Hard Drive With MBR Failed; How To Get Main Installation Working?
Jan 8, 2013
My former hard drive with my MBR on it failed. This hard drive was/is 750GB and when I purchased my 'main' 2TB hard drive I made another fresh install of Windows. In other words, I had two installations of Windows on two separate hard drives. However, the MBR is located on the now-failed 750GB hard drive, and so my 2TB install of Windows won't work. I have tried (and failed) at repairing or otherwise installing a new MBR on the 2TB hard drive.
I am running windows 7 64 bit, on an eMachines lap top, I have purchased an external HDD and now I am trying to create a perfect copy of my system. I used DriveImage XML but it failed. I have used this program in the past with great success on a different computer running WindowsXP.The failure I get is "failed to lock drive". I've tried skipping the lock drive option and going straight to shadow copy; same problem.I can only assume the failure to lock drive is based on permissions and files being in use. So I think I need to attempt this without loading windows. Is there anyway of running a "free" drive cloning program from a DVD or USB Flash drive without booting into Windows?I would just bit torrent a win7 OS, install it on my external, and run the program from their, but I don't want to have to resort to law breaking, and I have never run linux.
Also I tried using a "backup" feature on Paragon Partition Manager, it did "backup" the system, but it didn't clone the drive. All the backup files are written in directories such as "C:/archive/" and thus I assume there is no way of booting into a system written that way. I assume it's like windows system restore, and what I need is a bootable image of my primary drive.Oh and I should clarify, that it's not my external drive that fails to lock; the external HDD has been formatted, partitioned, and can read and write data just fine, and has way more than enough room to copy the HDD in my lap top.Also, the HDD on my lap top has 1 primary partition, with two logical partitions. I have no idea what the logical partitions are for and if that could be causing the problem.
I have two internal 500Gb SATA drives and one external 500Gb ESATA drive.
I wanted to have 2 backups images of my drive as a safety measure. One on the internal and one on the external ESATA drive.
The backup image on the internal drive took about 25 minutues and seems OK. The image size is about 75Gb.
I then tried a second backup on my external drive. ESATA is supposed to be faster than USB. After about three and a half hours the backup stopped and said that it had failed. Any ideas please?
I had a striped hard drive set up because I thought it was cool to make 2 500's a 1 tb. it broke. but now one of em went off the reservation and now wants to be a cd drive after reformatted the drive that was working.can't see the errant drive in disk management but in computer (windows 7, custom build) it's my new cd drive witch claims to be my H: drive.
I have raid 5 setup, on a ASUS P5K WS motherboard using matrix storage manager. Just copied everything on to it, now a hard drive has failed. I got new hard drive but its seen as none Raid and raid showing as failure ?
I upgrade my pc with SSD everything seem to go fine but 2 of my 2TB drive giving me a Smart error now. i wonder if SSD has anything to do with Drives failing. My theory is that.
SSD runs on a flash based chip ... it is very stable but mean time it has huge access point of data that why it is fast. The reason i am thinking that SSD is killing my other drives is because my setup is a Media center. Software such as windows media center and media browser keep accessing my 2 TB Hitachi drive for movies, TV show and so on .. SSD in my opinion is running other drive to max point of spin and read/write in same time. which could caused these drive either over heat or over used that is just a theroy of mine
MY Setup : Media center pc with 4 2TB Hard drive Hitachi and 1 60GB SSD drive
I have 2x160gb intel SSD disks running as RAID0. Recently my motherboard had failed and I replaced it with new one (different model). Couldn't access OS because apparently some RAID data is kept on the motherboard and that was gone, so I decided to use a backup. Booted from windows 7 installation disk and selected backup,
I click on 'repair', get to the 'select a system image backup'. Select 'use the latest available system image (recommended). Click 'next' I get the message 'all disk to be restored will be formatted and replaced with the layout and data in the system image'. Click Yes. But then got an error saying:
"The system image restore failed. The disk that is set as active in BIOS is too small to recover the original system disk. Replace the disk with a larger one and retry the restore operation. (0x80042407)"
Disk is completely empty with only 1 partition (deleted all partitions and reformatted and then created one). Before motherboard problem I had several partitions, but I imagine that restore would recreate them. Why do I get 'disk to small error' when I am restoring on the same disk? RAID configuration problem? Could stripe size be an issue here?
I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 (2.5 years old). All my data is backed up so I have no concerns about recoverying data.First, the laptop crashed and ran several chkdsk on start up. I froze several times during this. It said it had fixed some errors then started up again.This time it wanted to do start up repair. Same thing kept happening, froze at least twenty times during this. Eventually it gave me the blue screen of death.
