Vista PC wont boot - need help to repair the BCD to load OS

C

cmberry20

Member
Ok, heres what happened:

Vista got stuck on the loading splash screen with the green bar moving along the bottom. Left it for 15 minutes & didnt budge.
Reset the PC & tried again - same thing.

So, I booted of a recovery disk & ran CHKDSK /R.
Found a few errors & repaired them & rebooted.

Now, Vista didnt boot at all & i just got the message:
'Operating System Missing'

So, I booted from a Vista disk (Ultimate)
Chose repair but was greeted with an empty 'System Recovery Options' box.
Clicked next anyway & got to the repair menu.
Select 'Startup Repair' & it went off on its merry way for about 3 minutes but then reported back that there wasnt any operating system to repair.

So, went back to the repair menu & went opened up the Command Prompt.
Went through the usual boot repair methods:

bootrec /fixmbr
(this operation was completed successfully)

bootrec /fixboot
(this operation was completed successfully)

bootrec /ScanOS
(Successfully Scanned Windows Installations. Total Identified Windows Installtions: 1
[1] D:\Windows

This i thought was odd, why D: ? normally Vista is on C:

Anyway, carried on:

bootrec /rebuildbcd
(Successfully Scannec Windows Installations. Total Idenified Windows Installtions: 1
[1] D:\Windows
Add installation to bootlist? Y, N or All)

Selected Y & then got this error message:
'This Volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded & that the volume is not corrupted'

bugger.

I evern tried this:

del d:\boot\ /f /s
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

got the same error.

I can see the harddrive fine. I can even browse the files & folders on the drive within Command Prompt, so its there & not corrupted.

I just cant fix the boot problem.

Anyone got any ideas?

btw - reformat or upgrading to Windows 7 is not viable at this moment in time.

Cheers
 

My Computer

System One

No, PC had been running fine for ~12 months plus.

Its not as if it has software added or changed as its a CAD workstation & only used for drawings & doesnt even have an internet connection.
 

My Computer

System One

when are you getting on the screen when you starting the computer?
Are you sure you have just run a repair and not actually tried a recovery and stopped it mid way??
 

My Computer

System One

I've tried a repair & it said that it couldnt repair the OS.

My issue at the moment is 'bootrec /rebuildbcd'

Its picking up the OS, but i get this message:
'This Volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded & that the volume is not corrupted'

I think if i can solve this then i might be able to repair the boot loader.
Anyone know why i'm getting this error?

Cheers

btw, I guessing theres no repair option in Vista like there is in XP where I can reinstall Vista which repairs the installation but leave all the files, programs & users intact.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

As i mentioned in my original post the start up repair didnt work.

I came to the conclusion that the boot part was completely borked, however, I dont let things like this beat me & i actually managed to fix the bleedin thing.
This is what i did.

Removed the HDD from the PC & plugged it into another Vista PC as a Slave/Secondary drive.
I then made a backup of the drive (the Windows Partition) using Acronis.
Next, I wiped the drive of all partitions so it resembled a new HDD.
I then completely cloned the PC drive that i was working on to the now blank HDD.
Once that was complete I restored the saved image back to the disk & plugged it back it to the original PC.
Had to do one more thing, which was boot of the recovery disk & do a quick repair in the System Recovery Options box & the PC reboot as good as new.

Bit of a long way round but at least i didnt loose any data etc.
 

My Computer

System One

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