Missing operating system Windows 7

Hey all,

I recently had Fedora and Windows 7 dual booting on my PC and decided to get rid of the Fedora and go with just Windows 7.

I reformatted the Fedora partition in disk management and everything was fine until I rebooted.

Now I get a Missing Operating System message and cannot boot into Windows.


I know which partition the OS is on, I can access if from the command prompt after booting to the Win7 disk and going that route.

Do I need to get to the boot.ini file and see what it says? I tried looking for it, but couldn't find it.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Try EasyBCD to set your boot partition: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Boot off the Windows 7 DVD, click Next when prompted, and at the Language selection screen, click the bottom link, "Repair Computer" and follow the prompts. Repairing the boot.ini/boot sector should only take a few moments, then it'll demand a reboot. As it's rebooting make sure to eject the DVD so it boots off the hard drive and not the DVD.

You may have to do this process twice, perhaps three times, until it's operational again.

Bahamut said:

Boot off the Windows 7 DVD, click Next when prompted, and at the Language selection screen, click the bottom link, "Repair Computer" and follow the prompts. Repairing the boot.ini/boot sector should only take a few moments, then it'll demand a reboot. As it's rebooting make sure to eject the DVD so it boots off the hard drive and not the DVD.

You may have to do this process twice, perhaps three times, until it's operational again.

Click to expand...

This should work. Alternatively you could reinstall a Linux distro again and use GRUB again.

When you zapped the Fedora partition you got rid of the GRUB bootloader that was there.

Good luck. I zapped an XP partition off of a Vista/XP dual boot (the bootloader was annoyingly installed on the XP partition) and it wasn't so easy for me. I knew what I was getting into; but I didn't have so much luck with the auto repair of the bootloader by the Vista install disc.

in command prompt under a win7 repair options...type bootrec.exe /fixmbr
then bootrec.exe /fixboot

je

The basic repair option of Windows 7 should do that automagically and simply say "ok, we're done, let's reboot." The actual command line stuff should not ever be necessary anymore unless something is truly wrong with it - and if that's the case, the command line stuff isn't going to fix it either (that's what the basic repair option does when it attempts to fix it automagically).

Nothing different happens.

unless it is gaming related....alot of misinformation of these forums lately. lol


just to clarify, Windows 7 doesn't use boot.ini
It seems that eithier the system reserved partiton was deleted or removed. or it may need to be set to active.

use the bootrec tool in command prompt under the windows 7 repair options from the disc.

use bootrec.exe


it will bring up a list of tools to use. i believe you will use bootrec.exe /scanos to find the Win7 install. Then bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd



instructions directly from Microsoft.

Bootrec.exe options
The Bootrec.exe tool supports the following options. Use the option that is appropriate for your situation.

Note If rebuilding the BCD does not resolve the startup issue, you can export and delete the BCD, and then run this option again. By doing this, you make sure that the BCD is completely rebuilt. To do this, type the following commands at the Windows RE command prompt:

* bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
* c:
* cd boot
* attrib bcd -s -h -r
* ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
* bootrec /RebuildBcd

/FixMbr
The /FixMbr option writes a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-compatible MBR to the system partition. This option does not overwrite the existing partition table. Use this option when you must resolve MBR corruption issues, or when you have to remove non-standard code from the MBR.
/FixBoot
The /FixBoot option writes a new boot sector to the system partition by using a boot sector that is compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. Use this option if one of the following conditions is true:

* The boot sector has been replaced with a non-standard Windows Vista or Windows 7 boot sector.
* The boot sector is damaged.
* An earlier Windows operating system has been installed after Windows Vista or Windows 7 was installed. In this scenario, the computer starts by using Windows NT Loader (NTLDR) instead of Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe).

/ScanOs
The /ScanOs option scans all disks for installations that are compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. Additionally, this option displays the entries that are currently not in the BCD store. Use this option when there are Windows Vista or Windows 7 installations that the Boot Manager menu does not list.
/RebuildBcd
The /RebuildBcd option scans all disks for installations that are compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. Additionally, this option lets you select the installations that you want to add to the BCD store. Use this option when you must completely rebuild the BCD.