Win7 Install successful; Dual boot OS now trashed
Hello, I was directed to this forum by Gokul T - Microsoft Support, Moderator of the Windows 7 Install, Upgrade and Activate forum. My plan was to completely remove a Release Candidate version of Windows 7 x86 and replace it with the released version of Windows 7 Ultimate x64. First, I need to provide a bit of context ... The machine that I use for OS evaluations has four hard disks. Two internal SATA drives store data and are not involved in this issue. The primary internal SATA drive is (was?) dual boot between Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise edition x86 and Windows Vista Ultimate x86. An IDE removable drive contained a bootable partition with the RC version of Win7 plus a data partition. The machine is based on an Abit IP35 Pro motherboard with Intel Core2 Duo E6750 and 4 GB of RAM. I used the machine's BIOS to set the boot order so that the removabable IDE drive was the boot drive. I confirmed a successful boot into the RC version of Win7. The BIOS boot order made it look like this was not a multiboot configuration i.e. no multi-boot menu. I then booted from the Win7 x64 DVD and removed both partitions associated with the previous RC Win 7 x86 installation. This includes the 100 MB partition and the ~32 GB Win7 RC system partition. I pointed the Win7 x64 installation program at the resulting unpartitioned space and proceded with the installation. The Win7 x64 installation seemed to complete normally (three reboots). Following the first log-in, it installed two updates and rebooted. When using the Disk Management console after the first login, I did not observe a 100 MB hidden partition. I found it strange that all three operatings systems were listed on a multi-boot menu. As was the case with my previous Win7 RC x86 install, the boot order established by the BIOS should have allowed only the Win 7 drive to be visible. I believe that this was the first clue that I was headed for trouble. I logged in to Win 7 and forced a search for updates. It attempted to download and install roughly 26 updates; roughly 20 were successful, 6 failed. After the reboot, the BIOS produced a message indicating that there was no operating system on the boot drive. Ouch ! That was unexpected. I changed the BIOS boot order to put the internal SATA drive as first. Again, I was able to see all three operating systems on the boot menu. I booted into Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise and confirmed that it was healthy. I booted into Vista Ultimate and confirmed that it was healthy. I booted into Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and completed installation of the 6 updates that had previously failed. After reboot, since all appeared to be going well with Win7, I booted back to the BIOS with the intent of returning to the normal configuration where the removeable drive is off-line. I powered down the removable drive. Note that the BIOS boot order had previously been set such the internal SATA drive was first. When selecting "Previous version of Windows" (i.e. my Windows Server 2003 installation) from the boot menu, the boot failed immediately with a message indicating that \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM was missing or corrupt and that I should attempt to repair from the Setup CD. I need guidance on how best to recover from this problem. I am concerned that following the instructions to repair from the setup CD will replace that registry file with a generic one from the CD. Also, this approach might clobber the multi-boot configuration and leave both Vista and Win7 inaccessable. I don't want to risk that without additional confirmation that is the correct approach. After re-power-on of the removable drive, the boot menu entries for Windows Vista and Win7 x64 continue to boot successfuly into the respective operating systems. In fact, I am writing this message while booted under Win7. Multiple attempts at rebooting into Windows Server 2003 have all produced that same message (even with the removable drive powered on). I have a full system backup taken under Vista at the start of my process. If I need to restore, that would likely be the best starting point. Before I do any kind of restore, can anyone tell me what exactly went wrong and how to best recover operation of my Windows Server 2003 R2 x86 system (without destroying the multi-boot that is now in place) ? Is there any chance that I have encountered a bug in the Win7 setup code ? Thanks.
June 24th, 2010 8:33pm

Can we talk Disc0 and Disc1 where you tell us what's (supposed to be) on which disc? And speak in terms of what happens when you set the BIOS to boot first from Disc0 vs. Disc1 and vice versa? Also, was your Windows 7 install an upgrade or a full license?
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June 26th, 2010 3:22am

