Ive had dual boot (XP/7) on my rig for a few months now. i havnt used the XP partition in a while, so last night i decided to delete it....not knowing that it would break my MBR (at least i think thats whats going on). the machine will no longer boot. it gets to the "loading operating system", then gives me a missing file error for "hal.dll". ive used the recovery console to restore my MBR and to rebuild the BCD store to no avail. the automatic recovery option of the console isnt succeeding either. i really hope i dont have to reinstall. i spent hours last night uninstalling and deleting old junk to clean up my system (which is why i decided to delete the XP partition). any ideas? im stumped!
boot on your 7 DVD, go into recovery and type fixmbr in the console (I hope I'm not mistaking this with the XP method)
no. its on a separate, 640GB WD black. the drive is partitioned twice. one partition for the OS, the other for everything else.
I would personally disconnect all hard drives except the black and try the restore(s) again. I wouldn't be surprised if windows were to be bitchy about your raid. I'm sure GoodBytes will have a much better idea, though
yes definitely try fixmbr again with only your boot drive attached. this will ensure its not being retarded and trying to write the mbr on your raid array.
This is a complicated issue... it depends on how you initially setup. What OS was installed first. The Boot manager might be from XP or from Win7. And on which partition (0,. 1, 2, 3,... (NOT C:\ D:\, E:\... that's a Windows thing, with no correlation (C:\ might be 0, 1, 2, 3, ...etc)) was each Windows on. And if it's on separate HDD's, as it seams it is.. it's even more complicated, as which drive was 0, 1, 2, 3... and so on... The method I HIGHLY recommend to do, is to install XP First, THEN install Windows 7 as a separate partition, on the same disk. So XP is on C:\, and Win7 on D:\... but when you boot Win7, you will see that WSin7 is on the C:\ partition, and XP on the D:\ partition. By doing the above, you are using Win7 boot manager which is better and more secure than XP's. And when you remove XP.. you have no problem. Removing XP is easy as 1, 2, 3.: Assuming all your personal stuff is out of XP, and ready to removed. In WIn7, open msconfig, go to the Boot tab, select "Windows XP" and hit Delete. Now it's removed from the boot manager, and ready to have the partition deleted, formatted and expended to Win7 partition and you are done. Well too late now.... Try this: -> Have 1 HDD plug-in onto your system, that has Win7 on. -> Boot from Win7 disk, go under repair Windows panel. You will see items like Startup repair and so on.... click on the last one Command Prompt. -> Once it opens enter the following command: bootrec.exe This should show you some "how to use" command. This is just to see that bootrec.exe is found and works. -> Now type: bootrec.exe /FixMBr If that doesn't work, try: bootrec.exe /fixBoot, and if that one still doesn't work, try: bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd If the above doesn't work, it's now time to get out the heavy duty tools... as it means that no Boot Manager exists or is corrupted. Plan B 1- Boot from Win7 disk, go under repair Windows panel. You will see items like Startup repair and so on.... click on the last one Command Prompt. 2- Type: bcdedit /export C:\bdcBACKUP, hit Enter. Now the Boot manager config file is out, if it exists. 3- Type: C:, hit Enter 4- Type: cd boot, hit Enter (enter the hidden Boot folder of Windows 7 boot manager) 5- Type: attrib bcd -s -h -r, hit Enter (Set the folder policy properties so that we can play inside it) 6- Type: ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old (Rename the partition configuration of the boot manager to something else.. so that we can rebuild the whole thing from scratch) 7- Finally, Type bootrec /rebuildbcd, Hit enter. Now WIndows will scan for any installed Windows, and ask you if the one presented is correct. If it is, type y, and Enter. Done, restart and it should work. If not. then you need to re-install Windows. To make your life easier IF YOU ARE RE-INSTALLING WINDOWS, I suggest using 2 partitions. One for Windows and only Windows of 100GB (very safe size), and D:\ For your personal files, and programs. On the properties of each folder in your profile folders, you change there destination to a folder on your D:\ partition. This allows you to avoid the need to backup all your stuff before a format and re-install Windows, if you ever need to. In the case of emergency, where you really need your computer and need to re-install...well you have your programs. While it's best to install your programs and not run them as is for proper functioning, most of them will run without issue, and at least get some level of work done, until you have a bit more time to re-install your software. If you use a USB key memory stick, you can re-install Win7 super fast down to 7min even, all by using Microsoft own tool (except the software to make a disk image ISO out of Win7 disk) See this post I wrote as I explain how to do it (the post also talks about other stuff), it's very easy: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2681396&postcount=3 Oh, and when it comes to re-installing Windows (when it comes up), backup C:\Users\<ACCOUNT NAME>\AppData. A hidden folder