[phillpower2]

You may need to run it 2-3 times, see http://www.sevenforu...tup-repair.html

[owen5]

phillpower2, on 06 April 2012 - 01:31 PM, said:

You may need to run it 2-3 times, see http://www.sevenforu...tup-repair.html

Nope, still not working. I've run it 5 times now. Still says that the root cause is that the MBR is corrupt. Any ideas?

[phillpower2]

Unfortunately only a full installation disk can be used to fix the MBR so the next thing to try is a Restore point, see Option 2 http://www.sevenforu...em-restore.html

[owen5]

phillpower2, on 06 April 2012 - 01:56 PM, said:

Unfortunately only a full installation disk can be used to fix the MBR so the next thing to try is a Restore point, see Option 2 http://www.sevenforu...em-restore.html

Ok, I think this is going to be a problem too......

When starting the system recovery there was no option to select which operating system to repair - the list was blank. I have just clicked system restore and it says:

"To use System Restore, you must specify which Windows installation to restore.
Restart this computer, select an operating system, and then select System Restore"

Any other ideas?

[phillpower2]

Running out of ideas now, as you do not have a disk I am hoping that you may have a recovery partition on the HDD
http://www.sevenforu...ry-options.html other than this I feel that you are going to need to borrow a Windows 7 disk.

[owen5]

phillpower2, on 06 April 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

Running out of ideas now, as you do not have a disk I am hoping that you may have a recovery partition on the HDD
http://www.sevenforu...ry-options.html other than this I feel that you are going to need to borrow a Windows 7 disk.

There was a recovery partition, but I have already tried a recovery boot and it wouldn't work.

Assuming I could lay my hands on a Windows 7 disk would I need the product key?

[wannabe1]

Hello owen5...

Give this a shot...

Boot to the repair disk you made and when you get to the options, choose Command Prompt.

In the command session window, type bootrec /fixmbr and press Enter. (note the space after bootrec) This should rebuild the MBR. When it finishes, type exit and press Enter to exit the command session.

Remove the disk from the optical drive and see if it will boot to Windows.

wannabe1

[owen5]

wannabe1, on 06 April 2012 - 03:34 PM, said:

Hello owen5...

Give this a shot...

Boot to the repair disk you made and when you get to the options, choose Command Prompt.

In the command session window, type bootrec /fixmbr and press Enter. (note the space after bootrec) This should rebuild the MBR. When it finishes, type exit and press Enter to exit the command session.

Remove the disk from the optical drive and see if it will boot to Windows.

wannabe1

Thanks for your help.

I have tried this. The prompt starts X:\windows\system32>
I typed bootrec /fixmbr
I got the message "A device attached to the system is not functioning"

But I haven't got anything attached to the laptop???

Does this mean anything to you?

[wannabe1]

It means the HDD is probably toast.

Go back to the command prompt and type chkdsk /r c: and press Enter. If this will run, it's going to take a while...or should.

Let us know what happens when you try to run this.

I'll be stepping out for about an hour...if the disk check runs, I should be back before it finishes.

[owen5]

I get the message "Cannot open volume for direct access" Doesn't sound good......

[phillpower2]

Quote

Assuming I could lay my hands on a Windows 7 disk would I need the product key?

Two programs that will legitimately provide your OS product details for you, be sure to write them down and keep them secure, that is of course that the HDD has not failed http://www.belarc.co...e_download.html or http://www.gtopala.com/

Meanwhile wannabe1 may have an option or two for you to try.

[wannabe1]

Are you able to boot into the BIOS Setup?

If you can, does BIOS list your HDD?

If it does, what is the number associated with the drive?

Your product key should be printed on the COA sticker...usually affixed to the bottom of the machine.

[owen5]

Ok, yes I can boot into BIOS.

The HDD is listed as: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0-(S1).

Unfortunately the product key has worn off the sticker on the bottom of the laptop!

[wannabe1]

Download Western Digital's Data Lifeguard software (Diag504fCD.iso) and burn it to CD as an ISO image.

Boot your machine with it. Select your drive, then select to run the Extended Test.

This is about the last option we have in recovering the HDD.

[owen5]

Ok this is what I get:

Starting Caldera DR_DOS

Caldera DR-DOS 7.05
Copyright blah blah blah

Causeway error 11 : DOS reported an error or corrupt file found
A:\>

Does that mean anything to you?