Windows 7, "Repair your computer" F8 boot option not working (SOLVED)
Jordan:
Your PC won't have a C:\Recovery folder because the recovery components are located on an OEM recovery partition. You will find this folder on the second partition, which is currently hidden but can be seen in Windows Disk Management console. You can use Disk Management to assign a temporary drive letter to the partition so that it can be viewed with Windows Explorer. So, for example, if you assign drive letter D: to the partition you will find the recovery folder at D:\Recovery. Inside that folder you should be able to locate the recovery image at D:\Recovery\WindowsRE\WinRE.wim.
I don't see anything wrong with your BCD, so if the recovery process cannot be started then there may be something wrong with the files on the recovery partition. One thing that you could try, after assigning a temporary drive letter to the recovery partition is to run chkdsk /R on the partition to look for and correct any file system errors or bad sectors. If that doesn't fix the problem then try contacting the manufacturer of your PC or look on their web site or their user forums to see if they offer any recovery disks to return the PC to factory state. I believe that some, like HP or Dell, offer these.
After you are finished you can use Windows Disk Management to remove the temporary drive letter so that the partition is hidden again.
vi ta:
You have two recovery folders on your PC; one is on an OEM recovery partition and the other is at C:\Recovery. Your BCD is set up to use the one on the C: partition. If you want to use the one provided by your PC manufacturer then enter the following command in an elevated command prompt window:
bcdedit /set {current} recoverysequence {572bcd56-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
Hi Mark:
I did what you told me to do, but when i checked my normal windows mode I still have the virus. And I tried to go on safe mode and safe mode with networking but my laptop just automatically shuts it down and restart and goes back to my normal windows mode. I tried downloading antivirus' from a different pc and used a usb to save it there and plugged it to my infected laptop but when i tried to open it , it won't read the antivirus folder. Help me Please.
Hey Mark:
Actually i found another way to remove the malicious virus, thanks again for your help. Much appreciated :) Keep up the good work. Than You Again! ciao
Hi Mark I am having the same issue I am not sure what to do but here is the bcd attached I took pictures cuase I do not know how to copy and paste into text
Thank you
Kontik:
You have the same issue as the last few posters - the recoverysequence value is incorrect. To fix, enter the following in an elevated command prompt window:
bcdedit /set {current} recoverysequence {45a1406f-5dd2-11e1-a3f8-92e6915fe380}
Thank you for a quick reply, I will try that
I also noticed that somehow my drive changed to D: instead of C:
I am not sure how this happned
Hello
I am glad to find this thread - thought, great someone realy knows somethin about this stuff. Sorry for my english by the way.
I have big mess after instaling and deleting some linux beside windows 7. Now Windows 7 is booting but system repair in F8 menu don't work
I' ve tried understand what is wrong but still I can't, of course i tried system repair from dvd...
Maybe Mark will find some time to help.
Windows 7 x32 pro on partition 2, first is active
Partition ### Typ Size Przesunięcie
------------- ---------------- ------- ------------
Partition 1 Primary 100 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Primary 37 GB 101 MB
Partition 3 Primary 37 GB 37 GB
I am attaching bcdedit /enum all result, list of files form system reserved partition and from c:\boot, c:\recovery.
I don't think something is missing, I guess is a mess in bcd
I don't want to cumber to much, maybe i will mange to do it myself when when i get information what delete, what change etc.
Kontik:
Ignore the drive letter - each Windows system can assign any letter it wants to a partition. Your photos were taken while booted from a recovery CD. When you boot Windows normally the Windows partition will have the C: drive letter.
Kuka:
Same issue - your recoverysequence value is incorrect. Enter the following command in an elevated command prompt window:
bcdedit /set {current} recoverysequence {03a8d877-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836}
Kuka:
Same issue
Genius, it works! Thank you very much.
I have question:
Do I need c:\boot folder? I understand that windows have all it needs to boot on first system reserved partition, isn't it?
My bcd file looks like have to much entries/wrong entries. Which sections/entries can be deleted? Of course I will do bcd backup before
Realy I'am impressed. Sometimes search the web for solutions and I know its hard to find person who realy know what is saying in specyfic subject.
