Help - Windows 7 boot drive disappeared!

[Koobs123]

Okay So early today i was running a program on windows (in bootcamp) and I needed to get some additional software I downloaded using torrent from my mac to windows side. I decided the best way might be to add a quick partition from my MacHD of 8gigs called STORAGE in MS DOS (FAT) type so when i boot windows it will be able to read it without a problem and I didn't remember if I had access to the mac drive from windows anyways but didn't want to boot twice to find out.

Anyways.... so after I putting what I needed into my new 8gig MS DOS (FAT) partition I tried to boot up windows using OPTION key method and I only have the MACOSX-HD and Mac Recovery-HD now and my Windows-7-HD disappeared.

Can anyone help me? Did i mess something up when adding the partition or something? I made sure I made it in the MAC-HD and not the BOOTCAMP partition. I have no idea what could of caused this. Obviously no Time-Machine on.

What happened?

 

[Koobs123]

okay well now I wanted to test out time machine and noticed this message when creating the partition for it....So obviously i ****ed up because I didnt read that.... anything I can still do?

 

[justperry]

Click on the bootcamp on get info on the disk, how much is taken on that disk, I think the Windows OS is still there on that bootcamp partition.

You could download a trail of Paragon NTFS driver, install it, then go to the NTFS Preference pane and see if Windows is there, if so select as boot up and restart, if it starts from it, it still works.

 

[bili.d.kid]

Its happen to me last month.and i end up reinstalling osx, and windows bootcamp all over again.

 

[Freyqq]

easy to fix. I did this too once. Put in the win 7 dvd and there is an option to repair the MBR. It's called something else, like repairing startup, but that's what it does. Takes ~5 min.

 

[Koobs123]

Click on the bootcamp on get info on the disk, how much is taken on that disk, I think the Windows OS is still there on that bootcamp partition.

You could download a trail of Paragon NTFS driver, install it, then go to the NTFS Preference pane and see if Windows is there, if so select as boot up and restart, if it starts from it, it still works.

easy to fix. I did this too once. Put in the win 7 dvd and there is an option to repair the MBR. It's called something else, like repairing startup, but that's what it does. Takes ~5 min.

JUSTPERRY REPLY
149gigs capacity and 102.9gigs available in the info, but I didnt touch the bootcamp partition, I edited the regular MAC-HD with additional partition but it says my mac-hd has files associated with windows (look at pic above, ull see that warning is for changing the mac-hd not the bootcamp.

I installed paragon and set it to boot the bootcamp partition but no luck. It says "no bootable drive insert boot disk and press any key."

FREYQQ REPLY
And I have a retina macbook so no cd drive to insert windows or a boot disk. I have the ISO file with a bunch of folders... what do I need to do to get to the "repair startup" option? load those on a USB and boot from that? (remind me how that is done if that is the method, or what ever the other method might be)

 

[Koobs123]

 

[Freyqq]

FREYQQ REPLY
And I have a retina macbook so no cd drive to insert windows or a boot disk. I have the ISO file with a bunch of folders... what do I need to do to get to the "repair startup" option? load those on a USB and boot from that? (remind me how that is done if that is the method, or what ever the other method might be)

1. make a bootable USB iso of windows on a flash drive
2. boot off flash drive
3. click startup repair (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/products/features/startup-repair)

 

[Koobs123]

1. make a bootable USB iso of windows on a flash drive
2. boot off flash drive
3. click startup repair (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/products/features/startup-repair)

okay I did step one and two and booted the install ISO but I didn't see the option for startup repair anywhere, only install options.

I got to the point where I would click install, then choose 64x or 84x and after that i think it would just install a new windows7. I didn't see any other options.

also in the link in point 3 it states "Startup Repair is designed to start automatically if Windows detects a startup problem."
So I guess it isn't detecting a problem? is there a method to force the startup repair options to appear?

 

[justperry]

okay I did step one and two and booted the install ISO but I didn't see the option for startup repair anywhere, only install options.

I got to the point where I would click install, then choose 64x or 84x and after that i think it would just install a new windows7. I didn't see any other options.

also in the link in point 3 it states "Startup Repair is designed to start automatically if Windows detects a startup problem."
So I guess it isn't detecting a problem? is there a method to force the startup repair options to appear?

