Unusual boot sequence

Hi all, new to the Forum, hope someone or some people can help. Heres the basics, I have Vista 32 Home Premium Ed installed, when I boot up, first it wont boot without the disc in a drive and secondly I found using Infranview part of the boot sequence on a hard drive thats dieing. I unplugged that drive and Vista fails to boot giving me the NTLDR boot missing or something similiar. Now, my worry is that seeing the weird boot on the dieing drive is unmovable as it can not be seen by normal means..ie its not hidden etc and doesnt show up any other way other than using infranview, how can I fix thi/these issues? I have tried fixing MBR, but problem is that during the repair process it can not find my OS (with the dieing drive disconected) so It fails to go further. When the dieing drive is connected, it finds my OS which incidently IS NOT installed to that dieing drive o-0 So..any fix other than full re-install?
This issue has been driving me crazy for sometime and I have been so busy, I havnt been able to get around to further probing around..HELP!!!

I am slightly Confused...

Do you have 2 HDD 1 with Home Premium the other 1 Dying?

Many Thanks,
Josh

Hi,

Not sure about the relevance of my comments but here goes.

This sounds like something I had once on XP. My system did the same, that is would only successfully boot if my data drive was insterted. I'm not saying you have the same issue I'm just recalling my memeories. As what I had to do was "Wipe all disks" starting with the data ones & finishing with my system. I could not save any information on any drive as each time I re-introduced a drive it re-infected the system.

Once I had completely segregated all drives I confirmed that the issue was isolated to a single drive. I then contacted & offered it to Norton antivirus software house. They refused & stated I was not an authorised supplier of infected items! Therefore my only option was to wipe it too. What a shame!

The point of this story is Norton did not detect it & could not cure it. So I hope my faith in Norton will stand the test of time & they are now equiped for this, if it is the same issue?

So if all antivirus & malware detections fail, you now have one worried man.

I had to wipe all disks & start again from scratch. I hope someone else has better news than me?

Could this be a "Root kit" infection or something?

Please go to Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management and take a screenshot with that window at full size and save and attach it as a .jpg file to your next reply. That should help explain things (I hope).

Thanks and good luck!

Ok, to try and clear this up, I have several HDs, running 5 at the moment, 1 160GB Boot plus prog files, 1 Backup 500GB, 1 160GB full of music and a 80GB full of Pics. The last 160Gb one..thats dying is unused as I took everything of it due to its condition, it failed a few times, then I removed everything from it..except the stuff that I can not see and is not hidden o-0, only way to see this stuff which has files inc called Boot bla bla is by using infranview. I will take screenies of both my HD config and the infranview of the dying drive. Check back shortly. Thanks peeps..brb!



Top one is the problem HD, below shows the rest.

Okay Thank you for this Information can I ask What HDD is Vista Installed on?

Shadowjk said:

Okay Thank you for this Information can I ask What HDD is Vista Installed on?

Click to expand...

OS is Installed on C drive but as you can see..the iffy drive reports it does have boot on it o-0 infran view using browse with here...

Hi,

Firstly thank you for alll the information you ave provided so far.

So just for clarity: -

C = Vista
D= ?
F = Music
G = Dieing "in your terms"
M= backup

Not sure what D is?

Could you explain it please.

Lottiemansion said:

Hi,

Firstly thank you for alll the information you ave provided so far.

So just for clarity: -

C = Vista
D= ?
F = Music
G = Dieing "in your terms"
M= backup

Not sure what D is?

Could you explain it please.

Click to expand...

D is the dieing HD..almost empty apart from said boot stuff in the pic G is the Music HD :-) thankfully backed up int and ext :-)

So,

If you know all the attributes to the disks.

Please clarify all the disk purposes as I tried to do. i.e F = ?

This will totally clear up your situation regarding which drive is doing what & what we should focus on.

OK,

Is the folder "boot" hidden on Drive D or not?

It seems the only boot drive is C:\ even if the D:\ contains some boot files. Are you saying you boot to D:\ when it is installed or do you still boot to C:\ as you should?

If booting to C:\, then go to Disk Management and right click on D:\ drive and see if you can make it not Active. If it should just be a normal drive, it need not be Active and that may resolve the problem (no guarantee - but worth a shot). If after doing this you can't boot (you get a boot error) then try the bootrec procedure or BCDEdit below to fix the problem with Drive C:\.

If that doesn't work, does D:\ contain anything you want to save? If so, can you move what you want to save temporarily to someplace else? Then do a full format of drive D. If you can't do so because it doesn't allow it or because it is booting to that drive, then boot to the Vista Installation Disk and format the drive from the Command Prompt in Recovery Environment options. If you don't have the disk, you can make a bootable Recovery Disk using http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ along with burning software like:http://www.snapfiles.com/get/active-isoburner.html and, of course, a blank CD and do so from the Command Prompt on that disk. I suspect this will resolve the problem. Again, if this causes you to be unable to boot at all, use bootrec or BCDEdit below to repair the boot files on C:\ drive.

If that still doesn't work or if you can't or don't want to format the drive, then try using bootrec to restore the boot files on C:\ drive:

To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows RE. To do this, follow these steps: (you need a Vista Installation Disk to do this)

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when you are prompted.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type Bootrec.exe, and then press ENTER.

