2 Win7 partitions no longer bootable after Upgrade of one

[CyberSimian]

> "sigi" wrote:
> Does Recuva or any other Data Recovery Software have to be installed?

I have used RECUVA in the past to recover files that I had deleted by accident. And yes, it does need to be installed in Windows. This means that you have to install RECUVA before you realise that you need it.

In a different newsgroup, a user recently had success using TESTDISK, described here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk

That page says that TESTDISK is installed on various Linux distributions, including "SystemRescue". The latter is a live Linux CD that you boot to perform the rescue actions. That means that you don't need to install it in Windows prior to using it. I actually have "SystemRescue" on a CD, which I used for imaging the partitions on my new laptop (before I purchased BIBM). I have never used TESTDISK. "SystemRescue" can be found here:

http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

The problem with Linux live CDs/DVDs is that they are... Linux. Are you familiar with Linux? If you are not, it may be too big a hurdle to surmount. (I have only a passing acquaintance with Linux.)

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[sigi]

Thank you for your input, CyberSimian. I found a good Tutorial for TestDsk here http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step. But since I am neither good at Linux nor at DOS, I am not sure whether I would not sooner or later come across some problem of syntax or understanding that would require help by experts in a forum other than BIBM, which would take too much time. I would prefer to render my Win7_Koy (the one whose upgrade to Win10 caused my problem) bootable again in order to run Recuva from there.

I thought recovering Win7_Koy using WinRE should be easy enough:
- The partition is designated by BIBM as bootable.
- BIBM sees all the directories.
- Resize (without changing the size) completes successfully.

But unexpectedly booting Win7_Koy failed. I will open a new thread on this problem because we are dealing here mainly with recovering my Win7 Working Partition on HD-0 or its data.

Since I need a Windows partition to operate Recuva from I decided to restore my most recent BIBM image of a Win7 partition of January 2014. I created enough free space at the end of HD-1 and succeeded to restore the image there. I was able to boot it without any problems. The next step will be to install and run Recuva. If I can recover sufficent data I will leave it at that. Otherwise I would restore my full backup of HD-0 and try a different path of actions with the help of this forum.

[sigi]

sigi wrote:
>
> Since I need a Windows partition to operate Recuva from I decided to
> restore my most recent BIBM image of a Win7 partition of January 2014. I
> created enough free space at the end of HD-1 and succeeded to restore the
> image there. I was able to boot it without any problems. The next step will
> be to install and run Recuva. If I can recover sufficent data I will leave
> it at that. Otherwise I would restore my full backup of HD-0 and try a
> different path of actions with the help of this forum.

I must have read somewhere in the KB articles or the postings of Terabyte Support that a lost or corrupted BCD can be edited wihtin another Windows OS that sees the Windows no longer bootable and can assign a drive letter to it.

So I opened BIBM Partition Work and added my lost Win7 partition (with "No BCD store") in the MBR Details of ite Boot Menu Item for the above Win7 restored from the January 2914 image.


S U R P R I S E !

Having changed that Boot Menu Item accordingly, I left Boot Edit and pressed Alt+M (Resume) in order to boot the changed Boot Item for the restored 2014 Win7.

I was utterly perplexed when the screen turned black and white lines of text hurried across the screen for at least ten minutes (I left and can therefore not tell exactly). It looked as if chkdsk /f had been carried out. But that can't be can it?

When I came back I looked at the login screen of the booted Win7 (the one restored from the Image). So, had it been chkdsk it would have been applied to this partition and not to the lost partition which I had just included in the MBR Detail of the Boot Item.

Now I was curious to see what had been changed and opened BIBM Partition Work. The restored partition looked as before. But the lost partition was all of a sudden designated as bootable, the BCD Edit did no longer show "No BCD store" but opened normally and the "Edit File" Button produced the files and folders of the lost partition.

In the restored Win7 I could see and use all the files and folders of the lost Win7 (see Attachment). So I won't have to use any recovery tool. It is all there. I have not yet been missing any data of the lost partition.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I then tried to edit the BCD of the lost partition within BIBM in accordance with KB 492. I went through the whole process without any irregularities. But the lost HD-0 Win7 is not yet bootable.
I am getting the message "A disk read error occurred - Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".

Question 1
What happened on the black screen? Can BIBM automatically start repair action under the circumstances described above or at all?

Question 2
What should I do now in order to make the lost HD-0 Win7 bootable? Follow KB 327 as advised by Terabyte Support in viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2326#p12342

[Bob Coleman]

Recover your data, be thankful you have it and make a backup more often than every two and a half years.

[sigi]

That is understood. I will cerainly learn from this experience and your advice.

But this answer should by no means prevent answers to be given to the two questions in my previous posting. My I again invite members and Terabyte Support to comment on these?

