How to recovery Windows 7 MBR with only Lenovo recovery disk (without Windows 7 installation disk)

Question

I have a Lenovo T420 with Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium installed. I only have 4 recovery discs which is made when I got the laptop. There is no original Windows 7 installation disc.

Now I messed up the MBR and found people are suggesting using bootrec (boot recovery) on Windows 7 installation disc to fix the MBR. I've borrowed a Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate DVD and try using it. But I got the error message:

The version of system recovery options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of windows.

And looks like my original recovery disc can only perform a factory recovery. So how can I fix the Windows 7 MBR in this case?

Answer 1

I had the same problem, after "ghosting" a ThinkCentre M91p. I just saw a blinking cursor...

1. Download or make a Windows 7 Recovery Disk (64 Bits in my case). (32Bits Recovery Disk doesn't works with 64 Bits OS and vice versa ! even if you just need to access to the command line)
2. bootrec.exe /FixMbr
3. bootrec.exe /FixBoot
4. bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd

5. It doesn't detect my OS Partition so I had to execute:

   bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
   c:
   cd boot
   attrib bcd -s -h -r
   ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
   

6. bootrec /RebuildBcd

Windows restart correctly but the recovery button (F11) doesn't works...

If someone has managed to ghost a Thinkcentre M91p with all partitions (BOOT + OS + RECOVERY) please tell us how you did it!

Answer 2

After the diagnosis, found that there are 3 partitions on the drive:

1. SYSTEM_DRV (1GB) active
2. OS (100GB)
3. Lenovo_Recovery (15GB)

Where I should set OS partition to active, not SYSYEM_DRV. This fixed the issue.

I also found that EasyBCD can help to diagnose or repair the bootloader.