'Technical information *** STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8004C1D260, 0xFFFFFA8004C1D498, 0xFFFFF8000130DDA0)'
This repeated several times. I ran the diagnostics and it told me the hard drive could not be found (error code 0146, 2000-0146). Essentially, it's a Dell laptop (I know) and I am not bothered about recovering the hard drive.I would, however, like to install Windows 7, or alternatively Linux, onto my external hard drive. But I just can't seem to get it to work.I have extracted a Linux iso to the external hard drive I want to install on, onto a cd, onto a FAT32 8gb usb stick, but it has given me the bootmgr is missing error every time. I have tried it with the interal HDD in and removed.I am no longer concerned about the internal HDD, i can use it for a door stop for all I am concerned, I just want to load ANY os onto my external hard drive so I can get the laptop working.
Any way i got this question i want to reinstall and i was wondering i got install files on D: ready and on C: i still got 7100 RC i want to install it on same drive if im not wrong old windows will be moved to folder windows.old right? so later i just delete windows.old and it will be fine right?
In earlier windows i could enter dos and click on setup exe and install from hd why its no longer possible
I'm installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on an Asus UL80J. When asking where I want to install windows, I get "No drives were found. Click to load a driver". The drive is new, has no problems, and is detected in the BIOS fine. Also, my Windows XP CD detects the drive just fine. I've tried both options in the BIOS for setting SATA to IDE and AHCI. I assume I'm missing a SATA driver needed at installation time, but I can't find one online or from the manufacturer.
i have an hp pavilion slimline. (model: s5213w) i am upgrading my hard drive but my power supply is limited to having just one hard drive installed at a time. when i put the new one in i ran the disks given to me by HP. the first half of the installation works fine (the part where im putting all the diff cd's in) then it says to remove all cd's and windows will automatically start installing the software. (it may take up to 3 hours). then a black screen comes on. kinda like comand prompt and the cursor line just flashes. three hours later. same deal. any help on this issue? its SATA btw.. idk if that makes a difference.What im trying to install is windows 7 on a Brand New WD5000AAKX (western digital) hard drive. ive used these cds before on my previous hard drive (which came with widows 7 on them from HP) and they worked fine to re install windows 7. The paper that came with the cds from HP say to use them when you want to "upgrade to a new hard disk drive"do i have to create a partition inside it or something? i jsut put the blank hard drive in because i dont have the power supply hookup for 2...
I have a laptop which has a ATA HDD and I tried to install Windows 7 on it, but when you come to the window for choosing a partition, nothing shows up. I have tried to upload new drivers for the chipset on the motherboard from intel (Intel 865 Chipset) but no luck still it doesn't do anything. I am able to find the drivers and I guess it installs them but in the end nothing. So my second attempt was to try and bypass this. I took another laptop and pluged in the hdd there and tried the installation, everything went smooth, when the first restart was prompted I took out the HDD and plugged it in my comp. Now windows starts up but only up to the logo and than restarts, over and over. I tried to install all over again but it still doesn't recognize the HDD on my laptop.
I get to the part of the installation where you select a partition/drive, and there is nothing there. I have tried using different two different HDD both spin up but the installation doesn't see them. I have also switched out SATA Cables, used different power connectors, even tried loading drivers, and have reset the BIOS by removing the CMOS Battery.
Specs:
GIGABYTE GA-Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 Motherboard Intel Core i5-2500 Processor 4x 1GB DDR3 Radeon 4870 Graphics Card 530 watt Power Supply Seagate 320GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD ( tried to install first, no luck moved to the other HDD. Only one at a time connected. ) Maxtor 500GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD
I bought a new custom PC from ebay, a shop called FreshTech Solutions, so when it arrived I tried installing Windows 7 Home Premium (came with it). Obviously I need to do a custom install, as I'm not upgrading from anything, but when I get to the screen where it asks where I would like to install Windows 7, nothing is listed. I've tried loading from the disc that came with the motherboard, the Windows 7 CD itself, even the C drive (said it needed to format it, but couldn't).
Install everything, the bios detect the hard drive (it's a new hard drive, never been use) but when installing the Windows 7 64, the hard drive list is empty.
i was wondering if anyone has any programs they could recommend to use to wipe a hard drive clean before reinstalling windows 7, I noticed you have this CCleaner 3 link on here CCleaner - Download.com If i put that on a disk and started it up as i would to reinstall can that wipe the disk clean?
I bought a laptop asus K55VM, and switch the optical drive for a SSD. Both drives are format and active since what a want is a clean install.
During the instillation both drives don't show up, i tried to load drivers from intel but nothing shows up. The Bios shows both drivers, i change from AHCI to IDE but no effect.
Just bought a new hard drive due to my old one was failing. This is the same exact hard drive I had.Whenever I try installing windows 7, it "completes", then the screen blinks skips, and skips the "Create a user account" and just hangs at "Completing Installation". I thought I would give it a try and disable my gfx driver just to see if that would work.
Basically I put a new hard drive into my laptop and tried to install windows 7. It keeps saying bootmgr is missing, press ctrl + alt + del to restart. The OEM windows 7 disk is inside my cd-rom drive and I went to the bios and put the cd/dvd as first, and the hdd as second, pressed f10 (save and exit.) and still no luck.
