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While getting rid of dual-booted Linux I tried recovering Windows 7's bootloader with EasyBCD. (one-click process described in this video)

However, something went wrong and now GRUB is gone as it should be, but Windows 7's bootloader probably wasn't recovered correctly. When I try to boot into Windows it gets stuck forever on the screen with the Windows logo. It seems to get stuck there even when booting from a Windows 7 repair USB I created.

When I try to boot Linux Mint from live USB it says

Kernel panic - not syncing: Out of memory and no killable processes...

drm_kms_helper: panic occurred, switching back to text console

I also tried booting Slitaz as a more lighweight distro but it can't load the desktop environment either.

Is there anything I can do at this point to boot into any OS?

3 Answers 3

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Using the Windows 7 DVD boot into Windows Recovery and bring up a CMD window, you should be able to use 'bcdboot C:\Windows' to recreate the C:\Boot directory as well as the C:\Boot\BCD file. (Assuming C:\ is where the installation directory is).

If you didn't delete the original Windows 7 hidden 100MB partition you could use 'bootrec /rebuildbcd' instead.

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  • Sorry, should have been more clear. By "I don't have Windows repair CD" I meant I don't have any Windows 7 CD or DVD. And really not any quick way to get one. Dec 10, 2013 at 15:32
  • I'm sorry. I must have missed that part. ;) Without any way to get into a Windows environment on the local machine it's not easy to rebuild the BCD store. You could attach the HDD to another Windows machine to build a new BCD but that's rather excessive. Last time this happened to me I was unable to fix the issue from Ubuntu and had to download a copy of Windows from my MSDN account. Have you another Windows computer you could use to attempt to create a BCD?
    – Robula
    Dec 10, 2013 at 15:41
  • Well, I have this old Windows XP computer I'm currently at but I don't really feel very comfortable disassembling 2 computers (especially because I haven't done anything like that before and no idea how I would start). I actually don't really care about the Windows installation much now and would prefer overwriting the bootloader with GRUB and loading to Linux if possible. Dec 10, 2013 at 15:59
  • I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything you can do without a working Vista or above OS (be it on another computer or from a CD/USB/WinPE environment). As for reinstalling GRUB2, it's relatively easy to do from a Linux Live CD and there are plenty of guides out there. (howtoubuntu.org/…) Best of luck.
    – Robula
    Dec 10, 2013 at 16:08
  • Thanks for your time. However, the problem is I can't even boot into Linux with Live CD or USB at this point. Dec 10, 2013 at 16:15
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I saw you dont have a win7 repair DVD... You could ask someone with windows 7 to let you burn a DVD with it. Also, the repair DVD ISO's are floating around online. Not sure if it's legal to post a link though, so I won't.

If you can get your hands on a repair DVD or install DVD, use the repair utilities command prompt to run bootrec.exe /fixmbr.

You really do need a windows repair or install DVD.

Might have a failed RAM chip. Try replacing your current RAM with new pieces. One of them may have failed.

Source: Happened to an old Dell Inspiron 1420 I once owned, long ago.

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It happened to me too. I couldn't boot using Live USB of Windows 7, 8, Ubuntu 14.04 and Boot-repair iso. Finally, I could format my drive and reinstall everything only when booting with Ubuntu 10.10. Hope this hint may help someone in the future.

Cheers.

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