Quite often users personal computer are facing the problem of booting Windows. When you start your computer running operating system Windows 7, a message like this appears on a black screen:
This issue is related to boot record MBR which is located on your hard drive. At startup, the system cannot find the MBR boot record, which is why this message is displayed. Where could this boot record go, you ask? There are several answers to this question. The most likely one is virus attack, at which your bootloader crashed, or even completely erased. The second reason could be system failure ... For example, while the computer was running, the power went out. In this case, the files stored on the HDD or SDD, which are responsible for loading the operating system, may be damaged.
Repairing the windows 7 bootloader using an installation disk or flash drive
At the very beginning, we need a DVD with a licensed version of Windows 7. This disc contains all the necessary tools that will help us restore the Windows 7 bootloader. What if your PC does not have an optical disc reader? In this case, a bootable flash drive with Windows 7 will help you. Microsoft released a corporate program “ Windows USB / DVD Download Tool", With which you can create an installation USB flash drive. To create a bootable USB drive, you will need ISO image licensed Windows 7 and a 4GB flash drive.
If you cooked bootable USB USB flash drive or installation disc, then you can proceed to restore the bootloader. In our version bootable media is a flash drive. The computer used to repair the bootloader includes the motherboard MSI board A55M-E33, which has UEFI BIOS support. To boot from a USB flash drive, you must press the F11 key at system startup. After pressing the key, the boot menu will open, in which you must select bootable USB drive... You can do the same if you boot from a DVD drive.
After booting from the USB flash drive, after a while the start installation window will appear.
In this window, we should select the item " System Restore", After which we will be taken to the" "menu.
Next, we will use the simplest system recovery option and select the item " Launch recovery". After that, troubleshooting and recovery of the Windows 7 bootloader will begin. If the boot record is successfully restored, you will see the bootloader window, in which your restored OS will be, as in the figure below.
Pressing the Enter button will boot the OS as before.
The above method does not always work. For those who failed to restore the bootloader using the above method, you should use the command line. To do this, in the menu " System recovery options"Select the item" Command line».
Now you should run this command: bootrec / fixmbr from the command line.
By executing this command, there will be overwrite the MBR boot sector... But there are times when malware can completely overwrite the bootloader and the rewrite command will not help... If you have such a case, then use the bootrec / fixboot command in the command line, which will register a new bootloader on your system.
To see all the commands you can do with the bootloader, type bootrec at the command line.
As you can see, if the MBR record has flown, then restoring the Windows 7 bootloader is a fairly simple task that most PC users will figure out.
Prevent MBR Boot Record Erasure
Having successfully restored your bootloader next step will ensure its safety so that the mashing situation no longer arises.
Most often, viruses and various malware are the main culprit in erasing bootloader files. Therefore, you should install antivirus software.
The best comprehensive antivirus products are:
- Bitdefender Internet Security;
- Kaspersky Internet Security
- ESET Smart Security;
- AVG Internet Security;
- Outpost Security Suite Pro.
Complex antivirus products due to their modular structure, they are superior to conventional antivirus. Judge for yourself, by installing a comprehensive anti-virus package, you will receive:
- Antivirus;
- Firewall;
- Proactive defense.
The main purpose of an antivirus is to search and neutralize malware... At that time for the firewall and projective protection, the main task is to protect against network intrusions and new types of threats... That is, to put it simply, firewall and proactive protection prevents malware from entering your computer.
We figured out antivirus protection, now let's figure it out with preventing file corruption bootloader in case of a sudden power outage. So that the computer does not turn off while the light is turned off, it must be connected to source uninterruptible power supply ... All uninterruptible power supplies have a battery that keeps the computer running after a power outage. The best quality uninterruptible power supplies are the models of such companies:
- LogicPower;
- Powercom;
- PrologiX.
By choosing high-quality uninterruptible power supplies, you will protect Windows bootloader 7 protection against overwriting, and also extend the life cycle of HDD and SDD disks.
In conclusion, I would like to say that if a high-quality new one is installed on your PC HDD, good antivirus and the power of the computer will pass through a high-quality UPS, then you will not have a problem with the bootloader.
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Hello everybody! Today I will talk about a fairly common problem with operating systems Windows family Vista / 7/8 / 8.1 / 10 - violation of the integrity of the MBR bootloader. No matter how hard Microsoft tries to take into account possible problems the work of your software, it is probably impossible to foresee everything at the stage of development and testing. Various third-party boot loaders (activators, other versions of operating systems, viruses) add problems to the stability of the work.
What is needed to restore the bootloader.
- Installation Windows media Vista / 7/8 / 8.1 / 10.
- User.
- DVD drive.
Let's get started!
The easiest way to restore the bootloader. To work with Startup Repair, you must first start the environment Windows recovery RE.
For this:
- Configure the BIOS to boot from the installation media.
