2 Win7 partitions no longer bootable after Upgrade of one

[sigi]

I just ran "list HD 0" in TBWinRE > „TeraByte OSD Tool" and got the information shown in the Attachment. I am not sure whether it shows anything that is not yet contained in my other attachments in this thread. What struck me was the recognition of the file system of the Win7 partition. I don't know whether that is meaningful.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

sigi wrote:
> I will first create a full backup of HD-0 using TBWinRE („Copy a hard
> drive to another hard drive“). I think that should include any „unused
> sectors“, which you mentioned twice. If it doesn't how would I include
> them? Any of the Settings responsible for this?

I would strongly recommend that you create a backup image of the disk instead of copying it. If you copy it and anything gets changed on the copied drive your "backup" may be useless from a data recovery standpoint. In IFW, turn off Simple Operations mode (this option is in Settings). This will enable normal mode and you can control the backup options. Select to back up the entire disk (check the checkbox for the disk item -- it will select all the partitions). On the backup options screen, select the "Backup Unused Sectors" option (if you do the Copy instead, select the "Copy Unused Sectors" option).

> - Where do I run TBOSDT? In TBWinRE: Do I use „TeraByte OSD Tool? In BIBM:
> just press „P“?
> - What is the location of the „current directory“ you mentioned in step 3?
> What would be the command to read it?

From TBWinRE you would run the TeraByte OSD Tool program. From BIBM you run click the icon on the desktop or press 'P'. The current directory will be shown as part of the command prompt. The main thing is to just be aware of the location the files are being saved.

> Then I would like to delete/undelete the partition. Or should I perform
> steps 5 and 6 prior to delete/undelete?

I would try the normal delete/undelete first if you haven't already (as in the steps).

Regarding the TBOSDT screenshot, it's normal for the file system to show up.

[sigi]

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:

>
> I would strongly recommend that you create a backup image of the disk instead of
> copying it. If you copy it and anything gets changed on the copied drive your
> "backup" may be useless from a data recovery standpoint. In IFW, turn off
> Simple Operations mode (this option is in Settings). This will enable normal mode and
> you can control the backup options. Select to back up the entire disk (check the
> checkbox for the disk item -- it will select all the partitions). On the backup
> options screen, select the "Backup Unused Sectors" option (if you do the
> Copy instead, select the "Copy Unused Sectors" option).

Thank you very much for this valuable instruction.

>
> From BIBM you run click the icon on the desktop or press 'P'.
> The current directory will be shown as part of the command prompt.
> The main thing is to just be aware of the location the files are being saved.

When I type P in BIBM I get the command prompt @C:\>
I tried the command "dir" and wondered where all these files and folders are located on my hard drives. A short look at the TBOSDT command reference in the TBOSDT User Manual made it clear to me that this goes far beyond of what I could possibly understand and utilize on my own now or ever. I will just input the two commands
copy sectors 0 147458047 1 bootsect.bin
copy sectors 0 16065 1 bootsect.bin /w
at the above command prompt and rely on its doing what you indicated. But nevertheless I would like to know where all this stuff I get when typing "dir" or when inputting your two commands is located. Which partition on which drive? While awaiting your answer on this, I think I will go ahead with creating an entire disk image backup of HD-0 and HD-1 according to your instructions.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

Those are the files on the BootIt partition (where BIBM is installed). In the case of running TBOSDT from BIBM, the file (bootsect.bin) would be saved to the BootIt partition.

Note that if you ran TBOSDT from TBWinRE the default directory would be on the WinPE RAM disk (X:). Anything saved there would be lost on a reboot (only exists in RAM). If you wanted/needed to keep the files you would need to copy them to another drive. For example, you could copy them to a flash drive.

[sigi]

This was again very helpful and important information for me. Thank you.

