Solved Registry edit on non-booting hard drive

[Lottiemansion]

OK,

Do a destructive recovery of the "C" drive. This will format "C" only & leave the other drives alone.

It should then recover the "C" drive system back to "Day one" & still be Dual bootable. If not dual booting, repair the boot up.

You will then need to install any Windows updates that are wanted. OK?

 

[wither 3]

So formatting the drive won't affect the master partition table? As I mentioned earlier, when I tried to run the Norton Disc Doctor on the C: partition, it said the MPT was corrupted. I don't know how that jibes with the fact that I can see all the partitions using Easeus and, actually, the operating system itself since I still have the dual boot option but just can't boot into the C:.

 

[Lottiemansion]

Hi,

The recovery should sort it out for you. If not, the boot repair will!

 

[wither 3]

Well, I bit the bullet. I booted the drive and then selected the problem partition and Format. It warned about deleting all files and, when I said OK, it immediately came up and said that it couldn't complete the format. No other messages. I know that Norton said the partiiton table was corrupt but Easeus, Norton System Recovery and the operating system and both drives can see all three partitions.

Lottiemansion- I tried the OEM recovery disc again and I got a message that it didn't have all the files, whatever that means. I'm assuming that is what you're talking about when you say "recovery".

What boot repair could fix the problem? I need details.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lottiemansion]

OK,

That is a bit of bad news.

So, what system, Make model etc. have you got & where did the recovery disk come from?

If you can, let us know what files are missing. OK?

 

[wither 3]

I purchased my system from CyberPowerpc. The recovery disc is one they provided when I bought it. They no longer have any of the discs.

EVGA NVIDIA 780i mobo
MSI N560..... GPU
Intel quad core 2.67 CPU

The drive with the partition problem is a WD 500 Gb.

I have no idea which files are missing. I think I mentioned the one message I got was when I was using a different recovery disc. The file is Install.wim. I just took a look at that disc and it has boot.wim, bcd, bootfix.bin, boot.sdi. When I try to recover from this disc, it says that version of Windows is different than the one installed. I think the problem is that SP1 was never completely uninstalled because it required a reboot to finish and, of course, it wouldn't reboot. In addition, I got this disc from a friend and it may not be a OEM type disc. Since SP1 came out after I bought my system, the OEM disc wouldn't include it.

I tried to manually move all the Windows files on that partition to my good drive but it wouldn't let me move most of the system32 files. I didn't get to syswow64. I don't know if that's because of the Windows security or what. I didn't try to delete any of the Windows files.

When I open Computer Management, Windows reports that the problem partition is healthy, as is the other partitions. It's showing that partition as the primary. I wonder if there's a way to change that and then be able to remove the Windows files.

I was going to try to format the partition using Easeus. Even though I have highlighted that drive, it's asking me for the partition label as if they are separate things. As a result, I didn't try it.

 

[Lottiemansion]

OK,



A lets recap, so far we have: -

1. Your original hard disk is now the spare with the faulty "C" drive.
2. Your recovery disk does not work.
3. Your new drive is SP2 plus others.

I would clone the working system "C" drive over to the the faulty disk "C" partition (Resize as appropriate). Then repair the dual booting of the spare drive.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html

Is that an option?

As for your syswow64 stuff, is this system a 64bit?

 

[wither 3]

thank you for your continued support.

Yes, the system is 64 bit.

We kinda keep getting ahead of ourselves. You steered me to Easeus and I was trying to use that to get rid of the problem.

You didn't say anything about what to put in for the partition label when it asks me. If I can get past that, then I can try either the format or the wipe option in Easeus. If I can get rid of that Windows installation, then I have no problem with attempting to repartition the drive. If I can't get rid of it, then repartitioning is going to just move the problem Windows installation to another partition.

Some time back, I copied the Windows folder from my working hard drive to the c: drive of the problem hdd. I got an error message when I tried to boot but can't remember what it was. It was apparent that I needed to transfer more files but don't know what they are.