which contain all your software configuration. Once everything is installed, overrite the folder (some Windows files included in it, won't be able to be overwritten, that is fine, just skip them), and now all (ok well most, some uses the registry to store their settings) your software will be configured as they where before.. a nice time saving trick. Please keep us posted, and tell us which method worked for you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond goodbytes. the system is now up and running and it looks like everything is back to normal. i had gone through both the /fixmbr and rebuildbcd last night, but neither worked. it must have been due to unplugging the RAID that rebuildbcd worked today. and im glad that you suggested partitioning everything in that specific manner, as thats exactly how i usually run my partitions. i put the OS on its own partition (50GB in my case), and use another partition on the same drive for installing software. my RAID holds all my media, backups and pictures and doesnt get any software installed on it. this was my first experience in dual booting and so i was not aware of how dependent the 2 OS's were on each other. i thought i could just delete one or the other with basically no preparations...live and learn but anyways, the XP partition is gone now and the PC boots with just windows 7. im happy to leave it at that as i only had XP on there to ease my transition over to windows 7. also, im going to start keeping a backup copy of appdata on my RAID to help the next time i break my PC thanks again goodbytes, knuck, and lysol. bit-tech saves the day again
The 2 OS's are not depended. It's the Boot Manager that broke. I THINK this is what happened. XP Boot Manager was used. So when you removed XP... it broke the boot manager. It tried to load itself which doesn't exists. Win7 can't fix it, because it doesn't exists, or can't build it because the RAID configuration you had. As I like to say, keep it simple, and you'll have no problem. If you need to start typing command lines and stuff, or have one OS on a RAID and not the other... just forget it... because you'll cause headache after. You want Linux.. use the Windows installer or do it under Virtual PC. Don't start dual dual boot, where you are most like going to end up with a 2 boot managers that will follow if you pick Linux on the one first one, or some strange stuff like this. Of course, they are ways to fix it, and replacement boot managers and such.. but it can be complicated to remove afterwards, and complicated to install. Do it only when it's a must. Thanks knuck and Wicked_Sludge. Lysol should also get some rep for his good ideas, and the RAID configuration as he suggested.
i did have both OS's on the same drive (the separate WD black, not the RAID) and in their own partitions. but like you said...when i somehow managed to reformat the XP partition, it killed the MBR and hence: no windows 7. at any rate. im just glad i didnt have to reinstall. and i think ill just avoid dual booting from now on +rep all around (thanks for reminding me, i always forget about the rep system )
hmm, so it appears im not quite done. the XP partition (drive D: ) is back, and now has a folder called "$WINDOWS.~BT" in it. im assuming since windows 7 was originally looking in drive D: for the MBR, it has recreated the MBR in the same partition? if thats the case, is it possible for me to merge D: with the partition i use for installing my programs (G: )? or am i stuck with a 100GB partition for my MBR?
It a log folder when Windows 7 upgrade or repair fails. This was probably created when you tried to fix the boot problem. Should be safe to delete, based on Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928901
i wouldnt blame you goodbytes but it worked. the D: partition has been deleted and the system still boots. but now...(it never ends!)...the unallocated space is to the left of both my C: partition (windows) and my G: partition (programs)...and i guess windows disk manager wont let you expand to space on the left of a volume? how do i move the unallocated space to the right so i can expand my C: drive into it? EDIT: nevermind! i used a program called partition wizard to move the unallocated space where it needed to be, then i was able to extend my windows volume and everything is exactly like i wanted it last night before i RUINED EVERYTHING
Ok, Windows disk manager is ULTRA HYPER safe. It doesn't move ANY data. What it need to do is shift your current data on your disk, not only it can't as you are IN Windows, but also, as I said, it doesn't move data. If you have data at the first and last block of your HDD, you can't even create a partition, like if your HDD was full. I don't blame Microsoft for it... they don't want people breaking their systems. And with most manufacture refuse to give the OS disk... this doesn't help. I wish Microsoft forces manufacture to include OS disk... oh well.. What you need is a bootable partition disk manager for this special task. I am afraid I don't know one, as the last time I used was back in Windows 2000.
i used partition wizard (got it HERE). very easy to use GUI and seems pretty capable. glad i found it. you just set up the partitions the way youd like them to be and click "apply". partition wizard restarts your PC and boots itself before windows.
