Original 7 Install Won't Boot

[croy]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
....[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

 

[SC Tom]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
....[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

Windows 7 creates and uses a relatively small (100Mb or 200MB) partition
that it does not assign a drive letter to. It normally uses this to
hold items it needs to boot from. Delete this partition and Windows 7
is toast unless you do it correctly.

You might find the information at the following link will give you more
information about this hidden boot partition.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...reserved-partition-when-installing-windows-7/

 

[croy]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

If you had "System protection" turned on with your original install, you
can boot from the DVD and have it restore your original install.

Thanks for the reply.

If it isn't on by default, then I didn't. I had just barely
figured out how to get a few of my most-used app's
installed, and a few tweaks that used to be easy in Win2k,
but now require much time to get sorted (for me, anyway).

And I did try Restore from the DVD, a *bunch* of times, but
no cigar.

 

[croy]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

 

[SC Tom]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

Go into BIOS and set your new install drive as the primary boot HDD. That's
what I had to do on my system with mixed PATA(IDE) and SATA. I had made an
image of my IDE boot drive, then restored that image to my new SATA drive,
but when I booted up, it booted to the IDE. I rebooted, went into BIOS, set
my SATA as the first boot HDD, and all is well. I've since formatted my IDE
and use it for data storage. (I use Acronis TI 2010 Home, and love it, BTW!)
I guess I misunderstood your original post. Or am I still missing something?

 

[croy]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

Go into BIOS and set your new install drive as the primary boot HDD. That's
what I had to do on my system with mixed PATA(IDE) and SATA. I had made an
image of my IDE boot drive, then restored that image to my new SATA drive,
but when I booted up, it booted to the IDE. I rebooted, went into BIOS, set
my SATA as the first boot HDD, and all is well. I've since formatted my IDE
and use it for data storage. (I use Acronis TI 2010 Home, and love it, BTW!)
I guess I misunderstood your original post. Or am I still missing something?

Thanks.

I did the BIOS HDD order setting, but the reboot then hung,
er stopped anyway, right after checking the CD drives for
anything bootable. Had to undo that to get back to this
quickie Win7 install.

I think the next try will be to do the BIOS HDD re-order,
then boot to True Image and put my 3-day old image of my
good, working Win7 install on the first partition of the new
Drive0, and see if that will boot. If not, I'll put my old
Win2k image there--I'm pretty sure that will boot.

If you don't hear from me in the next few days, I'm probably
a battlefield casualty.

 

[Peter Foldes]

croy

No it is not

According to #2 as you posted the partition was deleted and is gone. Nothing you can
do.

SC Tom hit it right on the nose and his answer to you in his first post was and is
bang on

--
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?

If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

 

[croy]

croy


No it is not

According to #2 as you posted the partition was deleted and is gone. Nothing you can
do.

SC Tom hit it right on the nose and his answer to you in his first post was and is
bang on

In the quick and dirty Win7 install (same machine) that I'm
using just to try to get the old setup back, that partition
shows up in DiskMgmt as Healthy (Active, Primary Partition).
If I try to look at it with Windows Explorer, it wouldn't
let me in. I've since overwritten it with an image of it I
made a few days ago, and now I can look into that "drive",
and it appears that all the Windows stuff is still there.

I guess it's time to change the drive order in the BIOS and
reinstall from scratch for a third time, and try to get all
the apps and personalizations (which MS has hidden in all
new locations, and tries to block me at every move) back in
place. I guess making disk images doesn't do any good with
Win7. Sigh...

And the partitions on the new drive still aren't what I'd
like them to be. And Gparted shows the whole drive as
unallocated, even tho I'm booted into Win7 on it right now,
typing this late-night message. So If I use Win7's DiskMgmt
to delete a partition so that I can make another one larger,
is it going to go "poof" on me again?

I think I'm getting to the cranky point.

Thanks for replying.

 

[SC Tom]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?


If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

Go into BIOS and set your new install drive as the primary boot HDD.
That's
what I had to do on my system with mixed PATA(IDE) and SATA. I had made an
image of my IDE boot drive, then restored that image to my new SATA drive,
but when I booted up, it booted to the IDE. I rebooted, went into BIOS,
set
my SATA as the first boot HDD, and all is well. I've since formatted my
IDE
and use it for data storage. (I use Acronis TI 2010 Home, and love it,
BTW!)
I guess I misunderstood your original post. Or am I still missing
something?