You asked me to clone the Windows on the working hard drive to the c: drive on the problem hdd. How do you do that?

It has dawned on me that now that I can boot to the E: drive on the problem hdd, I should be able to get to safe mode and check the System Recovery options. I'm going to look at that tomorrow.

 

[Lottiemansion]

Hi,

For the format stuff, just put in the name or leave it blank if it has no name!

I thought your recovery disk was unable to work as it has files missing?

Clone the drive with this: -

Best free backup software. Hard drive backup and recovery, image and clone freeware - EaseUS Todo Backup Free

 

[wither 3]

Well, some good news. I just left it blank and Easeus did the rest. After it did a couple of restarts, I was then able to reinstall Vista from the OEM disc on the C:.

The only thing I don't like is that I have Vista on two partitions but can't dual boot unless I reinstall on the E:.Maybe you have a different idea. It's not a great concern since I plan to use the hard drive for backing up files but it's good that I can also boot to it if I want to.

I just want to thank you for your help and patience.

 

[townsbg]

Download EasyBCD 2.1.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

You have to be careful or you'll remove the boot loader and not be able to use either system.

 

[wither 3]

I have a copy of neosmart but haven't installed it yet.

I assume you want me to use it to create a dual boot system instead of reinstalling Vista on the E:.

Can you be more specific about what would cause it to make the drive unbootable in the process.

 

[townsbg]

You can use this to set up a dual boot menu from which you can choose the system that you want. When you boot up your computer which installation does it pull up? I'm surprised that windows didn't do this automatically. Did you have both drives installed when you did the install?

 

[wither 3]

I had disconnected my new hard drive before I messed with the one that had all the problems.

Prior to formatting the C: partition with Easeus, I had the option of booting to my C: or E:. Apparently, the format operation removed the dual boot from wherever it is specified.

Now, when I boot, there are no options. It just boots directly to the C: drive. It doesn't detect the Vista installation on the E: drive as a boot drive when I go into the Computer Management in Control Panel.

Not to confuse the issue, but with both hard drives installed, there is no option to boot to the hard drive that I just recovered. I think I would have to specify one or the other as the primary in the BIOS.

 

[Lottiemansion]

Hi,

You can recover the dual boot by following the instructions on this link: -

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html

Use the software previously recommended by townsbg: -

Download EasyBCD 2.1.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

 

[townsbg]

Since you didn't have the second hard drive in the system at the time of the install the bootloader was only configured for that installation however you get do that manually with easy bcd or possibly startup repair.

 

[userseven]

Just reinstall the Operating System on it !!! If not then do the following, google CCLEANER its a registry fixing tool for Windows and run it BUT I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU RE-INSTALL THE OPERATING SYSTEM INSTEAD! If you need to get data off the hard drive then install the hard drive on a known good computer and get the data off of it

 

[wither 3]

Well, thanks to all of you. I used the online help for Easybcd to add the second operating system. I gave it a name, specified the E: drive and saved. Rebooted. No option to open the E:. Went back into the settings and found that the new name was still associated with the C:. Changed it to E:, saved and rebooted. Viola! It works. All done.

Lottiemansion- I had tried the recdisk.exe with a recovery disk provided by my neighbor early on in this discussion but it didn't work. So, I followed the link that you provided for creating a new startup disc. Since I have a OEM Vista disc, I had to follow the links to the appropriate procedure. What's strange is that about half way through, it tells you to install the "retail" installation disc. What's with that?

 

[Lottiemansion]

Hi,

The creation of the recovery disk is from an installation disk not an OEM recovery one or files on the computer & gives direct access to the recovery console (Without installation complications).

Does that answer your question?

PS. Glad you are back on track & running on both systems again.

 

[wither 3]

See, when you go to the link you provided, it says that if you have a OEM installation, then you have to create the disc using alternate instructions and a link is provided. One would presume that the alternate instructions would be for someone with a OEM disk. However, it requires a "retail" installation disc. It's a catch 22. In effect, you can't create a startup disk if you have a OEM disc. So you're stuck.