Urgent: Vista 64bit won't boot after creating new partitions

Discussion in 'Acronis Disk Director Suite' started by cyberjorge, Jul 16, 2009.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    I have a new HP TX2Z tablet PC with Vista Home Premium 64bit. I installed Acronis Disk Director, defragmented the drive, restarted the unit, closed and disabled open programs and antivirus. The original partition is as follows:

    C: 287 GB (System) | D: 13 GB (Recovery Installer)

    I re sized C: as follows:

    C: 100 GB (Active,Logical) | D: 13 GB | E: 87 GB (Logical) | F: 100 GB (Extended)

    After committing this, restarting and finishing the process. I get this error:
    "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause."

    When I chose Startup Repair I get:
    "Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is in accesible"

    Please I need some help, I need to use the laptop badly I also don't have backups of my drives.

    Thanks in advance!
     
  2. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    If the above is not a typo then that's the problem. If the PC boots from the first partition then it needs to be a primary partition. Boot your PC from the Disk Director recovery CD and change the partition type from Logical to Primary. Then try the repair from the Vista DVD again.
     
  3. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    K0LO,

    Thanks for your response. Sorry my mistake, C: and E is "Primary" and F: is "Logical".

    I wasn't able to create a recovery disk before I commit the changes. Can I try to install in other unit and create a disk from there and try to recover?

    Thanks!
     
  4. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    Yes, you can create the recovery CD on another computer. An alternative is to log into your account on the Acronis web site (create one and register if you haven't already) and go to the Registered Products link:

    reg prods.PNG reg prods 2.PNG

    Download the Bootable Media ISO and burn it to a CD using your favorite image burning software.
     
  5. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    I was only able to boot using the recovery mode of Acronis Disk Director in Safe Version as I'm getting this error in Full Version "Acronis Disk Director has not found any harddrive". My C:, D: and E: are all Primary and C: also is Active, I can explore my files and it's all intact.

    I tried Recover Partitions but still no luck. What else can I perform in the boot disk to fix this?

    Thanks!
     
  6. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    That's good, so it sounds like the only issue is getting Windows to boot. Your error messages in post #1 indicate that the Master Boot Record (MBR) is OK (since the boot process starts), and the Vista partition's boot record is OK (the error message is produced by Vista's boot manager, bootmgr, so the boot process gets to the correct partition). Probably the pointers in the Vista BCD are incorrect.

    To fix this you need to be able to boot to a Vista recovery environment and repair the BCD. The error message produced by the repair DVD sounds like it cannot access your hard disk, probably because its driver is not included on the Vista DVD. You can try downloading a copy of the driver and copy it to a USB thumb drive, then attempt to load the driver as the DVD boots. Or, an alternative is to look in your PC BIOS for an "IDE Compatibility Mode" setting. If you change the setting the disk will appear as a standard IDE device and the Vista DVD should boot to the repair environment. Changing the setting may also allow the full-mode version of Disk Director to see your disk, but that's a side issue.

    If you can get the Vista DVD to boot then you can either try the Automatic Repair option or you can fix the BCD manually as described in this post. If you use the automatic repair method you may have to run it more than once (since it only fixes one problem at a time).
     
  7. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    K0LO,

    Thanks. I'll try your suggestions, I believe that's the solution I need. If I'm able to get to the Vista repair environment, what commands do I need to use or will it work automatic? I'll let you know how it go.

    Thanks!
     
  8. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    Hi

    I don't have a boot media to repair my Vista installation though I can boot using the HP restore image in my drive D: but it has no option to repair. I'm having trouble finding a Vista Home Premium 64bit DVD.

    The guide on the other thread I believe should be taken before applying the changes. On my case I already applied it and I can no longer repair it.

    If I boot using an Ubuntu livecd which files should I access and what to edit? Why can't HP provide a cheap dvd copy of the OS I paid for!
     
  9. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    The changes can be applied to a broken BCD to repair it. You only need to be able to run bcdedit in order to do the repair, which can be done from a Vista DVD or by other means.

    If you can boot into the HP restore environment, does it offer a means to get to a command prompt? If so, try typing bcdedit to see if it can display the contents of your BCD. If so, you can fix it from there.

    There is also a chance that HP preinstalled the Vista Recovery Environment on your PC. Try rebooting the PC while pressing F8. This will stop bootmgr from automatically trying to boot the default operating system and will display a menu. Look under Advanced Boot Options for an entry Repair your computer. If it's there, then follow the instructions in this article to get to a command prompt where you can run bcdedit. Do not do Steps 3 and 4 in the article; they are inappropriate for your problem.

    If you don't have the Repair your computer entry in the boot manager window and you can't borrow a Vista DVD from someone then you can download an ISO of the repair components by following the link in the above article.