- Select item System Restore.
- Further.
- In the dialog box, select Launch recovery.
- Follow further instructions.
After the startup repair tool finishes, restart your computer. Try starting Windows normally, without any installation media.
If the problem persists, let's proceed to further actions.
Now we will consider restoring the MBR boot record using standard operating system tools. Which come either as part of installation disk, or as a component of the operating system. Namely BOOTREC.EXE and BOOTSECT.
BOOTREC.EXE- boot record recovery tool. Supports the options listed below, from which you can choose the most suitable one.
This option writes a Windows 7-compatible Master Boot Record to the system partition or Windows Vista... It does not overwrite the existing partition table. This parameter should be used to troubleshoot a corrupted master boot record or to remove a non-standard code from the master boot record.
/ FixBoot
This option writes a new boot sector to the system partition using a boot sector compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. Use this option if at least one of the following conditions is true.
- Boot sector replaced with non-standard boot sector Windows sector Vista or Windows 7.
- The boot sector is corrupted.
- After installing Windows Vista or Windows 7, more than early version operating system Windows. V in this case Instead of the Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe), the Windows NT Boot Loader (NTLDR) is used to start the computer.
This option searches all drives for installed systems compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. It also displays any entries not included in the Boot Configuration Data Store. Use this option if your computer has Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems that are not displayed in the Boot Manager menu.
/ RebuildBcd
This option searches all drives for installed systems that are compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. It also allows you to select the installed systems that you want to add to the Boot Configuration Data Store. Use this parameter if you want to completely rebuild the Boot Configuration Data Store.
Let's get started!
To use the Bootrec.exe tool, you must first start the Windows RE recovery environment.
- Insert your Windows 7 or Windows Vista installation disc into your DVD drive and turn on your computer.
- Press the key when prompted.
- Select item Repair your computer.
- Specify the operating system that you want to restore and click Further.
- In the dialog box System recovery options select item Command line.
- Type Bootrec.exe and press ENTER. Will appear full list opportunities.
- Write down the MBR sector, for which there is a command
Bootrec.exe / FixMbr;
- After pressing Enter, the computer will notify the user about the successful completion of the operation in the next line;
- Next, follow the procedure for recording a new boot sector, for which enter
Bootrec.exe / FixBoot;
- All that remains is to enter Exit and try to restart the computer.
If not, we will describe how to restore the Windows bootloader in a different way using the same program:
- Sign in command line from an installation disk or flash drive.
- Enter Bootrec / ScanOs, and then the utility will scan your computer for an operating system.
Bootrec / ScanOs
- Write in the next line the command Bootrec.exe / RebuildBcd, the program will offer to add all found in the startup menu Windows versions including XP and others.
Bootrec.exe / RebuildBcd
- It remains to agree with this by pressing successively Y and Enter, after which, when the system boots, you will have a choice of which OS to load - XP or 7.
If that didn't help either. You can also fix the problem with the MBR with one more command. To do this, on the command line, you need to enter bootsect / NT60 SYS, then Enter.
Command BOOTSECT allows you to write the specified program code of the boot sectors that provide loading either ntldr or bootmgr .
Command line format:
bootsect (/ help | / nt60 | / nt52) (SYS | ALL |< DriveLetter >:}
Bootsect command line parameters:
/ help- display of reference information;
/ nt52- Writing the boot sector program code to enable the use of the ntldr boot loader for operating systems prior to Windows Vista.
/ nt60- writing the program code to the boot sectors to ensure that the bootmgr file is loaded - the boot manager for Windows Vista / Server 2008 and later operating systems of the Windows family.
SYS- the recording will be made to the sectors of the system partition of the Windows boot, in the environment of which this command is executed.
ALL- writing of the program code will be performed for all existing partitions that can be used to boot Windows.
DriveLetter- the letter of the drive for which the program code of the boot sectors will be overwritten.
/ force- forced disconnection of disk volumes used by other programs to provide exclusive access to the bootsect.exe utility
/ mbr- changing the program code of the master boot record (MBR - Master Boot Record) without changing the disk partition table. When used with the / nt52 option, the MBR will be compatible with earlier Windows Vista versions. When used with the / nt60 option, the MBR will be compatible with Windows Vista and later operating systems.
bootsect / nt52 E:- create for drive E: boot records for operating rooms Windows systems XP / 2000 / NT, i.e. for booting based on ntldr;
bootsect / nt60 / mbr C:- change the boot sectors of the C: drive to ensure that the bootmgr manager is loaded, and this is Windows Vista / 7/8 / 8.1 / 10;
bootsect / nt60 SYS- change the boot sectors for the partition from which the current Windows OS was loaded.