Hello hmmmm..... It took a bit of effort, but I have created a set of Windows Disk Management screenshots, plus a separate set of Windows System Information .nfo files. You can download the screenshots from: https://rcpt.yousendit.com/899060871/f64e17798fce0a73ff6eda3b916d29f2 When looking at the screenshots, note that the operating system used to take the respective screenshot is highlighted. You can see how the definition of Disk 0 changes depending on whether or not the removable IDE drive is powered on. From my earlier entry in this thread, you should be able to see that Win7 x64 got installed onto the first partition of the removable IDE drive. The now damaged installation of Windows Server 2003 R2 x86 is the first partition on the first internal SATA drive which appears as Disk 0 when the removable IDE drive is not powered on. More information about boot volumes is available from the Windows System Information Files. The file names indicate the OS that was active when the .nfo file was generated and also the state of the removable IDE drive. You can download the Windows System Information Files from: https://rcpt.yousendit.com/899061245/0b3c4e22aac09fc59b97a83a9b4ecb28 The Abit BIOS refers to the first internal SATA drive as "SCSI-0". It refers to the removable IDE drive as "SCSI-3" Before I began this adventure, everything was working well. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition x86 and Windows Vista Ultimate x86 are installed as the first and second partitions respectively of the first internal SATA drive (called disk 0 if the removable IDE drive is not powered on and disk 1 if the removable IDE drive is powered on). The Abit BIOS refers to this drive as "SCSI-0". At the start, the release candidate version of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 was installed onto the first partition of the IDE removable drive. It didn't matter if the removable IDE drive was powered on or not, if SCSI-0 was at the top of the boot order, I would see a boot menu offering the opportunity to boot into either Windows Server or Vista. If SCSI-3 was at the top of the boot order, the machine would boot directly into Win7 RC. At the current time, after the sequence described in the first entry of this thread, if SCSI-0 is at the top of the boot order, I see a boot menu with three entries: Previous version of Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista. The entry for previous version of Windows produces the "missing or corrupt \Windows\System32\Config\System" message. The entry for Vista produces the expected boot into Vista. If the removable IDE drive is powered on, the entry for Windows 7 produces the expected boot into Windows 7. If SCSI-3 is at the top of the boot order, I get a message: "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". The Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation DVD was a full license (not upgrade) DVD. To repeat what I am hoping to get out of this discussion ... Can you provide advice on the best recovery path to restore access to my Windows Server 2003 R2 system ? If I follow the advice in the error message and run the repair sequence from the Windows Server 2003 R2 CD, will I end up with the registriy files of a clean install ? Will it remove the multi-boot configuration that is currently in place (thus blocking my current access to Vista and Windows 7) ? Thanks for your help.
June 28th, 2010 3:40am

The first thing to do, if possible, is to image that disc by booting into an OS on another disc and doing a full image backup. In a repair shop if that was a critical disc, two full image backups would be made. That way no matter what happens, you can always go back to where you were (are). With respect to whether a Repair would rewrite the entire registry or only repair what's necessary, I don't know. Maybe someone who does know will come along. There are many people on here much more qualified than me to answer that question. Can you boot into Windows 7 and image the disc the Server OS is on?
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June 28th, 2010 5:23am

Hello again, As mentioned in the first entry in this thread, "I have a full system backup taken under Vista at the start of my process". I plan to get another full backup under Windows 7 before I make any recovery attempts. Where should I go to learn more about the repair process that is invoked from the Install CD ? It looks like I will need to start with the Windows Server 2003 R2 CD. If that breaks the dual boot configuration and thus my access to Vista, I may need to follow up with a repair from the Vista CD. If that is necessary, I will most likely be required to also execute a repair from the Windows 7 DVD to recover multi-boot access to that OS. Somehow, I have a really bad feeling about going down this road. It sure would be nice if I could get some pointers from someone who's already been there.
June 28th, 2010 5:36pm

While this thread never did produce the desired advice, I now have some good news regarding my previously broken multi-boot situation. I don't know exactly why my installation of Windows Server 2003 was rendered unbootable. I don't know exactly why it is now bootable again. I'll just say that I am happy to have it functioning again. While I don't think that it is related, I did disconnect the three internal SATA drives and then removed and reinstalled Windows 7 Ultimate x64 onto the removable IDE drive. This time I got the 100 MB boot partition that was missing in the previous install. I then reconnected the internal SATA drives and confirmed that I could control what boots with the BIOS boot order setting. After that, I booted from the Windows Server 2003 R2 installation CD and launched the repair environment. However, I didn't actually issue any commands to repair anything. I simply ran the Help function and reviewed the function of any command line utility that seemed remotely related to my problem (" ... missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system"). I didn't find anything that looked promising, so I terminated the session. On the next boot ... I really should have tested my assumption that no changes had been made ... I hit F8 with the idea that I would invoke the "last known good" approach to recovering the registry. This produced what looked like the Windows Server 2003 multi-boot menu. There was only one entry - Windows Server. I selected it. Windows Server 2003 booted successfully and appeared to be healthy. All reboots since then have produced the most recent multi-boot menu that has three entries: Previous Version of Windows, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The previously unusable version of Windows Server 2003 now boots just fine after selecting the "Previous version of Windows" entry. So, while I don't really understand why or how, I seem to be back to a healthy multi-boot configuration without ever having to do a full reconstruction from backup.
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July 5th, 2010 1:07am

It seems there are two seperate boot stores containg the BCD file on two seperate disks. You need to consolidate all of the os entries on one boot store (BCD) located in the "boot" folder to one of the hard drives.
July 5th, 2010 10:53am

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