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Short Version:

  • Moved Windows 7 partition on disk to 0 (location on disk)
  • Expanded partition to fill up HDD
  • reboot and boom, no boot.
  • wrote new mbr from Parted Magic
  • still broken and Windows 7 not finding files for anything

Long Version:

I shrunk Windows 7 from inside Windows 7 to install Windows 8. Enjoyed it, removed it, installed Ubuntu into the same space then removed Ubuntu and moved Windows 7 over 20GB then expanded the partition to fill the disc. Reboot and forgot about grub, booted from Parted Magic and used TestDisk to write MBR. Windows 7 can't find autochk, halts and BSODs after the autochk failure, and if you choose the startup repair can't find that either.

Tools at my disposal:

  • System in question
  • Parted Magic
  • Ubuntu 8.04.4 (my personal favorite)
  • Windows 7 System Repair Disc
  • Google
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  • If you boot from the Ubuntu disk, then you can recover your personal docs and data, right? If so, back that stuff up and reformat! Jan 29, 2013 at 6:39
  • ^ not an option, My windows has stuff that I need, VS2008 projects, custom made reg keys, ~2 years of downloads. I would much rather find a way to make windows 7 bootable again than do 2 weeks of resaving data. besides money constraints. I'm a student and i need to make this the fastest repair possible.
    – Cole Busby
    Jan 29, 2013 at 6:52

2 Answers 2

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You need to mark that partition as an Active partition. You can do this from another windows computer by right clicking on computer then go to manage then the storage snap in and then with the drive installed located the drive and partition and mark as active.

It will then be able to boot. There are ways to do this without a second computer just using recovery from the install dvd.

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  • If I'm reading this correctly, then you are telling me that i need to make it the primary bootable partition. It is and was.
    – Cole Busby
    Jan 29, 2013 at 18:06
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After 48 hours and the urge of a pile of homework I need to do, I decided to format and reinstall, To Mods: Please don't delete the question as eventually i plan to reproduce the problem and find a fix. To future viewers: Best suggestion is to not move your partition after you have shrunk it, if anything before you plan on moving it, google around and MAKE BACKUPS!

I suggest Clonezilla for an image maker or using the Ultimate Boot Disk.

tl;dr No solution was found 48 hours later, reformatted and reinstalled. if at all possible, use windows recovery disk to run bootrec BEFORE testdisk's rewrite of the MFT and MBR. good luck!

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