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[Brian_K · Accepted solution]

Thanks. I can see your first but not the second screenshot. I just wanted to confirm you didn't have a SRP.

You did well and made only one mistake. But it was a big one and one we see very frequently. You copied into a partition with a drive letter. This is a no-no as Win7 is now trying to load using that incorrect drive letter instead of the C: drive letter. You should have copied into unallocated space.

To fix it you have to make Win7 forget all drive letter assignments. It will then load as C: drive. There are several ways to fix this problem and here is one I wrote last week.

Boot into Safe Mode
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del when you see "Preparing your Desktop"
Click Start Task Manager
Applications tab, New task
Type "regedit" (without the "") and put a tick in Create this task with administrative privileges.
OK
Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Select all values in the right hand pane and press Delete on the keyboard
Yes
Close Registry Editor and Windows Task Manager
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
Click Shutdown
Power on and boot into Win7

All fixed?

[seant]

Awesome. I believe I can follow this. I really appreciate the help!!

[Brian_K]

The above method works in Safe Mode but not from a "normal" Win7 boot. If you do it at Preparing your Desktop from a normal Win7 boot you can't get into Regedit.

You can do it from a Win7 disk but it's a little more complicated.

Boot from the Win7 disk
At the "Install Windows" screen press SHIFT F10 to get a command window
Type "regedit" (without the "") and press Enter
Click to Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Click File, Load Hive
Click the drop down arrow in "Look in"
Browse to C:\Windows\System32\config
Select SYSTEM and click Open
In Key Name type "letter"
OK
Click the + next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the left pane
Click the + next to "letter" in the left pane
Select MountedDevices in the "letter" group
Select all values in the right hand pane and press Delete on the keyboard
Yes
Select "letter" in the left hand pane
Click File, Unload Hive
Yes
Close Registry Editor and the Command Window
Close the "Install Windows" screen
Yes
Remove the Win7 disk and boot into Win7 which will assign drive letters.

[Brian_K]

The following doesn't apply to Seant. It is for those who have a non C: drive OS who get a drive letter issue. Deleting MountedDevices will only fix a C: drive OS.

Works for a non C: drive OS that fails to load
Boot into Safe Mode (doesn't work from main Win7. Can get Command Prompt but not regedit)
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del when you see "Preparing your Desktop"
Click Start Task Manager
Applications tab, New task
Type "cmd" (without the "") and put a tick in Create this task with administrative privileges.
OK
You will see your incorrect drive letter. eg H:\Windows\system 32
Type "regedit" (without the "") and press Enter
OK
Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
In the right hand pane select "\DosDevices\H:" (or whatever incorrect drive letter you have noted)
Right-click \DosDevices\H: and then click Rename
Rename it to \DosDevices\E:   (basically change H to E, assuming your OS should have been E:)
Close Registry Editor, the Command Window and Windows Task Manager
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
Click Shutdown
Power on and boot into Win7

[seant]

WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!!!!

[Brian_K]

Excellent!

[Brian_K]

Another method using tbosdt. I don't expect anyone will be interested in this one. I like it because it can be scripted to run automatically from a flash drive.

TBOSDT
OPEN FS 1: 1 0x01
OPEN REG 2 1:WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
OPEN KEY 3 "" 2
LIST KEYS 3                            
DEL KEY 3 MountedDevices
LIST KEYS 3                             
CLOSE KEY 3  
CLOSE REG 2  
CLOSE FS 1:
EXIT