How to restore the boot (Win7)

So, you are in trouble? Your Windows 7 system is not booting? How to repair it?

To reach the automatic recovery utility and use it to repair the bot automatically, you have two options:

A. 1) If your computer is NOT booting at all:
Insert Windows 7 installation CD and re-start your system. Press any key when you are prompted to. In the windows that will start, choose your favourite input language/keyboard. Click 'Next'. Choose 'Repair' option. Then use the onscreen wizard (first menu is what you are looking for) to let Windows repair your boot automatically.

A. 2) If your computer is booting (but Windows in not loading), you don't need to boot from a CD. Just restart your computer and keep the F8 key pressed. A special menu will appear. Choose the last item called "system recovery" and do the same as above.


If automatic recovery is not working, go to plan B.

B) Manual recovery.

These MS utilities may be if great help to you:

bootRec.exe
bootSect.exe
bcdEdit.exe

You will not find these utilities in Windows. These utilities are available only in the System Recovery utility (folow steps A1 or A2 to reach the System Recovery utility).

Start a DOS console (click 'Command Prompt' in the 'System Recovery Options' dialog box) and type:

BootRec.exe /FixMbr
BootRec.exe /FixBoot

After this you can list the available operation systems/disks:
BootRec.exe /ScanOs

The /ScanOs option scans all disks for installations that are compatible with Windows Vista. Additionally, this option displays the entries that are currently not in the BCD store. Use this option when there are Windows Vista installations that the Boot Manager menu does not list.

Finally type the last command; the most important one:
BootRec.exe /RebuildBcd

This command scans all disks for installations that are compatible with Windows Vista. 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.

If it is not working, you can try to force the boot installation manually:

Bootsect.exe c: /NT60

Note:
Use the correct drive letter instead of C:.
Use /nt52 instead of /nt60 if the operation system on the disk is below Windows Vista
Use the "BootSect.exe /NT60 ALL" command to restore the boot sector on all drives.


Prevent the disaster
The boot information if kept in a file called "c:\boot\bcd". If your computer is working fine now, stop any reading you are doing now, and go immediately and make a copy of this file. You can name it "bcd.good" If later you will thank me for this. If you are playing with the above commands and ruin your boot, you can restore it by renaming the "bcd.good" file back to "bcd". Note: the c:\boot folder may be hidden (invisible).


You may also want to see this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/en-us

bcdEdit.exe command

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