Wrt to Question 1 (black screen) you will find 3 photos in the Attachment. The filenames provide translation of the most important keywords.

[CyberSimian]

sigi wrote:
> Having changed that Boot Menu Item accordingly, I left Boot Edit and pressed Alt+M
> (Resume) in order to boot the changed Boot Item for the restored 2014 Win7.
>
> I was utterly perplexed when the screen turned black and white lines of text hurried
> across the screen for at least ten minutes (I left and can therefore not tell
> exactly). It looked as if chkdsk /f had been carried out. But that can't be can it?

Yes, I think that it is CHKDSK, as shown by the photos that you added in a later post.

The NTFS file system has a "clean/dirty" flag to indicate the health of the file system on disk. When you shutdown Windows by clicking "Shut down", Windows writes any pending file-system changes to the disk, and then sets this flag on the disk to "clean".

When you boot Windows, Windows checks this flag. If it is "dirty", it means that the file system was not shut down correctly. This triggers Windows to run CHKDSK as part of its boot process. In most cases, the file system is only slightly unhealthy, and there may be few or no corrections required. However, in your case your file system was VERY unhealthy, with many corrections required. This may mean that you have in fact lost some files, or that some files have become corrupted. These latter may appear "correct" to Windows, but may actually contain incorrect contents; only you can decide if that is the case.

But at least the partition now boots!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK.

[sigi]

Up to now I have mostly started chkdsk by myself from within the OS I wanted to apply it to. I know that it is carried out upon restart. But I thought chkdsk has always been triggered prior to BIBM (being applied to the partition last booted where I had initiated it) but perhaps my memory misleads me here.

sigi wrote:
>
> When I came back I looked at the login screen of the booted Win7 (the one restored
> from the Image). So, had it been chkdsk it would have been applied to this partition
> and not to the lost partition which I had just included in the MBR Detail of the Boot
> Item.
>

That is the funny thing that after chkdsk on the newly installed Win7 (the one restored from the 2014 Image) my old lost Win7 working partition should have changed so that its data can be used by the new Win7. I don't understand this. I have not yet come across any deterioration of these data. However, in contrast to your understanding the partition is not yet bootable as I did point out in my last post:

> I then tried to edit the BCD of the lost partition within BIBM in accordance with KB
> 492. I went through the whole process without any irregularities. But the lost HD-0
> Win7 is not yet bootable.
> I am getting the message "A disk read error occurred - Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to
> restart".

Therefore I added Qestion 2:
>
> Question 2
> What should I do now in order to make the lost HD-0 Win7 bootable? Follow KB 327 as
> advised by Terabyte Support in
> posting.php?mode=quote&f=2&p=12342?

[CyberSimian]

sigi wrote:
> When I came back I looked at the login screen of the booted Win7 (the one restored
> from the Image). So, had it been chkdsk it would have been applied to this partition
> and not to the lost partition which I had just included in the MBR Detail of the Boot
> Item.

When Windows boots, it checks the "clean/dirty" flag for every NTFS partition that it can see; it is not limited to the partition that is booting. So after you added the lost partition to the boot item, on next boot Windows would have seen that lost partition and checked its "clean/dirty" flag, and run CHKDSK if necessary. From the images you posted, it is not possible to tell from which partition the error messages originate, but I would guess that it is the "lost" partition, and not the partition that you restored from backup.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[CyberSimian]

sigi wrote:
> What should I do now in order to make the lost HD-0 Win7 bootable? Follow KB 327 as
> advised by Terabyte Support?

I have never had to use that procedure myself, but it looks as though it might be appropriate for your circumstances.

I would suggest creating a BIBM image of the partition that you are trying repair, before making any changes to it. If the procedure does not fix the partition (or makes it worse), you will then be able to restore the partition to its state prior to trying that procedure. This would allow you to try other possible solutions (if any can be identified).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[sigi]

CyberSimian wrote in viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2257&start=40#p12395:
>
> When Windows boots, it checks the "clean/dirty" flag for every NTFS
> partition that it can see; it is not limited to the partition that is booting. So
> after you added the lost partition to the boot item, on next boot Windows would have
> seen that lost partition and checked its "clean/dirty" flag, and run CHKDSK
> if necessary. From the images you posted, it is not possible to tell from which
> partition the error messages originate, but I would guess that it is the
> "lost" partition, and not the partition that you restored from backup.
>

Very clear explanation. Thank you.



CyberSimian wrote in viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2257&start=40#p12396:
>
> I would suggest creating a BIBM image of the partition that you are trying repair,
> before making any changes to it. If the procedure does not fix the partition (or
> makes it worse), you will then be able to restore the partition to its state prior to
> trying that procedure. This would allow you to try other possible solutions (if any
> can be identified).
>

That is exactly what I had planned in the meantime. Even so, it is reassuring to get precise feedback. Thank you again so much.