Thanks.

I did the BIOS HDD order setting, but the reboot then hung,
er stopped anyway, right after checking the CD drives for
anything bootable. Had to undo that to get back to this
quickie Win7 install.

I think the next try will be to do the BIOS HDD re-order,
then boot to True Image and put my 3-day old image of my
good, working Win7 install on the first partition of the new
Drive0, and see if that will boot. If not, I'll put my old
Win2k image there--I'm pretty sure that will boot.

If you don't hear from me in the next few days, I'm probably
a battlefield casualty.

Do this:
Disconnect the ribbon cables to the IDE drives (no need to physically remove
them). Then boot from your ATI CD. Format your large drive, making it all
one partition, then restore your Win7 image to it (you can re-partition it
later, if you want). Remove the ATI boot CD and reboot. It should come right
up into Win7 now.
Once you assure that it's running OK, reboot into BIOS and make sure that
HDD is number 1 in the HDD boot order. Save and exit and boot up again to be
sure it's working. If you want, now you can re-partition your drive. Shut
down, hook your ribbon cables back up, then boot as normal. Now your SATA
should be the primary boot drive and all the others just secondary drives.
Now you can mix and match the drive letters any way you want (other than the
C: partition), if you so desire.
I'm assuming the image is on an external drive? Guess I should have
mentioned that first

 

[croy]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?


If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL. I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

--
croy

Go into BIOS and set your new install drive as the primary boot HDD.
That's
what I had to do on my system with mixed PATA(IDE) and SATA. I had made an
image of my IDE boot drive, then restored that image to my new SATA drive,
but when I booted up, it booted to the IDE. I rebooted, went into BIOS,
set
my SATA as the first boot HDD, and all is well. I've since formatted my
IDE
and use it for data storage. (I use Acronis TI 2010 Home, and love it,
BTW!)
I guess I misunderstood your original post. Or am I still missing
something?

Thanks.

I did the BIOS HDD order setting, but the reboot then hung,
er stopped anyway, right after checking the CD drives for
anything bootable. Had to undo that to get back to this
quickie Win7 install.

I think the next try will be to do the BIOS HDD re-order,
then boot to True Image and put my 3-day old image of my
good, working Win7 install on the first partition of the new
Drive0, and see if that will boot. If not, I'll put my old
Win2k image there--I'm pretty sure that will boot.

If you don't hear from me in the next few days, I'm probably
a battlefield casualty.

Do this:
Disconnect the ribbon cables to the IDE drives (no need to physically remove
them). Then boot from your ATI CD. Format your large drive, making it all
one partition, then restore your Win7 image to it (you can re-partition it
later, if you want). Remove the ATI boot CD and reboot. It should come right
up into Win7 now.
Once you assure that it's running OK, reboot into BIOS and make sure that
HDD is number 1 in the HDD boot order. Save and exit and boot up again to be
sure it's working. If you want, now you can re-partition your drive. Shut
down, hook your ribbon cables back up, then boot as normal. Now your SATA
should be the primary boot drive and all the others just secondary drives.
Now you can mix and match the drive letters any way you want (other than the
C: partition), if you so desire.
I'm assuming the image is on an external drive? Guess I should have
mentioned that first

Thanks for that. I did some of that: I shut down and
unplugged the IDE drives. Booted to GPartEd, just to see if
it would now see the SATA drive partitions, and it did!

I deleted everything except the primary partition that had
my old Win7 install on it, and moved that partition to the
"front" of the drive.

On reboot, got the black screen with the message that
bootmgr (I think) could not be found.

Stuck the Win7 DVD in the drive and booted to it and did a
Repair--still no boot. Booted to the DVD again and did the
repair again (with different result descriptions, which I
failed to write down). Rebooted right into my old Win7
build!

Deleted a logical drive and altered some logical drives,
just to see if Win7 was going to go "poof" on me again, but
it behaved nicely. A few more tweaks, and I'll be back to
where I was about 4 days ago.

I forgot to look at DiskMgmt before I connected the IDE
drives up again. When I look now, one of those drives is
still labeled as drive0, and the new drive is still drive2.
Is that a bad thing?