Isn't that the F8 key which gives you boot options, it's been a while since I used Windows so I can be wrong.
Oh, and it seems everything is still there.

 

[Koobs123]

Isn't that the F8 key which gives you boot options, it's been a while since I used Windows so I can be wrong.
Oh, and it seems everything is still there.

its the option key but getting the windows disk to boot isnt the problem. problem is getting the repair startup options. where are they?

EDITED NOTE:
or do you mean f8 once i booted the disk to give me additional options?

 

[justperry]

its the option key but getting the windows disk to boot isnt the problem. problem is getting the repair startup options. where are they?

EDITED NOTE:
or do you mean f8 once i booted the disk to give me additional options?

Yes, I think it's the F8 key which you need to press to get into that menu.

 

[Koobs123]

Isn't that the F8 key which gives you boot options, it's been a while since I used Windows so I can be wrong.
Oh, and it seems everything is still there.

I put whats important in BOLD and RED to help the lazy straight to the pointers again:

Okay I got into the startup repair menu. And I got excited because during the next OPTION boot I could now see my Windows boot drive. What would normally happen after I clicked WINHD was a black screen with a blinking cursor (DOS style) in the top left corner would appear... it would blink for a few moments then I would load windows in the traditional style....Now it seems to just be stuck on that black blinking cursor screen. I waited as long as 15minutes and still nothing. So now it seems to be a new problem and Im not sure what my next remedy might be.

I ran the repair but what worries me is that a a message prompted me that it might need to restart a few times and run again and may restart a few times to make sure everything was repaired correctly. since im booting with option key it isnt restarting naturally like a windows computer would (either from windows or the install disk again)...

what should i try? Help me oh wise half apples!
I really dont want to re-install windows... I know it should be working and seems very close to being repaired.

 

[Koobs123]

Here are some pics to make it perfectly clear of what I did/am doing (sorry for them being so big, not sure how to make them smaller

I now could see the boot drive for window (HD) the following pics are of me doing the process again to show you with two additional errors this time (went smoothly first time)

I didnt see this earlier but i click the repair button

first time when i got the boot to show i clicked the first button

but the first time I did this I didnt get the following two errors (wanted to take pics and got the following error on the second run around)

here is the second error, i just canceled out and somehow it took me to the repair menu

clicked on startup repair

restarted computer

clicked on windows HD

here is the screen i normally got but this time its just stuck on this

 

[Koobs123]

seems like the error on the second time around is more serious than i thought.

i read the following in another forum after googling the error.

"Honestly having been in the situation you are describing there is only one thing that I have found to do. Get your critical docs off the drive if you can and rebuild the OS. Win 7 is not really repairable in this condition unless you are into digging into the registry which is usually where the issue lies. Because you changed languages it appears to have modified the version and there for you can not repair it. I would google for options anyway, but I haven't found a way around this type of an issue and I have been there many time before with win7 and vista. Sorry mate and good luck."

how do I get access to my files, maybe that is just the easier method at this point? Is there a program to explore the BOOTCAMP windows Partition to find the couple files/pics/programs/movies etc. that i have?

 

[justperry]

seems like the error on the second time around is more serious than i thought.

i read the following in another forum after googling the error.

"Honestly having been in the situation you are describing there is only one thing that I have found to do. Get your critical docs off the drive if you can and rebuild the OS. Win 7 is not really repairable in this condition unless you are into digging into the registry which is usually where the issue lies. Because you changed languages it appears to have modified the version and there for you can not repair it. I would google for options anyway, but I haven't found a way around this type of an issue and I have been there many time before with win7 and vista. Sorry mate and good luck."

how do I get access to my files, maybe that is just the easier method at this point? Is there a program to explore the BOOTCAMP windows Partition to find the couple files/pics/programs/movies etc. that i have?

If you enable Developer mode in Disk Utilities there will be an option to "Show All Disks", click on the windows partition and mount it.

Just a tip, always-ALWAYS keep a recent backup.

 

[lam0603]

I had the same issue with you, the bootcamp partition disappear after I re-partition my HDD. I found the solution here, and it works for me.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4144252?start=0&tstart=0