Let's also try using the command BCDBOOT... It is a tool that is used to create a system partition or restore the boot environment located in system partition... The system partition is created by copying a small set of boot environment files from the installed Windows image®. Means BCDBOOT creates a boot configuration data store ( BCD) in the system partition with a new boot record that allows you to boot installed image Windows.
Needed good advice how to producerepair Windows 7 bootloaderif restoring the launch using the installation disk of the seven did not help. I will briefly explain what the matter is: first Windows 7 was installed on the computer, then the second system needed Windows XP, after installation it naturally started alone, to boot two operating systems I used the EasyBCD program. Later XP was no longer needed and I formatted the partition on which it was located from Windows 7. Now, when booting, there is nothing but a black screen. What can be done in this case? More details if possible. Sergey.
Repairing the Windows 7 bootloader
Hello friends! Most importantly, do not worry, your problem is simple and, in principle, a simple tool "Restore Windows startup 7 "described in our article should help, but! If this article does not help you, then two others should help:
these articles describe a few more good ways restore the boot of your operating system, besides them there is another one, so try it and don't just give up.
Let me remind you that you cannot install an older operating system after a younger one, Windows 7 will in no case boot after installation on Windows computer XP, since the latter, when installed, overwrites the Master Boot Record (MBR) on itself. Therefore, you have installed an additional boot manager, which is used to configure the boot of several operating systems and in turn has its own bootloader.
- I also want to say that file system errors are often to blame for the unsuccessful boot of Windows 7, you can fix them even if the operating system does not boot, all the details are in our other article " "
- Friends, in this article we will work with the Windows 7 recovery environment, or rather, with the recovery environment command line. I will give you the necessary commands, but if it is difficult for you to remember them, you can. This will greatly facilitate your work.
- The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the first sector on the hard disk that contains the partition table and a small bootloader program that reads the data from which partition in this table hard disk boot the OS, then the information is transferred to the section with the installed operating system to load it. If the master boot record contains incorrect information about the location of the system, then we will receive different errors during boot, here is one of them "BOOTMGR is missing press CTR-Alt-Del for restart" or we will observe a black screen. The problem is being fixed repairing the Windows 7 bootloader.
When you removed old XP along with EasyBCD, you left your computer to its own devices with an incomprehensible boot record and it gives you a black screen as a token of gratitude. To rectify the situation, we will conduct load recovery of Windows 7, namely, we will overwrite the Master Boot Record using the Bootrec.exe utility located on the recovery disk or on the installation Windows disk 7 (friends, if you have a netbook and want to use the recovery environment on the flash drive, then read the comments first). Also, with this utility, we will write a new boot sector, understandable by Windows 7.
Repair Windows 7 bootloader automatically
We boot from the recovery disk or the installation disk with Windows 7, in the initial phase of booting the computer, when you are prompted to boot from the disk "Press any key to boot from CD ...", press any key on the keyboard for 5 seconds, otherwise you will not boot from the disk
There is a short search for installed Windows systems and analysis of problems that prevent them from loading
Problems are usually found quickly and the recovery environment prompts you to fix them automatically. Click on the "Repair and restart" button, after that the computer will restart and Windows 7 will be restored.
If the problems with booting the system continue or you will not be prompted to fix the problems automatically, then in this window you need to select the operating system that you want to restore, you most likely have one and Next.
First, select a toolLaunch recovery, it can also fix problems with booting Windows 7
Repairing the Windows 7 bootloader manually
If this remedy does not help, choose a remedy Command line
Enter the commands:
diskpart
lis vol (we display a list of hard disk partitions and see that "Volume 1" is a hidden System Reserved partition, the volume is 100 MB, the Windows 7 boot files must be located on it and it must be made active). We also see a section with installed Windows 7, it has the letter D :, the volume is 60 GB.
sel vol 1 (choose Volume 1)
activ (make it active)
exit (exit from diskpart)
bcdboot D: \ Windows (where D: is the partition with Windows 7 installed), this command restores the Windows 7 boot files (bootmgr file and Boot Store Configuration (BCD) files)!
"Download files have been successfully created"
Manual recovery of the Windows 7 bootloader (method number 2)
In the command prompt window, enter the Bootrec command and Enter
comes out full information about the utility's capabilities. Select the master boot record Bootrec.exe / FixMbr.
The operation completed successfully. To the first sector boot partition a new boot record has been written.
The second command Bootrec.exe / FixBoot writes a new boot sector.
The operation completed successfully. Exit. Next, we try to load our Windows 7.
Friends, if the commands Bootrec.exe / FixMbr and Bootrec.exe / Fixboot do not help you, do not despair, there is one more tool.
Method number 3
Enter the command Bootrec / ScanOs, it will scan all your hard drives and partitions for the presence of operating systems, and if such are found, a corresponding warning will be issued. Then you need to enter the command Bootrec.exe / RebuildBcd, this utility will prompt you to add the found Windows to the boot menu, agree and enter Y and press Enter, all found Windows are added to the boot menu.
