine (E) with all the other drives disconnected. Then I went round and deleted anything even vaguely resembling a boot manager on the other two drives, and put the E drive to the top of the boot priorities in my BIOS. Now, when you boot with the CD, it will let you recover both windows 7 partitions.

It's a very long winded way of doing, and now I have 2 windows 7 installations, but I finally got my original windows 7 back, totally untouched by the whole affair.

 

[artriel]

yeah that is a very roundabout way of fixing it but it sounds as though it works. i might try it tonight if i can't find an easier way. i'll keep posting here if i find an easier way of doing it. cheers