Kuka:
According to your BCD your system is booting from the first partition (system reserved). So if there are duplicate folders on other partitions they can be deleted. But be careful of the drive letter issue - if you boot from a recovery CD or from the "Repair Your Computer" function, the drive letters will be different than when you boot Windows normally. Don't go by drive letters - instead, go by labels or by the files on the partition. In other words, if you boot from a recovery CD the first partition will have the C: drive letter. This is the System Reserved partition that is normally hidden in Windows. Do not delete the C:\boot folder from this partition since that's the one Windows boots from.
Yes, you can delete sections from the BCD that are not needed. The syntax is:
bcdedit /delete {ID}
In your case, all of these are unused entries that can be deleted:
bcdedit /delete {03a8d872-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836}
bcdedit /delete {03a8d873-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836}
bcdedit /delete {03a8d874-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836}
bcdedit /delete {03a8d875-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836}
Also, your Resume from Hibernate entry is incorrect. To fix:
bcdedit /set {current} resumeobject {5225e3ec-bd8f-11e2-a127-806e6f6e6963}
And a few cosmetic issues:
bcdedit /set {5225e3ec-bd8f-11e2-a127-806e6f6e6963} description "Windows Resume Application"
bcdedit /set {03a8d872-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836} description "Windows Recovery Environment"
bcdedit /set {03a8d878-bdf4-11e1-8040-ed5a043f4836} description "Ramdisk Options"
In these last three you can enter any description that you want in your native language if you prefer.
@Mark
Thank you again. After your last post I think I start to get what is what in this file.
I found program Visual BCD Editor - it looks ok.
I have to tell I 've just done experiment - I removed the boot folder from my C: to a pendrive under live linux and after that windows booted normaly and F8 system repair works too. So in my case the first partition is most important.
I don't know is to right or not - when I run bootrec /scanos under system repair promt, it find no windows os
Best regards
Kuka:
I'm not sure what the command "bootrec /scanOS" is looking for when it scans the disk, so I don't know how to explain your result.
Yes, any of the graphical BCD editors will make this task much easier than Microsoft's command-line interface.
Kuka:
I'm not sure what the command "bootrec /scanOS" is looking for when it scans the disk, so I don't know how to explain your result.
It's okay. No important. Onec again thnx
regards
Hi Mark I typed what you said above but system says this:
An error occurred while attempting to reference the specified entry. The system cannot find the file specified.
so I got impatient and
I followed this tutorial on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_BN5PPald8
and now have a new bcd
and now I get this message
I attached the image file
I think it's a ahci sata driver for my SSD that I try to install before this whole failed start started I am not sure how to fix it now
it is a corrupt AHCI Intel Sata driver
in the MOBO I swithed to IDE mod and was able to boot to windows fine, but the minute i switch to AHCI mode to support my ssd drive it wont boot. do you know how to fix that? I would like to run in AHCI mode since I have and SSD but windows wont let me do it.
now after several reboots now even in the IDE mod it gives me the same error as in the above post that included the pictures
system32\drivers\iastorf.sys
Kontik,
Are you able to boot into 'Safe' mode?
Is this a 32 bit or 64 bit system?
Have you redownloaded your motherboard drivers and tried reinstalling them?
Is this link of any help to you? http://www.dkszone.net/fix-windows-vista-to-windows-7-upgrade
Open up registry and check what you see in the following registry keys.
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV (you might have iaStorF)
Check that the 'Start' item is set to 0 (that is zero).
I have 64 bit win 7
I cannot boot to safe mode from my SSD only with win7 cd
yes I was able to change those registry to 0 when I was in windows. and I didnt have iaStorF there instead it was iaStorV which had a 3 instead of 0 so I swiched it to 0. but after all those changes it would crash to blue screen in AHCI mode so I had to switch to IDE.
just for about an 1hr I was able to boot to windows when I switched to IDE mode in Bios
so I tried to update Sata driver, which I got it from gygabite site since I have x58ud3 mobo, once I installed it and after reboot that error message came back agan system32\drivers\iastorf.sys and I cannot boot to windows now even in IDE mode, which previously I was able to.
I am not sure what to do?
I've checked the link that you provided, but I cannot boot to windows I can only boot to safe mode command prompt using win7 cd
Kontik,
What happens when you run the Windows 7 repair CD? Sometimes you have to run it more than once to fix a problem.
Are you running RAID or just straight AHCI?
Some Gigabyte BIOS' have both a Sata AHCI and a AHCI RAID setting, make sure you only have the Sata AHCI selected.
