Alright, here's an issue I got that I cant seem to get fixed.

I was dual booting Xp and 7. Suddenly started fucking up (see exact same problem below) Formated the XP partition bye bye. Don't fucking do that if you had Xp installed first. NTLDR errors, instant crashing once past BIOS boot, despite 7 not using that, it see itself as a dual boot and starts to load the Xp files no matter what.

Wiped the XP partition reformated it as empty space, reinstalled 7. I didn't do a total format/reinstall, had to save a ton of shit on desktop I needed. Now, I have this issue.

-Boot, bios clears memtest, etc fine, see Windows loading screen

-crash

-Boot, bios clears memtest, etc, screen telling me Windows failed, select repair or start normal

-Select repair, goes to the white bar windows loading files screen, freezes, doesnt do anything.

-Hit reset button, windows loads fine.

Does it again when I power off. Tested all the memory, disk check, etc. It's something I can't figure out. Best guess is Windows doesn't like 7 being on the last half of the disk maybe. When I have free time I'm going to total wipe the disk, and combine the partitions back, but I'm hoping to avoid it.

Any ideas, google is being useless.

 

Okay, from my experience it's going to be a boot manager issue.

Usually, installing windows 7 last will install it's bootmanager last and then you have to add NTLDR to the master boot partition drive so you can boot XP from the Windows7/Vista boot manager.

So, what happens is when the OS in installed, the master boot drive is selected as the partition 0 and the boot manager is applied to that partition.

What I would suggest is to run the repair on the windows 7 install disk, it should restore the windows 7 boot manager to the disk 0 partition 0.

Then check the BIOS settings and make sure the disk mode is set correctly according to the drivers you have installed for your hard drives.

You need to boot from the correct harddrive to load the boot manager.

My guess to any other issues would be that the bootmanager is fucked up and the address that the bootmanager points to for the windows 7 startup doesn't like being so far into the harddrive.

 

It was done automatically as far back as I can remember, even in late RC's for 7. I've never had to dick with it.

Repair doesn't find anything wrong.

Yep, checked. I don't do anything fancy, just default settings, for the single drive.

Just 1 drive, I unplugged the storage drive until I figure out what the hell's going on, storage drive plugged in makes no difference in start up issues.

Aye maybe. Need to grab a partition manager, I used to use partition magic 8.x in XP to move stuff all the time, dunno if it works with 7-64

 

don't go near partition magic with vista/7. It fucks things up big time just trying to do shit.

 

Awesome, recommendations? The disk management inside windows is fucking useless.

 

I reccommend doing a clean install with Windows 7 on the primary drive. Make sure the OS drive is in the first sata slot, i.e. slot 0 and then partition the drive as needed during the install and then hook up the data drive/s so you don't have MBR conflicts/problems when you disconnect drives or reformat OS.

As for resizing a partition, I advise against it. Backup and repartition with a clean setup to avoid running into issues and possible data loss.

 

I don't think Murton's got the situation; Mid, as I read it, you have a system HD partitioned into two pieces. The first part held a Win XP instance and the second still has a Win7, 64-bit build. Aside from this you also have a storage drive for other stuff.

You had it dual-booting but blew away the Win XP (partition 0) and having lost it's boot loader and such, you couldn't get to the Win 7 load.

Assuming the above, I get the sense that you will eventually commit to a single Win 7 reformat of the drive but you want to access the Win 7 partition to retrieve relevant data and settings.

Option 1 (assumes another machine is available)- remove the drive, attach it to a Win 7 box using an external drive connector and grab your data.

Option 2 (assumes you want to login to the Win 7 for awhile)- Reinstall Win XP (or Win 7 would probably work in another instance) onto the partition 0, then modify the boot loader to see both partitions as bootable options at power on.

I'm a little out of date on my Win 7 info as to how the boot loader differs, so my suggestions may be less than effective. Still, the question is 'what are you hoping to achieve?'

 

Yep. First half of the system drive had Xp, all traces of it removed, formatted, empty space atm, unformatted or formatted, it acts the same for the error. I unplug the storage drive whenever I'm not actually using it, it being plugged in or not, doesn't effect the error either.

I already got the data off it. What I hope to achieve? I have no qualms other then time, for doing a total drive wipe, and then reinstalling 7 using a single partion, joining both halves and started fresh. I want to avoid this if I can, hence the thread.

Why the hell would it be crashing hard on initial boot, I click repair, it freezes up, restart button, then next boot everything is fine, with zero hardware issues, trust me I've tried everything.

Like I said, I can do a full wipe and fix it, but I dont want to unless I have to, and this error is bugging me, seems like it would be something other then a run of the mill bootloader/mbr issue, since windows repair doesn't see any problems, and a single little runaround reset button fixes it.

 

Seeing as it is freezing during the repair and you are restarting it, there in lies the problem.

Put in the windows 7 install disk, repair that way and it should fix up the bootloader problem.

Otherwise, when you get into windows through the method you stated, install easyBSD or vistabootPro and restore the boot manager that way and set the options all to suit your setup.

 

So I did do a total wipe after all, went back to a single partition. Formatted just fine, reinstalled everything. Next day booted right up, awesome. Turned it off, went to work. Came home, to find the same problem as before... only now, it told me there was no OS, nothing to boot to. Never seen that before. Stuck in disk, repair option, the repair sees the OS and partition just fine.

Only now it tells me that the disk is not compatiable with the version of windows I'm running when I tried to repair it. Despite detecting the install at 7, despite it being the SAME FUCKING DISK USED TO INSTALL IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Didn't update it or anything. Firefox, sound drivers, video drivers, that's it installed.

/Rage

Ran the disk check, no bad sectors, no problems. Running Western Digital's stress tester/detailed error checking tool now. This is the 3rd drive from WD I've had that've acted fucked up, I'm done with them. Ordered a 1TB HD from Samsung despite not really having the money to spend. I do too much with my PC in our lives to have it fucking up on us.

Hopefully it shows up fast beyond annoyed.

 

I quit using WD after three or so failed drives in a row. I'm now an exclusive Seagate fanboy.

I didn't even know Samsung made hard drives. O.O

 

Samsung 1tb hard drive, 70 bucks from neweggs with some promo codes they sent me. Fucking quieeeeeeeet and fast.

The Western Digital had a fucked partition table. Fixed it using windows repair about a bergillion times, it'd randomly fail.

This was because it defaults to trying to repair a 32bit installation no matter what. I had to download another repair disc specifically made from the 64 bit versions... despite the 64bit being on the fucking install disc.

I formatted it again after a good 7 install on the Samsung, going to use it as my incoming torrent drive. Hopefully I won't have any more problems, I've been going crazy not being able to relax at night