Help ! Can't get my HD to Boot

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by pratzert, Sep 13, 2016.

  1. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Hi All. I have been trying to get my HD to boot for over a week now.

    It crashed when I updated to Win10 from 7, and then tried to go back to 7.

    I have tried restoring and it did nothing. I have tried numereojus things like making sure the BIOS boot settings are correct, making sure I have the correct partition marked as active, system repairs (100 times), using the Bootrec command many times, Bootedit, sfc /scannow, chkdsk and more.

    Where I am stuck right is that when I try to boot from the drive, I get an error message that says:

    File: \windows\system32\config\system

    System registry is missing or corrupt.

    Status: 0xc000014c

    In spite of everything I've done, I can't get it to boot.

    I've had other error too, Status 0xc0000225, or 0xc00000f, or file \boot\bcd Status 0xc0000034
    I am desperate to recover my files/emails etc and I think I should be able to get the HD to boot but am not having any success yet.

    Any ideas or suggestions ?


    Thanks.
     
  2. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2005
    Posts:
    5,614
    Location:
    Milan and Seoul
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2016
  3. gambla

    gambla Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2007
    Posts:
    166
    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,111
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    pratzert,

    In another thread I suggested you mount your Win7 image as a virtual drive to recover your files. Did it work?
     
  5. chrome_sturmen

    chrome_sturmen Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Posts:
    875
    Location:
    Sverige
    Did you try booting the win 7 disc, choosing repair>advanced>command prompt-
    from command prompt
    CMD> bootrec /scanos
    CMD> bootrec /rebuildbcd
    CMD> bootrec /fixmbr
    CMD> bootrec /fixboot
     
  6. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Thanks Osaban,

    Yes, I tried to start in safe mode and kept looking back to the same error message.
     
  7. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Thanks gambla.

    Do you think I should try each one in the order they are listed, until I try them all or have success.... whichever comes first?

    I tried to D/L Hiren's and when I extracted onto a SUB drive, I could not get the desktop to boot saying the drive (USB) didn't have an operating system on it. But yet, I could see an ISO on the flash drive. I thought it would boot of an ISO image.... no ?
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2016
  8. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Hi BrianK.

    I have to admit my lack of knowledge on this.... I don't know how to mount Win7 image as a virtual drive.

    Not sure where or how to start this or where my Win7 image can be found.

    Thanks for any guidance.
     
  9. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Hi chrome_sturmen,

    Yes, I have tried all of those commands without any success.

    Something that puzzles me, is that the commands say they have completed successfully, but at the same time, state they could not find a windows installation. But when I boot using a Win7 CD, the system restorer options indicates a Windows 7 partition as (C:) OS.

    But when I ran the bootrec commands, they returned a message that there were zero Windows installations identified, but yet, the "operation completed successfully".
     
  10. chrome_sturmen

    chrome_sturmen Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Posts:
    875
    Location:
    Sverige
    If worst comes to worst, you can always take that hard drive and put it in an external enclosure, connect it to another computer and get your data off of it that way - that, or connect the drive as a 2nd hard drive if it's a tower computer and get the data that way

    Or if you don't want to physically change the drive - download hiren's boot cd, then create a bootable usb using Rufus. Hiren's boot cd has a mini-xp environment that should give you access to your files
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2016
  11. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    I have another desktop that is almost the same model at home and I could take the drive out of the one that's not booting and install it on the one at home as a second drive.

    Would the data be readable as documents, emails etc., or will I still need to use some sort of file/data recovery software?

    In the meantime, I found a system restore Image on my data drive and I can ry one more time to recover using the image if it is not corrupted.

    I had created it using the Windows image program and placed it on my second (Data) drive.

    What do you think ? Should I try the image restore or just try to recover the Data by placing the drive in another machine ?
     
  12. chrome_sturmen

    chrome_sturmen Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Posts:
    875
    Location:
    Sverige
    The data on the non-bootable hard drive should be viewable as normal data once you hook it up as a 2nd hard drive, you should be able to browse and find your files - I doubt windows 10 would have erased your data during the upgrade process unless you told it to do so (you didn't). Just because the boot files got hosed doesn't mean the entire contents of the hard drive are gone also.

    Still, even if there was a problem with your data, you'll be in a much better position to recover the files now that you'll be able to access the disk contents
     
  13. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2005
    Posts:
    5,614
    Location:
    Milan and Seoul
    You can also try installing a Linux distro like Puppy Linux which will allow you to look into Windows and recover any data that is visible...
     
  14. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Thanks. Nothing to lose if I remove the drive and install it on my other machine.

    I was going to try to image restore, but I'll try moving the drive first.
     
  15. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Thanks! This will be next on the list after I remove the drive and install it on my other machine.
     
  16. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    How much more damage could trying the image restore do to the drive if it's unsuccessful?
     
  17. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Is there anything "special" I need to do after installing the old corrupted OS HDD in the other desktop?

    After I boot, will the old drive magically appear, or do I need to enter ay disk/partitions commands?

    Thanks again to everyone for the help. I appreciate it!
     
  18. chrome_sturmen

    chrome_sturmen Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Posts:
    875
    Location:
    Sverige
    No you shouldn't need to do anything special, once you connect the 2nd hard drive the OS should detect it and add it to your list of hard drives, where then you should be able to browse it and find your files.

    It's possible but not likely that once you add the hard drive, the motherboard may try to boot to it instead of your original disk in that system - if that happens, just go into the bios and make sure the correct hard disk is selected for boot (not likely to occur though)
     
  19. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    chrome_sturman,

    Thanks for the help.

    I going to try to put the drive in my other system tonight.

    I'll report on my success.

    Regards.
     
  20. chrome_sturmen

    chrome_sturmen Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Posts:
    875
    Location:
    Sverige
  21. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,111
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    pratzert,

    Did you create the Win7 image on a USB external HD? It will be in a root folder called...

    WindowsImageBackup

    You can connect this external HD to another computer and extract files from the Win7 image You can also extract files by installing your HD in another computer as you plan to do tonight.

    After you have recovered your files we should try restoring your image to the original HD in the original computer. It seems an error was made during the previous restore. It should have worked.
     
  22. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    Hi Brian K.

    I actually created an Image on my second HDD I my desktop that I used as Data storage. I figured that if I needed the Image it would be because the drive that had my OS on it was possible trashed, so I saved it on the other drive. It's kinda old (April, 2016), but it's better than losing everything on the drive. I don't know what condition the image may be in, it may be fine, or it may be corrupted...... but Once I see how well I do installing the non-booting drive in my other system, I may put the drive back in the original desktop and try restoring from the image, nothing to lose at that point.

    Thanks !
     
  23. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,111
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    Having the image on a second HD is fine. Do you recall which partitions are on the Win7 HD? Do you have a System Reserved Partition?
     
  24. pratzert

    pratzert Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    Posts:
    409
    I don't recall off hand, but I think it had 4 partitions. Maybe I can look at it when I get it mounted in the other desktop.
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,111
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    Earlier you mentioned you set a partition Active. Which partition? The Win7 partition?
     
  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.