Do you have access to a WinPe 3.0 based Cd/DVD which has a basic Windows GUI and Explorer on it? This would make it much easier to load Windows registry and check the various disk access settings and also to perhaps copy acroos the Sata drivers directly from the Interl website if needed.
If you have a complete disk image available the easisest thing of course would be to recover your last most upto date image.
right now I am running IDE mode because when I switch to raid or ahci windows do not load blue screen and it reboots.
yes in the BIOS I have raid or ahci options but I cannot choose either becuaes windows goes to a blue screen really quick and reboots.
I do not have access to WinPe3.0. I am not sure how to use it at all cuase I am a noob at this. is there a setp by step guide on how to use WinPe3.0?
Mark and Colin B, thanks for helping members with that for the past 5 years. I'm quite impressed.
My computer (Dell Inspiron 1545 - OS Windows 7 Home Premium 32bits) also won't start even on Safety Mode, eventually going to System Recovery Options screen only. Of all options available (startup repair, system restore, system image recovery, windows memory diagnostic and command prompt), the only option that works is command prompt, as for all the others I get messages of "The Startup repair can't repair this computer automatically", or "There aren't restoring points in the system", etc.
Before I managed to open BIOS all that happened when I pressed F2 was that a "Pre-boot System Assessment Build 4118" was loaded. I let it run, and hours later, the result was "No Diagnostic Utility Partition Identified".
I finally managed to open BIOS and ran the Windows 7 original CD, and selected "Repair your computer", when I got the message "this version of System recovery options isn't compatible with the version of windows you are trying to install". What I curiously observed is that the only driver option shown was D:, when all my program files, including Windows, are installed on C:
As nothing could be done, I went back to system repair, now with the Windows CD inserted, and nothing happened again, but at least the diagnosis finally read "no operating system file found on disk", "no OS installed". I wonder it's more likely that driver C: won't boot or be recognized instead of a complete wipe, because I can still access it on the command prompt.
The repair action was "partition table repair". The result "failure", the error code = 0x490
I am now running Norton Bootable recovery Tool from a pen drive, and 90k scanned files (and no viruses) later, I still haven't seen it scanning anything on C:
Any help would be very much appreciated.
@Cristina,
Don't worry about the changed drive letter, when you boot from either an external WinPe or Linux media they will often change the drive letters that you would normally see. If your Nortons Tool has a disk utility on it, run it and see if any of your partitions are marked as active. You will sometimes get the 'no operating system found' message if somehow the disks active flag has been deactivated.
@Kontik,
I will get back to you after I've had a think.
Cristina:
Judging by your screenshot, what is displayed as D: in the recovery environment looks like your Windows operating system. This is where your files should be located. Does the size (60205 MB) look about right for what you call the C: drive?
Drive letters confuse more people than you can imagine. Drive letters are not absolute identifiers of a partition. Each Windows operating system, including a bootable recovery version of Windows, can assign any letter that it chooses to a partition. What is C: in one version of Windows can be D: or anything else in another version of Windows. As an example, if you have a pen drive you can assign any drive letter that you like to the drive on one PC. Plug it into another PC and you can assign it a different drive letter on that PC. Same pen drive, different drive letter. The same is true for an installed version of Windows on a disk partition. Ignore the drive letter - it is meaningless. Only the contents of the partition, the size of the partition, or the label if you have assigned one should be used for identification.
The diagnosis of "partition table repair" sounds like you have a hard disk issue. The command-line tool "Diskpart" can be used to view the size and number of partitions on your disk. Search online for the command syntax. You can also try running chkdsk/R on each partition to check for and correct file system errors and locate bad sectors.
Thanks Mark.
Understood the clarification on the driver letter given by you and Colin.
I had used 'diskpart' before all that and saw my partitions. Should I run chkdsk/R with or without the CD inserted?
And can a hard disk issue be caused by a virus? On the previously referred Norton Bootable recovery Tool (no disk utility on it), no virus was scanned.
Cristina:
It won't matter. Once you boot from the Windows CD, the recovery environment is loaded into RAM and you can remove the CD. But it won't matter if you leave it in or remove it.
At a command prompt window, search for all partitions like this:
c:
DIR
d:
DIR
e:
DIR
Each DIR command will list the contents of the partition. For each partition, do a disk check like this:
chkdsk c: /r
chkdsk d: /r
etc.
