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    Crash! Can't boot into Windows 7 :(

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Flav_cool, Dec 9, 2009.

  1. Flav_cool

    Flav_cool Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys,

    I'm really in a bind now. I have windows 7 on my laptop and recently I installed a 320GB harddrive. Everything was working fine. I installed daemon tools a few weeks ago, and when I restarted it wouldn't let me boot, but choosing the option "last known good configuration" from the F8 menu worked like a charm. I uninstalled Daemon Tools.

    Today I go to restart from hibernate and get an error. Restart, and the same old boot manager problem pops up. As soon as W7 starts to load I get a black screen from the boot manager saying booting failed due to missing or inacessible device. Only this time, last known good configuration doesn't work. I'm speculating that the boot information was moved somewhere away from the beginning of the drive (BIOS only recognizes first 137GB). Could this be it?? I recently did a cypher command to wipe empty space and lots of stuff could have moved around. This was my first time restarting since. Am I right in my speculations?

    The error says exactly:

    "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem: 1. ...blah blah...
    Status: 0xc000000e
    Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."

    The 320GB IDE harddrive was running just fine for weeks until this last hibernation crash. Or perhaps it was the cypher command that misplaced or screwed up the boot sector.

    I tried doing a "Repair my computer" off the Windows 7 DVD and it actually found a boot problem that it fixed. BUt then on restart, the computer does the same thing. Now it no longer finds a problem. I also tried the suggestions here: http://www.tomstricks.com/how-to-rep...ot-record-mbr/ but sadly these didn't work either.

    Please help!!!

    Flaviu
     
    Flav_cool, Dec 9, 2009
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  2. wave

    wave Notebook Virtuoso

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    That the bios only recognizes 137GB is very strange. There used to be such problems with old computers but I have not come across this for a decade or more.

    I would think that your drive has a problem. Download the testing tool from your drive maker. Seagate, hitatchi and samsung all have them, pick the manufacture of your drive and find the software on their homepage. It will make a bootable cd for you and test your drive.
     
    wave, Dec 10, 2009
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  3. Flav_cool

    Flav_cool Notebook Consultant

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    ^^ Actually, it's a known IDE harddrive limitation.

    FIXED: Repartitioned into 136GB and the rest on another partition with Acronis Disk Director, booted beautifully.
     
    Flav_cool, Dec 12, 2009
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  4. pearsalice

    pearsalice Newbie

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    Hey guys, I had a similar problem. What I did was reinstall Vista, downloaded ALL available updates, then unplugged EVERYTHING (except mouse, keyboard, and monitor) and then did an upgrade. That is basically a complete reinstall anyways. But out of 7 tries, it was the only successful install of windows 7.
    After that i didn't download upgrade now its working damn fine.
     
    pearsalice, Dec 14, 2009
    #4