    Unfortunately you can't run bcdedit from Linux, so you need a Windows-based recovery environment to fix the BCD. However, it may be prudent to use Ubuntu Live to copy your important data from the disk just in case something else goes wrong. I agree with your sentiments about having a DVD copy of the OS provided by the computer manufacturer. At a minimum they should furnish a CD with the Vista repair environment.

    Don't give up yet -- once you have the proper tool the repair is simple.
     
  10. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
  11. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    Boot from the recovery disk and go to a command prompt. Enter the command bcdedit and please post the output here.
     
  12. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    Hi K0LO,

    Sorry I didn't notice you were pointing to the same url i followed. Actually i've done every single step at no success. I still get the same error asking me to perform a repair. Now because of deleting the bootmanager, I can no longer access the HP Recovery Manager partition so I can't get support from HP.

    I have resized partitions before inside windows using Partition Magic with no problem and I didn't realize I will this problem in Acronis.
     
  13. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    Windows Boot Manager
    Identifier {bootmgr}
    device partition=C:
    description Windows Boot Manager
    default {default}
    displayorder {default}
    timeout 10

    Windows Boot Loader
    Identifier {default}
    device partition=C:
    path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
    description Windows Vista
    osdevice partition=C:
    systemroot \Windows


    I'm using Home Premium 64bit not sure if system32 folder is valid.
     
  14. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    cyberjorge:

    The problem would have occurred with any partition manager. It is related to how the newer versions of Windows (Vista, Server 2008, and Windows 7) boot. If you change the starting sector of a partition that is referenced in the BCD then you will need to repair the BCD before the OS will boot, unless you have generalized the entries by replacing the partition= pointers with boot per the article linked to in post #6.

    If you can boot from the Recovery CD then we can probably figure out a way to reconstruct the entries for booting to the HP recovery partition, but let's start by getting Vista to boot. Can you post the current contents of the BCD by running bcdedit from a command prompt while booted from the CD?
     
  15. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    Very good. Yes, the folder reference is correct for 64-bit operating systems also (C:\Windows\System32).

    The partition=c: references in bold above would be correct if you were booted into Windows. But when you are booted into the repair DVD, the drive letter may be different. The easiest thing to try at this point is to change the three partition=C: references to boot by entering the following commands:
    Code:
    bcdedit /set {default} device boot <ENTER>
    bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot <ENTER>
    bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot <ENTER>
    bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot <ENTER>
    The fourth entry may not succeed; don't worry if it doesn't -- it can be fixed later. After this, type bcdedit again and you should see:
    Code:
    Windows Boot Manager
    Identifier       {bootmgr}
    device           [B]boot[/B]
    description     Windows Boot Manager
    default           {default}
    displayorder     {default}
    timeout           10
    
    Windows Boot Loader
    Identifier       {default}
    device           [B]boot[/B]
    path             \Windows\system32\winload.exe
    description     Windows Vista
    osdevice        [B]boot[/B]
    systemroot     \Windows
    The reference boot tells Windows to use the Active partition instead of referring to the partition by drive letter. See if this will boot Vista.
     
  16. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    K0LO,

    Sorry for what I said earlier, just got frustrated as I've been trying to fix this all day. Anyway, I got an error using this command:

    bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot <ENTER>
    it says "An error occurred while attempting to reference the specified entry. The system cannot find the specified file."

    And yes the result of bcdedit is just like your example but Vista still won't boot and still throwing the same error.
     
  17. cyberjorge

    cyberjorge Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2009
    Posts:
    10
    Any other suggestions?
     
  18. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,591
    Location:
    State College, Pennsylvania
    Sorry for the delay in responding -- work interfered. I don't immediately see the reason that you can't boot Vista. The BCD looks correct, but remember that we're viewing a display of values that is translated to be interpretable by a human. We can't see the underlying hex GUIDs that identify some of the variables.

    I do have two other suggestions:

    1. Since you can see the files on the Vista partition by exploring them while booted to the Disk Director CD, see if you can confirm that winload.exe is located at C:\Windows\System32\winload.exe. I just had a look on my 64-bit Windows 7 installation and yes, the file is in that location.

    2. Boot from the Vista recovery CD and go to a command prompt. Find the drive letters of your different partitions as seen while booted from the CD. These may differ from what you will see while booted into Vista. Let's assume that you find the Vista partition to be drive E:. Run a disk check to see if there are any file system errors:
    Code:
    chkdsk E: /f
    Substitute the correct drive letter for E: in case yours is different.

    3. Too bad you didn't save a copy of HP's BCD file, but as a last resort can you try the suggestions in this Microsoft article for rebuilding the BCD?
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.