As each disk check completes it will list any errors found and any repairs made. You may get lucky and find that the disk check will fix a disk error that is preventing your PC from booting. I suppose that a virus could do damage to a partition table, but it is more likely that you have bad sectors on the disk. You may want to diagnose this by downloading a disk analysis program from the manufacturer of your hard disk (Seagate, Western Digital, etc).
Thanks again. I tried the disk checks, but the result for all of them was "The type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive. Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process, Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the time the system restarts? (Y/N)"
Curiously yesterday before I was able to load BIOS and try the Repair Your Computer option from the Windows 7 CD, I ran DISKPART -> list disk and could see my C:, D: and E: drives. Today after trying the option above and the virus scan, for some reason when I run DISKPART and list disk, what showed was:
Disk Number Status Size Free Din. GPT
Disk 0 _____ Online 298GB 1024kb - -
Disk 1 _____ No media 0B 0B - -
I'm sure one of the partitions I had, with the program files, was quite full, but the other had several giga free, so I'm confused about what "Disk 0" and "Disk 1" are.
I can still type and be led to C: or D: when out of DISKPART and back into X:\windows\system32
However, when I try the disk checks indicated above, the result is "The type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive. Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process, Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the time the system restarts? (Y/N)"
Also, how can I know what the hard disk manufacturer is? It's not in any manual, and on BIOS it simply says "320GB HDD".
Christina:
Disk 0 should be your hard disk. I'm not sure what Disk 1 is; perhaps a removable drive of some kind? SD card? Floppy? DVD?
In DISKPART, try this to see more information:
list disk
select disk 0
list volume
The last command should display more information about the contents of the disk.
I don't understand why you get the "locked" message when running chkdsk. Try adding the /X parameter (forces dismount) to the command:
chkdsk c: /x /r
chkdsk d: /x /r
To find out your disk manufacturer you will need to remove the disk and look on its label. On most laptops there is an access cover to open to gain access to the disk. If you have a manual for the laptop or can download one from Dell it will probably show you how to do this.
Hey Mark! First of all, inspiring to see how many people you have helped in this thread in the past years, and I'm wondering if you can help me too!
I was going to change the sizes of 2 of my partitions, and like when I wanted to do the same on my laptop which has XP, I used Partition Magic. Unluckily I didn't think of that this might been an issue when I launched it on my W7 computer! It crashed on startup, but it must have changed somthing, because when i wanted to boot my computer today, I get the message that BOOTMGR is missing!
So I boot from the W7 DVD, and when i choose repair, and pick my OS, I get this message:"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows."
I don't want to format, so I want to try everything else before doing that!
btw: here is the bcdout, if you need it!
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
default {default}
displayorder {default}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {default}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
locale en-US
recoverysequence {d9512801-bf9f-11e2-a2d3-b40db4bd2214}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {d9512801-bf9f-11e2-a2d3-b40db4bd2214}
device ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\5c5be9e2-99eb-11e2-ad8e-e9627bd7160e\Winre.wim,{d9512802-bf9f-11e2-a2d3-b40db4bd2214}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
locale
osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\5c5be9e2-99eb-11e2-ad8e-e9627bd7160e\Winre.wim,{d9512802-bf9f-11e2-a2d3-b40db4bd2214}
systemroot \windows
winpe Yes
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
Device options
--------------
identifier {d9512802-bf9f-11e2-a2d3-b40db4bd2214}
ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\5c5be9e2-99eb-11e2-ad8e-e9627bd7160e\boot.sdi
Plokkk:
Partition Magic is a very old program and was written long before the newer partitioning standards used in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. It's OK to use on Windows XP systems but not on the newer operating systems.
Try the advice in this article to get around the error message that you see when attempting to use the recovery disk: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/this-…
When you get past this error, try running automatic repair from the W7 DVD. You may need to run it more than once if there are multiple problems because the automatic repair seems to only fix one problem at a time.
I've looked at that specific link before.. but the problem is, I've only got one harddrive!
when i go to boot in BIOS and boot, then boot disk priority, I only have my HDD on 1, and disabled on the next three priorities. On Hard Disk Drives, it also says here that there's one Hard Disk! Kinda stuck!:p
Plokkk:
Is the Windows DVD that you're using the same bit level as your installed operating system (32-bit or 64-bit)? If you ignore the warning can you get to a command prompt?
Your BCD looks correct, so how did you view it if the DVD doesn't work?