In my case, two operating systems were found. Everything is visible on the screenshot.
In addition to the above method, there is another one, enter bootsect / NT60 SYS on the command line, the main boot code will also be updated.
Hello friends! In today's article, we will re-create the Windows 7 bootloader. In what cases it may come in handy.For example, you do not boot Windows 7 and gives errors related to a malfunction of the bootloader, for example: "An operating system was not found"(Operating system not found), BOOTMGR is missing. Press ctrl + alt + del, NTLDR is missing when booting Windows 7. Or maybe you transferred Windows 7 from your hard drive to a solid state drive, but the system does not start from the SSD and displays an error or shows a black screen.You are trying to restore the boot of the operating system, but it fails.In such cases, you need to delete and then recreatehidden section - System Reserved, this is the section where the Windows 7 boot files are located.
At Windows installation 7 to a laptop or computer with a regular BIOS (MBR hard disk), a hidden System Reserved partition is automatically created, the purpose of which is to store and protect the operating system boot files.This section always has the following attributes: (Active, System, Main section), and the operating system installed on your computer starts from it.
If this section assign a drive letter and in the parameters of folders (view) set the parameters "Show hidden files"and uncheck the" Hideprotected system files", then inside you will see the" Boot "folder (containing the boot configuration repository file - BCD), and the boot manager file" bootmgr ".
For the success of our business, let's remember the Windows 7 boot mechanism and the program will help us BOOTICE. First of all, after turning on the computer, control is received by the BIOS subroutine, which checks the operability of all components system unit, then the BIOS looks in its settings for the priority device for loading (hard disk, flash drive, DVD) and finding such (for example, a hard disk) reads the MBR boot record from it (Windows 7 is usually installed on an MBR partitioning disk). MBR is located in the first sector boot disk, is 512 bytes in size, and contains the NT 6.x program code,
called PBR (Partition Boot Record) andhas its own boot record Bootmgr.
After that, control is transferred
the boot manager file "bootmgr"which launches the winload.exe Windows 7 file. What is winload.exe? The operating system (in our case Windows 7) is a program and for it to work (start loading) you need to run executable file OS:winload.exe or winload.efi. Zlaunches these files by the loader. ZThe loader is a small program. Filewinload.exe launches MBR- the loader, and the filewinload.efi starts the EFI bootloader. Windows 7 is in most cases installed on a disk with an MBR boot loader.
Windows 7 is loaded in the following sequence,
boot manager file "bootmgr" processes the available information in the boot store (BCD file), and this is the menu, display time, list of operating systems (if there are several), and so on, if the data is correct, then the operating system is loaded. But! If at least one of the files I mentioned (bootmgr or BCD) turns out to be incorrect or completely absent, then we are guaranteed problems when loading the system.It often happens that the integrity of these files is violated for any reason (careless user actions, installation of third-party boot managers, viruses, etc.), in this case, the standard actions to restore the bootloader may not help, and then it is best to delete this section completely, then format and re-create the boot files. How can I do that.We delete the hidden System Reserved partition (Reserved by the system, volume 100 MB) and recreate it using the built-in systemdiskpart command line utilities
We boot from the Windows 7 installation flash drive. If you don’t find the ISO image of the 7, you can use the download. USB flash drive Windows 8.1 or Win 10.
In the initial window of the system installation, open the command line with the keyboard shortcut Shift + F10.
We enter the commands sequentially:
diskpart
lis vol (this command displays letters, numbers, labels, size and file system... Bsection ukva 100 mb (C :). Volume 1.BThe letter of the partition with installed Windows 7 is (D :).
sel vol 1 ( the choice of the volume with which we will work - 100 mb (C :). Volume 1)
del vol ( delete volume 100 mb).
after deleting the volume, an unallocated area of 100 mb appeared on the disk.
creat par prim ( create a main partition in this unallocated area)
format fs = ntfs ( create the NTFS file system on the partition)
assign letter С ( assign the letter C to the created section)
activ ( make the section active)
exit (exit from diskpart)
bootsect / nt60 C: / mbr (given command writes the necessary PBR codes ( Bootmgr) and MBR (NT 6.x))
bcdboot D: \ windows / s C: ( create a bootloader for Windows 7 located on (D :),bootloader location (C :))
The download files have been successfully created.
This method suitable for those who have several hard drives, and they have an OS with a bootloader installed.
On these disks
we do not usebootrec / fixmbr and bootrec / fixboot toolsto update the MBR and PBR codes. These commands only work with hard disk 0. The bootsect command works with the drive we specify. Tthe same goes for bcdboot.Without the / s parameter, bcdboot works with the active partition on hard disk 0. AndThe / s parameter we use points to the active partition of the desired hard disk.