What happens if:

[LOGiK]

I'm usually better on computing things than this, but basically something is broken with my hard drive MBR and windows wont boot, I've tried fixing with the windows 7 tools to no avail, also tried installing grub and other things to fix it, nothing is working.

My data is still there.

I want to preserve my program files and settings, so, if I install a fresh copy of windows onto another HD, then using linux copy all my files from the old HD to the new one and overwrite it, will it restore windows as I had it or will something else break?

[itsnotarace]

You have two options > install Windows over the top of the existing installation - DO NOT delete the partition and format the drive at this point. All your data will remain in-situ

The other option is to install Windows to a new drive, then mount the old drive as an additional drive (D and then just copy back your files and data onto the new install (not the entire disk including windows installation folders)

[Popolou]

Dangerous area tbh. The Win7 repair tools actually can do a good job of repairing almost all MBR issues. What does it say when it checks and reports on it's attempts to repair the disk?

Rgds
Pops

[LOGiK]

Sometimes it says it's found errors and is correcting, other times it finds none. I went through a guide of using the command prompt as a repair tool and did some things there too to no avail...

I don't just need the data, it's all the configuration of files. I've about 4 hours of registry config invested in the install that I really don't want to lose

I think I'm gonna replace the sata cable, probably to no effect, but it's not gonna cost anything to do either. All these issues started when I was playing around with linux and switching sata cables around so something may be involved there

[Popolou]

Ok. If i'm with you on this, it's a bigger issue than MBR. Does the Win7 boot loader mean anything to you perhaps? Did you read an article that referred to BCDedit?

Win7/vista is unique in that it uses a folder on the system drive to load the OS. And, it makes references to the loader that has the data on which drive and what folder the OS is actually located. MS did a good job of making it foolproof, but a duff linux install and/or moving disks around can leave things a bit messy.

If you can get to a dos prompt (recovery screen in OS install mode) type in BCDedit and review what it says. If anything seems off then read up on the syntax and put it right.

I've spent hours on such things and it can be a headache so you perhaps need to consider where the time is better spent.

Rgds
Pops

[LOGiK]

Popolou said:

Ok. If i'm with you on this, it's a bigger issue than MBR. Does the Win7 boot loader mean anything to you perhaps? Did you read an article that referred to BCDedit?

Win7/vista is unique in that it uses a folder on the system drive to load the OS. And, it makes references to the loader that has the data on which drive and what folder the OS is actually located. MS did a good job of making it foolproof, but a duff linux install and/or moving disks around can leave things a bit messy.

If you can get to a dos prompt (recovery screen in OS install mode) type in BCDedit and review what it says. If anything seems off then read up on the syntax and put it right.

I've spent hours on such things and it can be a headache so you perhaps need to consider where the time is better spent.

Rgds
Pops

What I read referred to entirely rewriting the MBR - I can't remember the commands, there were two different ones I attempted and neither changed anything.

The weird issue I had during all this is at one point it couldn't find my hard drive which makes me wonder if there's an issue with the cable.

Either way, I don't have the system to hand now, but this is why I wondered if just installing on another hard drive and directly writing over all the files with what is on my current hard drive is a possibility as I've a surplus of drives right now and it would be, for me, the quickest and simplest solution if it would work.

I do know such things are often not so simple though...

[itsnotarace]

You can't copy a registry over a registry. You can export and then import. Good practice is to always export registry before making changes, so you can restore if there is a problem. Maybe something to consider in the future.

[The_Jackal]

If I was you my first priority would be to boot from a Linux LiveCD and backup all the data I want to keep to an external drive.
If your system has an inherrent problem/fault just copying it over the top of another fresh install is not going to make matters any better. You obviously love fiddling so the following shouldnt be a hardship.

Recover your data to an external drive
Install a fresh OS
Rebuild the perfect setup with all your apps and configs

Then BACK IT UP and keep it updated.............

Dont waste time trying to polish a turd, sort the immediate problem then start from fresh and do things properly. Your future will be much easier and less troublesome.

[LOGiK]

The_Jackal said:

Rebuild the perfect setup with all your apps and configs

This is the issue, it's going to take literally hours to do. As weird as this sounds, I'd look forward to a gentoo install more than trying to get this back and I'm not a linux master by any means.

LiveCD's are running fine, as is linux on another hard drive, data access is fine, it's just booting windows, no matter what I did it wasn't having it. I'm only asking if it's possible really, I guess I should just try, I wouldn't be losing the data I have so it's riskless really, it might just waste a couple of hours.

[gowmonster]

so what bit is it failing at?

so you can see your data if you use a cd/dvd to go into recovery mode? have you done a chkdisk on the partition?

have you tried running the following command in a command prompt once in recovery mode?

bootsect /nt60 C:\

assuming you had it on a c drive and it's the first partition on the disk.

[LOGiK]

gowmonster said:

so what bit is it failing at?

so you can see your data if you use a cd/dvd to go into recovery mode? have you done a chkdisk on the partition?

have you tried running the following command in a command prompt once in recovery mode?

bootsect /nt60 C:\

assuming you had it on a c drive and it's the first partition on the disk.

That was one of the ones I did, I also did the other NT option and another command. I've chkdsk'd, I've done everything, when it boots it either gives a missing file error which isn't missing and has been replaced or it just sticks on a blinking white _ on a black screen.

Something's wrong and nothing makes sense

[gowmonster]

LOGiK said:

That was one of the ones I did, I also did the other NT option and another command. I've chkdsk'd, I've done everything, when it boots it either gives a missing file error which isn't missing and has been replaced or it just sticks on a blinking white _ on a black screen.

Something's wrong and nothing makes sense

sounds like one of the system files has become corrupt, perhaps an unclean shutdown. if it were me,
i'd try copying all my data off it first, then i'd try to see if the recovery process could restore a system restore point.

if that fails i'd move the windows folder out the way in the recovery mode and do a rescue install on top. and attempt to see what is different, but i'm guessing that there will probably be a lot of differences.

time spent trying to fix it vs time getting all your customisations back....

hindsight - do a system state backup to an external usb disk next time

[Dogwatch]

LOGiK said:

Something's wrong and nothing makes sense

Could it be about to go belly up?

[lestag]

LOGiK said:

That was one of the ones I did, I also did the other NT option and another command. I've chkdsk'd, I've done everything, when it boots it either gives a missing file error which isn't missing and has been replaced or it just sticks on a blinking white _ on a black screen.

Something's wrong and nothing makes sense

the missing file thats not missing..... rename it , then put a new one in.
does chdsk give an error on completion?
could well be that disk is on way out and cant repair bad sectors
the missing file proably has bad sectors in it. deleting it and replacing it, the os will likely use the same bit of the {bad) disk. renaming the file keeps the bad sector "safe" fron reuse and putting a new file in there will hopefully get put on a good bit of disk.
You should be able to boot then

[LOGiK]

Update: Replaced the SATA cables and it's now running perfectly!

Weird I know but yeah, all fixed, thanks for the advice/suggestions/help
though last known good config ruined my drivers

[gowmonster]

I'd never have suspected that!

Good to hear you got it fixed.