Since the BCD is correct, you could have the wrong partition set as active. Do you have a bootable CD tool that lets you check which partition is active and change the active flag? If you can get to a command prompt window with the W7 DVD you can use DISKPART to do this, or you can use PTEDIT32, part of Partition Magic, to view or change the active flag (just don't use it to change the partition layout), or you can use GParted, part of any live Linux CD, or PartedMagic, or dozens of other tools.
I'm using the same DVD as i used when installing(64-bit).
When I get the error message, i just choose the option below "Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier", then cancel, cancel, and I can choose command prompt:)
When I open GParted, the partition the OS is on, is flagged as boot, so it can't be that either!
Pretty stuck here:p
Mark,
In DISKPART, I went as far as list volume, and apparently all partitions are healthy:
Vol number Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
Vol 0 F DVD-ROM 0B None m
Vol 1 C NTFS Partition 100B Healthy
Vol 2 D NTFS Partition 58Gb Healthy
Vol 3 E NTFS Partition 239Gb Healthy
Vol 4 G removable 0B None m
Sorry for my silly question before I run chkdsk c: /x /r as you suggested: what will "dismount" do? Will my data still be safe and untouched?
Mark, you can ignore my last question, as I now ran the disk check, and it went through.
For drive C: everything was apparently fine except for the last line (I'll do my best to accurately translate from Portuguese) "Error on transfering registered messages into the event log with status 50."
What does this mean and how can it be fixed?
Many thanks again
Cristina:
You can ignore the error at the end of chkdsk. The message means that chkdsk tried to write its results to the Windows Event log, which is only available when Windows is running. Since you were running chkdsk from the recovery environment, the event log was not available.
So, I assume that you ran chkdsk on the volumes identified by DISKPART as C:, D:, and E:, and they are all OK, correct? Let's go back to the original symptom. In your original post, reply #424, you say that Windows won't start. Please describe exactly what you see on the screen as the computer boots. Be as detailed as possible.
What happened immediately before this problem occurred? Was any new software installed? Any Windows Updates? Any unusual event?
Plokkk:
Sorry, I couldn't reply yesterday because the forum was down.
Could you go to a command prompt on the Windows 7 DVD and enter these commands:
DISKPART
List Disk
Select Disk 0
List Volume
Please post the results of the last command.
Hi Mark,
Luckily I had recorded the whole startup screen sequence and posted a link on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsVenYnQu5A
It stops in a screen that I have already went past once I figured out the password (before your first email). It took me to the System Recovery Options screen in safety mode. Of all options available (startup repair, system restore, system image recovery, windows memory diagnostic and command prompt), the only option that works is command prompt, as for all the others I get messages of "The Startup repair can't repair this computer automatically", or "There aren't restoring points in the system", etc.
The last thing that happened when the computer was ok is that Norton got a lot of trojans and a dodgy virus disguised as an Adobe update install (which I interrupted before completion). I ran a complete virus scan and Norton said everything was ok, that I just needed to restart my computer. I did, and before it turned off, a couple of windows updates started to install, as it so ordinarily happens. it never came back to life again...
Here.. OS is on vol 2! and don't look at vol 5... that's just there so I could copy the text from cmd;)
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 G CD_ROM CDFS DVD-ROM 3568 MB Healthy
Volume 1 D System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 48 GB Healthy
Volume 3 C Spill NTFS Partition 195 GB Healthy
Volume 4 F Div NTFS Partition 341 GB Healthy
Volume 5 H My Passport NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy
Volume 6 I Removable 0 B No Media
Cristina:
The YouTube video was very helpful. I see that the computer starts to boot properly, so this rules out low-level boot issues or problems with the BCD. Windows almost completes booting when a blue-screen stop error (0x000000F4) occurs.
I am not going to be able to help you diagnose this one. If you search for (0x000000F4 Windows 7) on BING or Google you can find lots of posts about this stop error. From a quick read, these types of errors are usually caused by hardware problems. Most of the posts that I read (quickly) seemed to point to bad RAM as a typical cause. So you could download MemTest and run it on your PC to check your RAM. If you see even one error, then that's the issue. Let it run for an extended period of time before concluding that your RAM is good. If you have more that one RAM module in the PC then try booting the PC with each module alone; one at a time.
If that's not it then a next step would be to contact Dell or to ask for help on one of their user forums.