 

[Char Jackson]

I forgot to look at DiskMgmt before I connected the IDE
drives up again. When I look now, one of those drives is
still labeled as drive0, and the new drive is still drive2.
Is that a bad thing?

Short answer, no. You can ignore it. It's only cosmetic.

Longer answer, if you're picky like me, you can possibly 'fix' it by
moving the physical connections on the motherboard, which may or may
not require you to change the boot order in the BIOS to compensate.

 

[SC Tom]

I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
...[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?


If Entry #2 truly is a 'Deleted Partition', you're pretty much SOL.
I'm
assuming you don't have a viable system backup or image you could use
to
restore that partition?

Entry #2 wasn't touched--it's still there. But because I
installed my new, big, SATA drive while my two older IDEs
were still installed, one of my old drives is still
considered by the BIOS to be Drive0 (now I'm thinking that I
should have removed the other HDDs before installing the big
guy). I had installed Win7 on the second (logical) drive on
the new SATA, which the BIOS considers to be Drive2 (I call
it 3-2TB-2). When Windows 7 boots, 3-2TB-2 becomes drive
C:, and because of a series of reassignments that I did,
Drive0's only partition becomes drive X:.

I was attempting to make 3-2TB-3 larger, but Win7's manager
wouldn't let me do that because 3-2TB-4 was shouldered up
against it and can't be moved (I was able to shrink 4, but
not move it). So I thought I'd simply use the Win7 Dick
Management to delete -4, then enlarge -3. But as soon as I
deleted -4, poof! Win7 shut down like a slaughterhouse
steer. I've been assuming it's because the of drive-letter
shift, making Drive0 the wrong letter... or *something* like
that!

I *do* have an image (made with True-Image 10) of the
partition Win7 is installed on, that I had made a day or two
before this crash. But I couldn't see how that would help,
since I hadn't done anything to that partition at all. The
partition I deleted was "downstream" of the working Windows
partition. Do you think putting that image back on 3-2TB-2
would bring this beast back to life? I was hesitant to try,
because of all the nice little tweaks and installs the I did
in those last two days before the big crash--still hoping to
resuscitate the beast.

What would happen if I disconnected the two old IDE drives,
leaving only the 2-TB SATA, and stick my image from 3-2TB-2
on? If I don't get any guffaws or better ideas, I'll
probably try that.

Any thoughts appreciated ;-l

--
croy

Go into BIOS and set your new install drive as the primary boot HDD.
That's
what I had to do on my system with mixed PATA(IDE) and SATA. I had made
an
image of my IDE boot drive, then restored that image to my new SATA
drive,
but when I booted up, it booted to the IDE. I rebooted, went into BIOS,
set
my SATA as the first boot HDD, and all is well. I've since formatted my
IDE
and use it for data storage. (I use Acronis TI 2010 Home, and love it,
BTW!)
I guess I misunderstood your original post. Or am I still missing
something?


Thanks.

I did the BIOS HDD order setting, but the reboot then hung,
er stopped anyway, right after checking the CD drives for
anything bootable. Had to undo that to get back to this
quickie Win7 install.

I think the next try will be to do the BIOS HDD re-order,
then boot to True Image and put my 3-day old image of my
good, working Win7 install on the first partition of the new
Drive0, and see if that will boot. If not, I'll put my old
Win2k image there--I'm pretty sure that will boot.

If you don't hear from me in the next few days, I'm probably
a battlefield casualty.

Do this:
Disconnect the ribbon cables to the IDE drives (no need to physically
remove
them). Then boot from your ATI CD. Format your large drive, making it all
one partition, then restore your Win7 image to it (you can re-partition it
later, if you want). Remove the ATI boot CD and reboot. It should come
right
up into Win7 now.
Once you assure that it's running OK, reboot into BIOS and make sure that
HDD is number 1 in the HDD boot order. Save and exit and boot up again to
be
sure it's working. If you want, now you can re-partition your drive. Shut
down, hook your ribbon cables back up, then boot as normal. Now your SATA
should be the primary boot drive and all the others just secondary drives.
Now you can mix and match the drive letters any way you want (other than
the
C: partition), if you so desire.
I'm assuming the image is on an external drive? Guess I should have
mentioned that first

Thanks for that. I did some of that: I shut down and
unplugged the IDE drives. Booted to GPartEd, just to see if
it would now see the SATA drive partitions, and it did!

