How to rebuild the boot sector?

Hey there.

So, here's the deal:
I was running a dual boot setup with Windows 7 and Windows 10 on two separate drives.

While I was booting into my Windows 7 HDD, the SATA power cable somehow came loose, and ever since then, I haven't been able to boot from that specific drive.

The error I keep getting looks like this:
(image from the web)


If I boot up using my other drive (Windows 10), everything seems fine—I can access the files on the broken drive, move them around, and do whatever I need to do.

Here is what I've tried so far:
- Running startup repair from a recovery disc
- Trying startup repair from an installation disc
- Cloning the HDDa onto a different drive and attempting startup repair again

I guess I was wondering if anyone might have some other ideas worth trying?

In a worst-case scenario, I'll just reinstall Windows, but I'd really prefer to keep my current OS setup exactly as it is, since it's pretty heavily customized.

Thanks a lot.

Matthew Jones4 said:Thanks so much.

It looks like you'll need to fix that boot file.
https://neosmart.net/wiki/bootmgr-is...ebuild_the_BCD

Matthew Jones4 said:Hey there.

So, here’s the deal:
I was running a dual boot setup with Windows 7 and Windows 10 on two separate drives.

While I was booting up into my Windows 7 HDD, the SATA power cable accidentally popped loose, and since then, I haven't been able to boot from that drive at all.

The error message looks like this:
Worst case scenario, I'll just wipe everything and reinstall the OS, but I'd really love to save this specific version of Windows exactly how it is, since I've spent quite a bit of time customizing it.

Thanks so much!

Honestly, if any files were being written when the power or data connection cut out, they're likely going to be corrupted or completely unreadable. Even though the previous post mentioned that tweaking the boot file might work, if you ask me, these Windows files aren't going to load properly again unless you do a full, clean reinstall from scratch—especially if we're talking about a .log file issue.

But hey, I suppose it's still worth a shot.

Hey there.

I got caught up in some repairs, so I guess I didn't really think to check back on this thread.

It looks like Windows started running its own recovery process on its own, but I guess it didn't quite manage to pull it off.
After that, I kept getting the error shown in the photo, so I had to basically go through the whole manual process of accessing the system Recovery Options using a disc.
I managed to get the system recovery finished using an installation disc, which seems to have worked out fine, I guess.

Even after all that, the boot still wouldn't work, so I went ahead and followed the steps David suggested:
I guess you could try running bootrec /fixmbr, though I suspect that might not be enough on its own to get things moving again.
I guess you might want to try running bootrec /fixboot, though I suspect that might not actually solve the issue you're seeing.
I guess you might want to try running bootrec /rebuildbcd, though I suppose that depends on how much trouble your boot configuration is actually causing.

The boot attempt didn't really go anywhere, and I guess that error from the screenshot is still hanging around.

I guess this next issue popped up right after that last step was finished.

I still can't seem to get into Windows, and even after trying that recovery through the command prompt, I haven't had any luck getting into this version of system Recovery Options at all, I guess.
I kept getting that error message saying this version of system Recovery Options isn't actually compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair, which basically tells me I should probably just go find a recovery disc that actually works with this specific version of Windows.

It just won't work, for goodness' sake. I had everything ready and gave it a shot:
I guess I might be running into an issue where the installation disc keeps throwing that error message, saying this version of system Recovery Options isn't actually compatible.
I guess I'm seeing that "this version of system Recovery Options is not compatible" error message again when I try using the recovery CD... maybe there's a reason for that.

I booted up some other Windows from a different drive, then installed Microsoft Partition Assistant and made a clone onto another HDD, just in case I can't manage to fix things and rebuild the MBR.

I also downloaded this from the web:
I guess I’m also running into that error on the recovery disc where it says, "This version of system Recovery Options is not compatible..."
I tried using a downloaded recovery disc, but I kept getting that error message saying this version of system Recovery Options isn't compatible. I guess it might be a mismatch with the current setup, maybe.

I was reading somewhere online that sometimes things just don't go as planned when you try running a recovery through the BIOS instead of just using a standard disc. I guess it's possible for it to fail, maybe.

I used Rufus to burn that same torrented installation media onto a thumb drive.

I guess even that last one managed to get into this version of system Recovery Options without triggering that "This version of system recovery is not compatible..." error message.
The system recovery did its thing, so I guess I'm booting up normally now.

I guess I don't really get why the original disc I used to install Windows couldn't handle the repair, nor could the recovery disc or those two I downloaded from the web, maybe.
The CDs were just burned, so I guess it's unlikely they're actually defective.

I guess I swapped out the motherboard after messing around with the command prompt, though I'm really not sure if that actually changed anything.
I guess I’m just wondering why that last .iso actually worked when I tried to build a recovery drive, whereas all the previous ones—even though they were identical to the installation media—just wouldn't cut it.

So, that's where things stand. I've been wrestling with this since yesterday afternoon—I only actually got around to starting this forum thread today after finishing up some torrenting—and it's honestly been a total rollercoaster of problems and fixes.
I find it a bit hard to believe that such a "stupid" fix was really just a matter of having a different installation disc on hand.

Thanks for the suggestions; I guess they might help someone else down the road. 👍