There is however one thing that puzzles me i.e. the size of C:
When I ran "dir" at the command prompt @C:\> in BIBM for the first time not knowing then how to stop the listing after the first full screen, I thought that should be the BootIt partition because of all those familiar files. On the other hand it appeared to big for that (38,538,987,336 bytes - cf. Attachment 2). After some trying however I found out how to stop the dir command after the first full screen and got the picture in Attachment 1. To my great surprise there showed up even several partition images I had stored on HD-0. In fact, it looks rather as if this C: contains many partitions of my HD-0. This must be the result of the overlapping Win10 boot partition, which I had deleted in a rash decision, isn't it?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

That's definitely not the small BootIt partition. It's possible that BIBM got installed on one of the existing FAT32 partitions. If you browse them you should be able to tell. For example, from Partition Work you could select a partition and click the "Edit File" button. Don't actually edit a file, but you can see the files/folders on the partition.

[sigi]

I once had BING create a FAT-32 partition on HD-0 and put an image there. Later on I put a second image there and obviously at some occasion I can't remember I let the BIBM installer choose its location and it put BootIt EMBR on this shared partition instead of the dedicated 8 MiB partition that in my opinion (I can't remember) must have pre-existed.

The shared partition now containing BootIt EMBR is W7-VHD-3 (see Attachment). The number of files and directories given for that partition by BIBM's "Edit File" button and by the command "dir /p" at the TBODTS ścripting prompt is identical. The sizes (apart from bootitbm.ini and cdbootf35) are the same (I did not compare all of them but many), the date and time stamps differ from 4 to 7 hours, which is obviously the time difference EUR - US.

I am now faced with the question of whether to save the last and first sectors of the lost Win7 partition to this shared W7-VHD-3 (perhaps I should give it then a more meaningful name) or whether I should take the opportunity to make the dedicated BOOTIT EMBR partition the boss so that the saved sectors would go there. I kindly beg your advice.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

I would go ahead and save the sectors to the W7-VHD-3 partition where BIBM is currently installed. You know where they'll be, which is the important thing. And it's better to avoid other disk changes while trying to recover your data.

[sigi]

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> I would go ahead and save the sectors to the W7-VHD-3 partition where BIBM
> is currently installed. You know where they'll be, which is the important
> thing. And it's better to avoid other disk changes while trying to recover
> your data.

I have saved the sectors and applied delete/undelete to the lost Win7 partition. The result of both is shown in the Attachments.

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Since Undelete found the new 100 MB boot partition and in addition two older unbuntu partitions but not the the pre-existing Windows 7 partition, I am in a different situation than your working assumption stipulated here:

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:54 pm
>
> [Note: You may wish to save the starting and ending sectors for the corrupted Windows
> 7 partition before deleting it (see next step, items 1-4, below).]
> Using BIBM, if you delete the existing corrupted Windows 7 partition (do not use the
> option to clear the boot sector) and then undelete, does it find the new 100MB
> Windows boot partition? Or does it find the pre-existing Windows 7 partition? If it
> finds the 100MB partition again, then you would need to delete it and select the
> option to clear the boot sector. Then try to undelete again. Does it find the
> pre-existing Windows 7 partition? If so, can you access it (browse it, etc.)? From
> what you've described, I would assume not and you'd likely end up with the disk just
> as it is now (or without the Windows 7 partition).
>
> The next step would be to try restoring the backup copy of the partition's boot
> sector. To do this, make a copy of the last sector of the partition and then copy
> that to the first sector.
>
Should I apply your above advice in an analogous manner i.e. deleting 100MB Windows boot partition as well as the two ubuntu partitions selecting the
option to clear the boot sector and then try undelete again before restoring the backup copy of the Win7 boot sector? What about the two Extended partitions containing the ubuntus?

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I have an additional question that may have had implications on the result of the undelete:
When selecting "Undelete" I was asked
"Start on Cylinder 2 ?"
Since I did not know the implications and "Yes" was selected as default, I pressed "Yes". Was this action correct?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

Delete the found Ubuntu partitions, but don't clear the boot sectors -- don't make any writing changes in that space. Same with any other partitions it finds there. The entire space should be "Free Space" since it was all used by the Windows 7 partition.

Then delete the 100MB partition and select to clear the boot sector. At that point you could try the undelete again and see if it finds the Windows 7 partition (it most likely won't). If it finds other partitions again, just delete them (don't clear the boot sectors). Should be all "Free Space" again.

Use TBOSDT to restore the boot sector. Then try the undelete again.