'installation directory must be on a local hard drive' Its not the msi as ive tested it on another computer.The msi is a plugin tool called t-splines by autodesk. Ive also tried older versions with the same error Things i've tried so far
sys restore safe mode right click - take ownership
I uninstalled 7zip which i already had, then reinstalled with the .msi from the website to test if it was all msi, however it actually worked I was looking around for other .msi install software just to test it but can't find any?
I'm not entirely sure if this is the right category for this thread, but it seems to be the one that closest fits my problem.
A bit of background detail to this story (which you may already know if you've seen my other threads):
I had my desktop PC running W7 fine despite some hitches with an old hard drive of mine. I was able to get hold of a slightly higher specced system recently (a pre-built Acer Aspire T650-8B7H, if that means anything to anyone which has a slightly faster processor, an apparently better motherboard, yada yada) and so transferred my 9800GTX+, RAM, PSU and hard drive in to the new PC.
However, obviously Windows 7 didn't like the significantly different hardware so I nuked the drive and went to reinstall Windows 7, only to find that the Windows 7 install disc refused to pick up my SATA drive (which I had Windows 7 installed on before) in the new PC. Conveniently at the same time my problematic hard drive completely died on me, so I shrugged it off as that being the problem. However...
I've just bought myself a 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive. It's very nice, and I had no problems partitioning it up and installing multiple linux distributions on multiple partitions. However, I stuck my Windows 7 install disc in to install it on the drive. I choose to make a custom installation and... nothing. The drive just doesn't show up. I'm told to load drivers, but since when do you need to install drivers for an internal hard drive?
I've had this problem before and thought it was a problem with the hard drive, but it shouldn't be happening to a brand new drive. The install disc picks up IDE drives just fine, but as of yet it hasn't found either of the SATA disks I've had in there.
Any ideas? I would put it down to a BIOS setting but I had no problems installing Linux on other partitions of the same drive.
So I've assembled a new desktop pc with a brand new Western Digital Green 1TB SATA hard drive. BIOS detects the hard drive and I pop in the Windows 7 DVD and go through the installation process until the screen that asks where I want to install Win 7 on the hard drive.
I try to format the drive but it gives me an error saying that the drive has to be in "read-only" mode and that I need to do so. That prevents me from progressing through the installation process.
I got no idea what that means and there is no extra pc around to format the new HDD on. Obviously there is no OS installed on the drive so I can format it inside Windows. That HDD is the only hard drive connected to the pc.
Dell Dimension 4600 Desktop, Trying to install Windows 7 Home Premium (5.8GB) to my (10GB) hard drive, It's listed as Primary drive in BIOS, but when I go to install Windows 7, It doesn't list it in the list of Drives!
The hard drive is working fine, and obviously connected and executed properly, if it's configured correctly in the BIOS.
My dvd drive was working till the installation dvd was booted. After that once Windows 7 started, I tried putting many dvd's in but they all say "Please insert a disk in Drive d:" and tray opens up.
I have formatted my Acer Aspire 5552 and Installed Windows 7. Previously, my ''main drive'' was my Local Disk (D: ) (450GB) and now it is Local disk (C: ) (20 GB) So there is no room for my programs, etc.. so how I swap them around?Have tried to save the programs on Local Disk (D: ) , but then they do not work.
My mother asked me to fix her computer, his window XP is badly corrupted, so I tried to install Window 7 on her computer. However, the hard drive didn't show on the screen. I found it quite odd because BIOS detected it as IDE driver, and it's a SATA driver. I tried to install with old Window XP installation CD. Same thing, doesn't show on the window XP installation screen either.
I tried to hook hard drive on other computer, and was testing with Window 7 XD and see if it was working, and it did. It shown on the disk screen. My guess that it's probably the BIOS that occurred, or perhaps other things. I have one hard drive, nothing more.
While looking for solutions I seemed to come very close to finding someone with my exact problem, but not quite. Here goes:
I had a hard drive with Windows 7 installed. Everything worked, etc. Got a new hard drive, and installed 7 on there as well without making changed to the old hard drive (prompts displayed during new installation saying "old" windows files would be saved). I've been using it for a while now, however I want to use the old hard drive strictly for storage, so I tried to format it to clear the space out. I got the notice "Windows cannot complete format." Went to the forums and looked thru several suggestions, which brought me to try deleting the files individually.
Included in all this were attempts to give myself (the only user on the computer) full control of all files (which was already the case), to take ownership (via right click options AND command prompt "takeown" and "cacls"), to change permissions/ownership via "properties" for the drive/folders, command prompts to remove the "active" status of the old hard drive, as well as removing "boot" status from old drive (while making sure the new drive had "boot" status), tried everything I can think of using Disk Management AND the DiskPart utility, as well as countless other suggestions that I can barely remember. I'm still getting the "You need permission to perform this action." What I don't get is, if I'm THE administrator (and the only user), how do I not have access to this?
I'm sure there are some details I'm leaving out, but I've been at it for hours. Let me know if there's something you need to know. Running Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit, 4GB RAM, 3.2 Ghz AMD Athlon II.