I deleted everything except the primary partition that had
my old Win7 install on it, and moved that partition to the
"front" of the drive.

On reboot, got the black screen with the message that
bootmgr (I think) could not be found.

Stuck the Win7 DVD in the drive and booted to it and did a
Repair--still no boot. Booted to the DVD again and did the
repair again (with different result descriptions, which I
failed to write down). Rebooted right into my old Win7
build!

Deleted a logical drive and altered some logical drives,
just to see if Win7 was going to go "poof" on me again, but
it behaved nicely. A few more tweaks, and I'll be back to
where I was about 4 days ago.

I forgot to look at DiskMgmt before I connected the IDE
drives up again. When I look now, one of those drives is
still labeled as drive0, and the new drive is still drive2.
Is that a bad thing?

No, that's OK. The IDE one is on the first IDE port (port0) while the SATA
drive is on the 3rd SATA port on your MB. Mine was like that with my SATA
boot drive on SATA3, another SATA HDD on SATA2, and my SATA DVD on SATA1 and
it never caused any problems. I had it that way because the video card I had
was so long it covered the SATA0 connector. After I replaced that card with
a newer one, I moved the connectors around to be in sequence. Never saw any
difference in either set up.
Glad it's all working now for you!

 

[R. C. White]

?Hi, Croy.

Remember that a Windows installation always consists of TWO parts.

If we "install" Win7 to the 3rd partition on the second HDD, that partition
is where ALMOST all of Win7 goes. Setup creates the \Windows folder and
puts all the thousands of subfolders and gigabytes of files there. That
partition becomes the "Boot Volume"; look in Disk Management's Status column
for the (Boot) designation. The Boot status must always apply to ONE and
only one volume (primary partition or logical drive).

But no matter where Setup installs Win7, it must always write a few files
into the System Volume (often called the System Partition since it must
always be a primary partition, not a logical drive). This is always the
Active partition on the HDD which is currently designated in the BIOS as the
"boot device". Look in Disk Management's Status column for the (System)
label. The System label also should appear on ONE partition. This
partition's Status should also include Primary and Active labels. No matter
where Win7 is installed, the startup process must always start in the System
Partition, then follow the BCD's guidance to find the Boot Volume and the
\Windows\system32 winload.exe file. Most of the BCD is in the \Boot folder
on this System Partition. (No, the C:\Boot folder is not the "Boot Folder";
that would be C:\Windows, and, yes, the drive letters are variable.
Microsoft's naming crew has been working overtime again, apparently still in
the dark.)

As many writers have remarked, some people might find it strange that we
BOOT from the SYSTEM partition and install the operating SYSTEM files in the
BOOT volume. But those counterintuitive terms are rooted in computer
history and we're not likely to change them now. For the out-of-date
definition of these terms, see KB314470. I've not been able to find a KB
that clarifies these terms for Win7.

A single primary partition can have both System and Boot status. Before
Win7 this was actually the most common arrangement, since most systems had
only a single disk with a single partition. But Win7 introduced the ~100 MB
hidden partition ahead of the traditional Drive C: Boot volume and made that
hidden partition the System Partition, with no drive letter assigned to it.
(This hidden partition does not get created when Win7 is added to a computer
that already has a System Partition; Win7's startup files just get added to
the existing System Partition, as in the past.)

All too often, users install a new Windows onto the second HDD, then remove
(or repartition or reformat) the first HDD, not realizing that, even though
the second disk holds the Boot Volume, it does not have the System
Partition, which is still on the now-missing first disk. The user must
either put the first HDD back in, or create a System Partition on the second
HDD.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail Version 2011 (Build 15.4.3002.0810)) in Win7 Ultimate x64


"croy" wrote in message
I had Win7 up and running, but wanted to resize a partition.
It turns out that the resizing options in Win7 are very
limited. So I deleted an empty partition--and the instant I
did, Win7 rebooted, or tried to anyway. Got a missing
device screen: The boot failed because a required device
....[wasn't there].

Tried umpteen times to repair from the DVD, but no cigar.

Finally reinstalled to another primary drive.

EasyBCD gives me this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: {current}
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: Y:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {16ccf97d-bdbc-11df-b847-beb4f770aa72}
Device: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How do I go about resurrecting #2?