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I'm unable to boot into windows on a new windows 7 desktop PC.

The desktop was recently purchased, it has a 2TB mechanical HDD. it was used temporarily to store backups from one of our servers. Unbeknownst to me, the hard drive was getting really full, and now windows will not boot.

Our technician explained to me that Windows 7 has a 2 TB limit, and since the backups filled the hard drive above that capacity, windows can not boot, and the HDD must be reformatted. He referenced this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2581408

I asked him if he can boot with Linux and remove the backup files, he said that it will not help, because windows will not become aware that the files were removed. He refrenced this article http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001463.htm to explain why removing the files externally will not help.

The problem is that lots of time was invested in setting up the PC, and I really cannot afford to go through this again.

Anyone have any suggestions how I can get around this without reformatting the HDD?? Any help is greatly appreciated.

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    have you actually tried to delete or move the files and boot windows?
    – TheUser1024
    Mar 11, 2014 at 7:16
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    The technician is very confused. That article is about drives with more than 2TB capacity. That has nothing to do with how much data is on the disk. The other article he referenced you to is also irrelevant. You are suggesting actually deleting the file, not putting it in a recycle bin. And, again, that would have no effect on the disk's capacity. It seems that this technician doesn't know what he's talking about.
    – David Schwartz
    Mar 11, 2014 at 7:22

2 Answers 2

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The problem is that lots of time was invested in setting up the PC, and I really cannot afford to go through this again.

In this case, you surely have a snapshot/backup of the state of the system after installing it. If you don't have one, the statement above cannot be true.

Anyone have any suggestions how I can get around this without reformatting the HDD?? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Just try what you thought about: delete some files via a Live System. Don't move it to the Recycle Bin (note that a Live System wouldn't probably do that nevertheless, at least if you delete them with rm). After that, there should be some space.

I suppose that not very much space will be needed at the first place, so removing just a few hundred megabytes will probably be sufficient.

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Thanks to all for your input. It turns out it had nothing to do with the 2TB limit. Not sure exactly what they identified, but they attached the HDD to another machine, it worked, they restored the registry, reinstalled it on the old machine, and walla, it worked.

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