Plokkk:
Volume 1 on your disk is the system reserved partition - this in the partition that contains Bootmgr and the files needed to boot Windows. This is also the partition that should be set as Active. However, your BCD does not reflect that - the first section of the BCD is looking for Bootmgr on the C: partition. So before changing anything, please confirm the following. The drive letters shown by DISKPART in the recovery environment may differ from what you remember them being when Windows is running normally, so go by the size of each partition. Confirm that I understand this correctly:
Partition 1 (100 MB) is the System Reserved partition (usually not visible in Windows except when using Disk Management console)
Partition 2 (48 GB) does not contain a Windows operating system
Partition 3 (195 GB) is the main Windows 7 partition (label SPILL)
Partition 4 (341 GB) does not contain a Windows operating system
Is this correct? If it is, two changes are needed. First, you need to make partition 1 Active. Second, you need to change the pointer in the first BCD entry to partition D: instead of partition C:
Almost correct... Partition 2 is the one with the OS! So all I need to do is make partition 1 active, and it SHOULD work?:p
diskpart
sel par 1
active
restart, and voila! Dude... I LOVE YOU!(never thought I'd say this to a dude...)
Always thought that i needed to have the partition with the OS as active! No I know that I don't!
Can't tell you how much I appreciate this... If I had'nt got it fixed by tomorrow, I would have had to do an format! I have all the data, but it's so much work to add all programs and personalize it! You saved me for so many hours!
Again, thanks!
Plokkk:
I'm glad that worked but I don't understand the contents of the BCD in your reply #431. It says that the Boot Manager and the OS are on a partition with drive letter C:, which is partition 3 according to the results of DISKPART list volume in reply #441. The drive letters should have been consistent if you obtained both results when booted from the Win 7 DVD, so either you didn't or else you were listing some other BCD. I'm puzzled. But anyway, I'm glad you're back in action.
If you have an installation of Windows 7 containing a hidden 100 MB system reserved partition, then that's the partition the PC boots from. It's set up this way in order to accommodate BitLocker drive encryption. If your main Windows partition is encrypted then the low-level boot process can't interpret encryption, so instead the PC boots from a small, unencrypted partition.
ahh.. I see! When I did the lis vol, I too saw that the letters were wrong! C: has always been my OS, partition, and D: for games(Spill is the Norwegian word for it). Might it have been that when I booted up that time, my external harddrive was in, and that changed something? I don't know, just glad it works now!:)
Plokkk:
Drive letters will be different when booted from the recovery environment. But the way Windows assigns drive letters is as follows. The active partition on the first disk gets C:, then the other primary partitions get D:, E:, and F:, in order of their partition number. So volume 2 should have been assigned C: by the recovery OS since it was the active partition, volume 1 should have been assigned D:, volume 3 should have been assigned E:, and volume 4 F:. Strange.
Now that you have Windows working can you list the BCD from within Windows? From an elevated command prompt:
bcdedit /enum all > %userprofile%\Desktop\bcd.txt
This will copy the command's output to a file bcd.txt and place it on your desktop. I'm just curious to see how the partitions are referenced because the output listed in reply #431 doesn't make sense.
Here... Did the exact same command, except I sent it straight to my external harddrive last time i sent you the bcd, but here you go!
But when I do lis vol now, it's like it has always been! Just that one time I did lis vol and sent it in #441 that volume 2 didn't have C as label! I find it strange as well!
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 F DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 C NTFS Partition 48 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 D Spill NTFS Partition 195 GB Healthy
Volume 4 E Div NTFS Partition 341 GB Healthy
Volume 5 G Removable 0 B No Media
Plokkk:
The drive letters that you see when Windows is running will be different from the ones that you will see when Windows Recovery Environment is running; that's to be expected. Each installation of Windows assigns drive letters to partitions in accordance with a predetermined algorithm, and allows the user to change them at will. So you can have two OS installations refer to the same partition by different drive letters. What was unexpected was the way Windows Recovery Environment assigned its drive letters and the way these partitions were referenced in the BCD.
What you see now from your main Windows 7 OS is consistent. If you look at the first entry "Windows Boot Manager" it references the location of the boot files by partition number (Volume 1) on the disk; not by drive letter (since your main Windows OS does not assign a drive letter to the System Reserved partition). The other boot manager entries all refer to partition C:, as they should.
What originally confused me was that I expected the BCD, when listed from Windows Recovery Environment, to refer to the boot partition by drive letter D: and to the Windows partition by drive letter E:. Instead it referred to both by drive letter C:. That didn't make any sense to me.