unable to boot after using gparted

i have used gparted live cd to shrink my vista partition and deleted my windows 7 partiton now i am unable to boot ... tried start up repair .. it took time and still no boot ... now when i try to do start up repair it shows windows vista ultimate recovered ... already tried chkdsk /r took 30 min still no go ... what to do

only get a blinking cursor .

Hi,

OK so you get the boot options screen - then a blinking cursor?

Boot to the system recovery options on the Vista dvd - select command prompt.

Type:

DISKPART {enter}

SEL DISK 0 {enter}

LIST PAR {enter}

Find which is the Vista partition - probably 1 - if not, use whatever number it is in the following :

SEL PAR 1 {enter}

ACTIVE {enter}

EXIT {enter}

Or you could use GParted to make sure it is set as active - right click the Vista partition and select Flag On - it should say boot next to it.

Now try the start up repair.

Hope it helps.

i will try that first thing when i reach home.

Hi,

Because of the time difference - I will post this now - in case you need it.

If startup repair and Bios cannot find anything bootable - even with the correct partition set to Active, try this:

bootrec /fixmbr {enter}

bootrec /fixboot {enter}

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista

Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Hope it helps.

When you knocked out the 7 primary was Vista or 7 set as the default OS? You may have to rebuild the Vista BCD if you were using 7's own.

Scroll down to the "nuclear holocaust" section Step #4 on the page at the second link posted by SIW2. That should get you going again in no time.

vista was the default os and i was also using bcd edit if that helps.

With 7 gone you wouldn't need the manual edit for more then removing the boot entry for 7 if seen and renaming the Vista(recovered) since you will no longer see that screen displayed. The msconfig>boot can set the display time for the boot menu to 0 seconds as well unless you decide to dual boot again some time.

Step #4 at the link mentioned earlier however should get you running again being a solid recovery method. When seeing the Vista boot information here trashed on one occasion here that was the solution.

tried step 4

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
x:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force

only got this one to work but when went to next screen to try

del C:\boot\bcd
bcdedit /createstore c:\boot\bcd.temp
bcdedit.exe /store c:\boot\bcd.temp /create {bootmgr} /d "Windows Boot Manager"
bcdedit.exe /import c:\boot\bcd.temp
bcdedit.exe /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
bcdedit.exe /timeout 10
del c:\boot\bcd.temp

it show not able to find or not a valid command or something.

but i do C:
i am able to enter C:
so what to do next.

Hi,

Try each one in turn and see which gives you the error message - and what the message is e.g. :

del C:\boot bcd {enter}

if no error message, continue with

bcdedit /createstore C:\boot\bcd.temp {enter}

and so on.

This assumes the boot drive is drive C: if not, use the appropriate drive letter instead. At the prompt, type: notepad {enter} When notepad opens, click File, then Save - you should be able to browse the drives.

Hope it helps.

del C:\boot bcd {enter}
i get error when i type this

Looks like it can't find C:\Boot\bcd.

Did you try the notepad command and see what that reveals?

Do you get the drive letters you expect - the Boot folder containing BCD should be on the boot drive.

What is the error message?

SIW2 said:

Looks like it can't find C:\Boot\bcd.

Did you try the notepad command and see what that reveals?

Do you get the drive letters you expect - the Boot folder containing BCD should be on the boot drive.

What is the error message?

Click to expand...

what notepad command and my vista was the main OS and is in drive C the deleted win 7 partition use to be in drive f so what should i do next.

This one:

At the Cmd prompt, type: notepad {enter} When notepad opens, click File, then Save - you should be able to browse the drives.

Click to expand...

The first commands to use at the command prompt option would be bootrec /scanos since the initial screen when entering the repair tools will likely fail to see any Vista installation. When you see "1) C:\Windows\ you type Y for yes and wait to see if the "successfully added" message appears.

What that does is log onto/mount that installation for repair where you then can start using the other commands bootrec /rebuildbcd, bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot, and so forth until the repaired BCD or totally new bcd file sees Vista load. The first however is as follows:


"The first order of business is to make sure the MBR and bootsector contain the right references to the Vista bootloader: Replace x: in the commands below with the letter to your CD drive as detected by the Windows Recovery environment

bootrec.exe /fixmbrx:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force"

Once the mbr is corrected you may see Vista load unless you trashhed the partition table somehow when resizing the Vista primary as well as removing 7 from the drive. There are separate partition recovery tools shareware or otherwise you can download like those seen at Windows Vista Data Recovery 3.0.1.5 Free Download

one thing just came in my mind what will happen if i do a operating system reinstall in the same partition without deleting like a parelllel install .

Hi,

If you boot from the dvd then when you get to Step 10 of the tutorial - just click on the partition you want to install to [ don't select Drive Options (advanced) ].

You will get the option to save the existing contents into a folder called Windows.Old.

You can get your data out of that after.

You will need to reinstall all your programs and get all the Windows Updates of course.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html

If the primary is still intact you can perform the repair install option outlined in the tutorial to preserve the contents on the drive. http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html

The preferred and frequently used method here however when already having everything backed up safe elsewhere is to simply nuke the drive if you want a fresh clean start on a new primary eliminating problems using the current.

The idea of saving the partition 7 was on following a reformat there was to turn that into a storage partition. If you decide later to dual boot with 7 or XP the partitioning has already been done rather then any need to shrink the Vista primary once you have that all set. That was an additional option available.

i tried notepad and noticed there is a 34mb drive x drive x use to be my win 7 but i formatted it now i am unable to do it as it contains windows file.and i cannot see this drive in partition list that u get while installation.

I'm assuming that was a typo there of 34gb rather then 34mb. If you used GParted for seeing the 7 primary reformatted by the simple right click option but didn't scroll down to NTFS on the dropdown list it was likely reformatted to the default ext2 VFat file system making it invisible to the Windows installer.

When proceeding past the Install Now option or booted in GParted again you can reformat it again to insure you select "ntfs" in lower case seen from the list. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/big/1-main-5b.gif