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[brainwaves]

So, I tried to use the Win 7 System Repair disk.  Selected I wanted to repair and restart.

When it restarted, it tried to access the HDD first; and got the Bootmgr missing error again.

So I tried to use the Win 7 System Repair disk again; and it spun for a while on "Attempting Repairs", and then came back with:

Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically

Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline

Event 1: 6.1.7600.16385

Event 2: 6.1.7600.16385

Event 3: unknown

Event 4: 687

Event 5: ExternalMedia

Event 6: 1

Event 7: NoRootCause

Not very helpful...

[Brian_K]

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brainwaves wrote:

Or just trying the restore of the SRP then Win 7 (like the closest thing I had to working.)?

 

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Yes. Keep your backup images. They are OK. Restore both to unallocated space as you did before.

[brainwaves]

Okay, getting warmer.

I followed this article on startup can't automatically repair startup  issue:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/startup-repair-cannot-repair-start...

Specifically, I ran the three bootrec.exe commands (successfully), like they recommended.  (fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd)

I then kept on following those suggestions, and I was able to start from the Win 7 System Recovery Disk a few times, and kept trying Startup Repair.  On the third time, lo and behold, I got a no issues found.

I rebooted, and crap, still Bootmgr is missing error.

I shutdown, and went to put in the Win 7 System Recovery disk again, and missed the boot screen.  To my dismay; Windows started!  I was able to log in, and look around, and things looked good.  Only one partition in CompMgmt, which is my C drive, and is marked as System, Active, Boot, Pagefile, Crash Dump and Primary Partition.  I looked around, and spot checking files looked good.  Spot tested a few programs, and things looked good.

Then, the dreaded automatic driver update.  This time, instead of failing, it successfully found/loaded the driver (happened automatically, I didn't have a choice.)  Still kept looking around before the reboot; and it still looked fine.

Shutdown, removed Win 7 Repair disc from DVD drive, rebooted, and crap.  Bootmgr error again.  Tried ctl-alt-del several times, and always got the error.  Verified BIOS boot sequence was HDD, then DVD.  Put the Win 7 System Repair disc in again, and for some reason, the system booted again.

So, the weird thing now is, why is Windows booting fine ONLY (it seems) if the Win 7 System Repair disc is in the DVD drive?  Since the BIOS is set to start from HDD first (and it's recognizing the 750GB HD in the BIOS); it shouldn't ever even hit the CD.  Things that make you go hmmm.  I'm going to re-run the System Repair a couple more times and see what happens.  Will do some more testing to verify my claims above (that it only works when System Repair is in the drive.  Sure seems like that is what is happening right now.; but doesn't make sense to me.) 

Edit: Tested it several times now, and it's definitely working (windows is booting) when the Win 7 System Repair disc is in the DVD drive.  Weird.

I thought I could make it better, and tried to run the System Repair again from the Win 7 System Repair disc; and it said no problems were detected.  However, now I always get the Bootmgr is missing error; regardless if the Win 7 System Repair disc is in.  I'm going to try those 3 bootrec commands again.  If not, I'm going to look for, and try, other articles on fixing the bootmgr error...

Any assistance appreciated.

[brainwaves]

Okay, I tried using the bootsect command from here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

did:

bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr    and tried

bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr

both commands seemed to execute, so then I ran System Repair afterwards; detected no issues.

However, it's still giving me the bootmgr issue; now it's happening regardless if I have the win 7 sys repair disc in the drive or not.

I then tried to rebuild the BCD like it shows here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/automated-startup-repair-fails-can...

Specifically:

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd
Then ran:

bootrec /fixmbr

then

bootrec /fixboot

I was hopeful here; as when I did the bootrec /rebuildbcd; it detected my c:\windows and asked if I wanted to add it.

Tried to reboot, and still getting bootmgr missing error.

Tried the system repair disc again, and it detected errors again.  Ran it a few times (the second and subsequent times, it said "Startup Repair could not detect a problem")

Unfortunately, it's still giving me bootmgr errors if I don't have my win 7 sys repair disc in the dvd drive; but now it's back to starting up Windows (and looking like it's fine) if I keep the win 7 sys repair disc in the dvd drive.  I might just run like this for a bit until I can figure out how to fix this for good...

Edit: Unfortunately, this only worked once.  I'm now back to bootmgr is missing errors; whether or not my win7 sys repair disc is in the drive...