Note If rebuilding the BCD does not resolve the startup issue, you can export and delete the BCD, and then run this option again. By doing this, you make sure that the BCD is completely rebuilt. To do this, type the following commands at the Windows RE command prompt:
 bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
 c:
 cd boot
 attrib bcd -s -h -r
 ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
 bootrec /RebuildBcd

If you don't have the disk, try EasyBCD http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 and see if that helps resolve the problem. You may need to use it on Drive D:\ as well to remove any boot entries there (even it Disk Management doesn't indicate it is a boot drive). Pay close attention to the drive identifiers and make sure it is set for Drive 1 and not Drive 0.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

Lottiemansion said:

OK,

Is the folder "boot" hidden on Drive D or not?

Click to expand...

Hi Lottie, yes, the boot info on that drive seems to be hidden as I can not see it, but even with ALL hidden files shown, it still does not appear unless I use Infranview.

Lorien said:

It seems the only boot drive is C:\ even if the D:\ contains some boot files. Are you saying you boot to D:\ when it is installed or do you still boot to C:\ as you should?

If booting to C:\, then go to Disk Management and right click on D:\ drive and see if you can make it not Active. If it should just be a normal drive, it need not be Active and that may resolve the problem (no guarantee - but worth a shot). If after doing this you can't boot (you get a boot error) then try the bootrec procedure or BCDEdit below to fix the problem with Drive C:\.

If that doesn't work, does D:\ contain anything you want to save? If so, can you move what you want to save temporarily to someplace else? Then do a full format of drive D. If you can't do so because it doesn't allow it or because it is booting to that drive, then boot to the Vista Installation Disk and format the drive from the Command Prompt in Recovery Environment options. If you don't have the disk, you can make a bootable Recovery Disk using http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ along with burning software like:http://www.snapfiles.com/get/active-isoburner.html and, of course, a blank CD and do so from the Command Prompt on that disk. I suspect this will resolve the problem. Again, if this causes you to be unable to boot at all, use bootrec or BCDEdit below to repair the boot files on C:\ drive.

If that still doesn't work or if you can't or don't want to format the drive, then try using bootrec to restore the boot files on C:\ drive:

To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows RE. To do this, follow these steps: (you need a Vista Installation Disk to do this)

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when you are prompted.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type Bootrec.exe, and then press ENTER.

Note If rebuilding the BCD does not resolve the startup issue, you can export and delete the BCD, and then run this option again. By doing this, you make sure that the BCD is completely rebuilt. To do this, type the following commands at the Windows RE command prompt:
 bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
 c:
 cd boot
 attrib bcd -s -h -r
 ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
 bootrec /RebuildBcd

If you don't have the disk, try EasyBCD http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 and see if that helps resolve the problem. You may need to use it on Drive D:\ as well to remove any boot entries there (even it Disk Management doesn't indicate it is a boot drive). Pay close attention to the drive identifiers and make sure it is set for Drive 1 and not Drive 0.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

Click to expand...

The boot drive should be C: But upon booting it does use something from the D: drive. If I remove the D: drive, it fails to boot wether the installation disc is in or not. The only things on the D: drive are the Boot things that really shouldnt be there. I have tried bcd edit before with export etc and had no sucess.
I will have ago at formatting D: drive via the Installation disc. I would have got back to you sooner, but had an emergency call out :-( Will let you know how I get on.
B

Lorien said:

If booting to C:\, then go to Disk Management and right click on D:\ drive and see if you can make it not Active. If it should just be a normal drive, it need not be Active and that may resolve the problem (no guarantee - but worth a shot). If after doing this you can't boot (you get a boot error) then try the bootrec procedure or BCDEdit below to fix the problem with Drive C:\.

Click to expand...

Ok, so I made the HD inactive..then upon reboot, fail boot and it booted to Install disk. I then used the repair function and it booted up after the repair. problem still stands as the only thing I notice is that the repair just changed the HD back to active....and therefore can not format it :huh: plus it automatically made my 500GB HD active o-0 So..time to move on with this fix to another level and try using format from Cmd Prompt and attempt a Boot fix for the Boot drive. Back later..

As it stands before reboot and repair.

Hi,

Prior to that drastic action I would unplug all the other drives & just try the repair on the C drive as a stand alone unit.

Have you got a back-up of all the drive & documtent etc?

Lottiemansion said:

Hi,

Prior to that drastic action I would unplug all the other drives & just try the repair on the C drive as a stand alone unit.

Have you got a back-up of all the drive & documtent etc?

Click to expand...

Hi Lottie. i have tried to repair just that drive Boot file..all other HDs unplugged and during the repair sequence, it cannot find my OS. I know for a fact my Vista is on my C: drive but unless I have this other drive plugged in..the one with nothing but a few boot files, I cant boot or see my OS during repair.
As for doing a total reinstall to C: drive..yes...possible, but I have things on their that will need uninstalling first. Wondering if I can get around uninstall by copying across the entire prog Files. Everything else can be moved to other drives without issues.

Just plug in only the other "bad" drive needed to find the OS (and the OS drive) and try to fix the boot files as noted above. It's far less drastic than re-installing. And if you can format that "bad" drive as suggested above, then I see that as also a far less drastic step. But the decision is yours.

Good luck!

Hi,

As for copying installed programs & stuff, no it cannot just be copied across. You need to install the software to get the required registry entries, drivers etc.

Before you wipe any disks as a last resort open explorer & show us your "C" & "D" drives as follows: -

open windows explorer
click on organise
folder & search options
view
select - show hidden folders
untick hide system files & folders, confirm the question, Yes.

This will allow you to see all the hiden files & folders on your drives.

DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING

Now open "D" & Post your findings, do the same for "C".