Vista mbr can't fix it!

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ell

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ok, I got this thinkpad with vista business on it, boots to ntldr missing error. I managed to get it to bootmgr missing now. I did all the bootrec options I could think of:
fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd comes up with the "Successfully scanned windows installations.Total identified Windows installations: 0" message every time, I marked the partition as active, hard disk is fine, bios is set to defaults, used dart and tried mbr fix and chkdsk/f, found errors and fixed them, I can see windows and all directories fine in the C directory with dart explorer. Seems no matter what I do I can't write a new mbr to this thing. I tried vista dvd, startup repair does nothing and it doesn't see the vista at all in windows selection box, the owners says he deleted something by mistake, I'm at a loss, any other ideas?
 
AGH! I couldn't fix it cuz its XP!!! No wonder I was stuck, duh. COA sticker said vista business. I noticed something odd about the file system, then it dawned on me there was a documents & settings folder in the root of C, I did a little digging and found the file version of ntoskrnl.exe was 5.1 = XP !!! Pulled out my xp disc and fixed the mbr and ntldr error, got a bsod now so running chkdsk, geeeez! Oh and I forgot to mention when I realized it was not vista I had set the bios to defaults that only made things worse, it went to ahci which took it off compatibility mode so XP did not recognize the drive!
 
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ell said:
AGH! I couldn't fix it cuz its XP!!! No wonder I was stuck, duh. COA sticker said vista business. I noticed something odd about the file system, then it dawned on me there was a documents & settings folder in the root of C, I did a little digging and found the file version of ntoskrnl.exe was 5.1 = XP !!! Pulled out my xp disc and fixed the mbr and ntldr error, got a bsod now so running chkdsk, geeeez!
Click to expand...

oh man... yeah that'll do it.
Nice catch btw, I know a lot of vista customers in the area downgraded to XP when it was first released. (not by me).
 
GCS said:
oh man... yeah that'll do it.
Nice catch btw, I know a lot of vista customers in the area downgraded to XP when it was first released. (not by me).
Click to expand...

Yeah nothing like wasting about 3 hours! Oh well at least I didn't cave in and nuke & pave, but I'm not out of the woods yet.
 
AdamsAPlus said:
Have you tried the boot fixes on the Hiren's Disk. They have gotten me out of a jam several times.
Click to expand...

Which tool in hirens? I did dig around in it but all I found were a couple command line ones and I didn't want to spend more time trying to figure it out.
 
ell said:
ok, I got this thinkpad with vista business on it, boots to ntldr missing error. I managed to get it to bootmgr missing now. I did all the bootrec options I could think of:
fixmbr, fixboot, rebuildbcd comes up with the "Successfully scanned windows installations.Total identified Windows installations: 0" message every time, I marked the partition as active, hard disk is fine, bios is set to defaults, used dart and tried mbr fix and chkdsk/f, found errors and fixed them, I can see windows and all directories fine in the C directory with dart explorer. Seems no matter what I do I can't write a new mbr to this thing. I tried vista dvd, startup repair does nothing and it doesn't see the vista at all in windows selection box, the owners says he deleted something by mistake, I'm at a loss, any other ideas?
Click to expand...

My first step when dealing with this issue is to always boot using the boot menu and selecting the drive JUST IN CASE not saying its likely based on what youve said so far but its just the first thing I always do on boot issues based on freaky situations in the past.

This is one of my bookmarks I use for repairing the bootmgr https://neosmart.net/wiki/recovering-windows-bootloader/ in particular option 3.

Edit: oh I missed he found that it was XP as well lol.
 
Well, not a happy ending after all that debacle, my customer is an accountant and had to pick it up today to finish his clients taxes (can't believe how screwed up this thing is, malware, etc) glad he's not doing MY taxes! anyways, I could only get it to boot in safe mode w/networking after clean up, but that was good enough for him, hes picking it up. I tried clean boot, and it would just hang at a black screen, dvd drive had the ! on it, tried to update drivers, fail I disabled it, still no boot. He says he'll bring it back to me after tax season for a nuke & pave, agh I don't even want to see it again! (I did copy the XP key though just in case!)
 
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Spotmau boot disc has quick fixes for a lot of boot issues, never had a system it couldn't fix what I wanted it too :)
 
had an MBR issue on a customers laptop who tried using windows loader before


Tried literally EVERYTHING to sort the issue but to no avail, then I used a piece of software called EasyRE

https://neosmart.net/EasyRE/

After running that, it took 5 minutes and then fixed it.... I spent literally, 6 hours trying to fix the issue before trying that!
 
ComputerRepairTech said:
My first step when dealing with this issue is to always boot using the boot menu and selecting the drive JUST IN CASE not saying its likely based on what youve said so far but its just the first thing I always do on boot issues based on freaky situations in the past.
Click to expand...

+1 Excellent advice! A time saver and reduces frustration. I'll add you idea to my repertoire.
 
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