Again, any help appreciated.

[DaveH]

Put the CD in the drive again and try to boot windows.  If it doesn't work power down the system and unplug it a couple minutes and try it again.

Next time your in windows, go into the Ghost\Utilities folder and run partinfo.exe.

It will create a text file in that folder called partinfo.txt

Please attach it to a post here using the attachment button below the text input box.

Thanks

Dave

Edit- while your at it. next time in windows also please take a screen shot of disk management.  Save it to your system as a JPEG and then upload that using the little button that looks like a picture of a tree.

[DaveH]

Also, when you say that the BIOS boot sequence is set to HDD and then DVD

HDD what?

Please verify it is not HDD0 with your drive is plugged into HDD1

It should be HDD0 and your new drive should be plugged into SATA port 1

Did you by chance not really swap the drives but installed the second one alongside the first and just unpluged the old one?

Dave

[brainwaves]

Dave,

Thanks for the help.  I'll get you the info as soon as I can; but it will be a bit.  Working on this has put me behind at work; and now I just put the original drive back in, and will run with that to catch up.  Will work on the new hard drive again when I can.  (and right now, I'm not able to get into windows anymore.  It only happened the one time; so I'll need to try that same thing again; remove and rebuild bcd, run several system repairs; and try to boot with the win 7 sys repair disc in the drive.

As for your second post.  I'm working on a laptop, so there is always only one drive in the system.

I have the original drive in, and I used ghost and/or Windows backup to make an image to an external drive (FW or USB)

I then pull out the original drive, and put in the new/larger drive

I then bootup into ghost SRD, clean the new drive with diskpart

and then attempt the restore with the new drive as the internal drive and the backup still on an external drive (FW or USB)

 Also, as for the HDD comment; I'm just talking about the boot sequence in the BIOS.  I've tried multiple combinations:

HDD - boots internal hd first; have seen that windows works intermittently when win 7 sys repair disc is in CD/DVD drive

CD/DVD - boots win 7 sys repair menu when it's first (or when I select it using F12), which is what I'd expect

USB - doesn't have any effect, which is what I'd expect, as I'm not trying to boot from a USB device.

I've tried multiple combinations and permutations (mainly because I don't understand why I sometimes get into windows when booting from HDD, and win 7 sys repair disc is in the DVD drive...)  Just stabbing in the dark at this point...

[brainwaves]

Hey Guys,

I'm back at it.  I tried numerous times to be able to be able to get back into the OS, to no avail.  Tried to rebuild the bcd and mbr, run the windows repair multiple times,  and such around five times, but could never get back into windows.

So, I'm starting again.  Am getting a new backup tonight, and will try the restore again tomorrow.  Do you guys recommend I do the remove system partition option (which is what I'd prefer), or try to restore both partitions?

[brainwaves]

Well, the saga continues.  I backed up my system (SRP and Win7), and then used these two links to do the restore:

I used Brian's settings:

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Ghost-15-options-for-recovery/td-p/218202

Following Red's step by step instructions (without using the "restore disk signature" option on Win 7; which is the only difference between Red's and Brian's):

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Ghost-15-on-Windows-7-to-clone-and-replace-Boot...

Everything looked good; the verify after the copy completed, no errors.  However, after starting the restore (saying to verify the recovery point before restore), the verify failed.  So, I'm again back to square one, and am now doing another backup to a different hard drive (and will scan that first hard drive that had errors after this is done...)

I did get the partinfo and disk management images of my original drive though (the one I'm attempting to copy to move to a larger HD), in case that helps.  Not too much to see though; the standard 100MB SRP, and then Win 7.  I'll try to attach them here.

[brainwaves]

Okay, I'm getting really frustrated now.  I made a backup onto a different hard drive, and verified the backup.  Everything looked good.  I then booted onto the Ghost recovery CD, and cleaned off the destination hard drive again (by using diskpart to clean.)  Things looked like they were progressing fine, but then the restore froze at 89%.  (and when I say froze, the computer/ghost is still running, as the time remaining continues to go up, but there is no HD activity at all, and the % stays at 89%.  I let it run overnight, and in the morning, it was still at 89%...)

I cleaned the destination hard drive again, and this time, I tried to restore the two partitions completely separately (rather than the combined method that Red's post shows.)  The SRP restored fine, but the Win7 partition again froze at 89%.

Is there something special that happens at 89%?