# [SOLVED] Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

Hello. I was messing with an external hard drive on my laptop. I don't think that I changed anything on the laptop's hard drive but I could be wrong. I was using (was because I have to use a different computer now) a Toshiba Satellite S855-S5378. Now when I attempt to boot up the laptop is says checking media and then "No bootable device -- Please restart system". I checked in the BIOS and the boot drive is still set to the laptops drive. It is possible I may have deleted a partition on the drive or something.

Is there any way I can recover the drive to how it was two or so days ago? Or before the deletion took place?

Thanks.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Another thing... If I press F12 while booting up, it brings up the boot menu. According to Toshiba, there should be something that says <HDD Recovery> but all I have is <Enter setup>.


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

is it not windows 7 home ?
use boot cd and fix boot it will work
when it cant find the hdd there cannot be a Recovery
i get recovery menu. i use c855d-s5232 toshiba


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Tristan: what exactly were you doing when you said you were "messing with the external hard drive on your laptop"? Is the external connected to that laptop via usb or firewire interface?

Check the BIOS setting; it sounds like you changed the UEFI BIOS setting back to legacy. New laptops with Win8/8.1 have this newer hardware bios detection circuitry built into them and they can be tricky if you accidentally changed a setting or by "messing with your external drive" as you say. I have a client with a Satellite c855 and I have fixed it twice now. Make sure that you turn off the "disk protection" mode to disable. Also, make sure that you unplugged that external drive from the laptop when you try to boot to the hard drive. Ensure that the hard drive is set to be first in the Boot Menu as the first boot device. 

If all this fails, you should reset your BIOS settings to default. That's an option in the Satellite BIOS (and almost all BIOSes for the last 15 yrs.). If it still can't detect or boot your hard drive, then you have a more serious hardware fault, such as a broken hard drive, or something you killed elsewhere in your Motherboard. There's more here going on than you are telling us I'm sure. Did by any chance you recently DROP that laptop?

Recovery Partitions don't just disappear by themselves. If you were using some kind of partitioning software to manipulate your external drive, it's quite likely you deleted, or corrupted the Recovery Partition on your boot drive--especially if it doesn't show up on any of the boot menus. 

Here's a couple of things to consider:
#1: if that laptop is less than 1 yr. old, call Toshiba and ship it to them and they will fix for free. (bear in mind that if you don't take it to a local repair shop and have them do data recovery on that hard drive, they will wipe it clean during the repair and reinstall a fresh copy of Win8.1 on that drive, and all your stuff will be gone. This should cost about $35-$70 to do).

#2-If your laptop is older than 1 yr. old, but you purchased it from a big-box retailer such as Costco, Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, etc. and you have a 2 yr. or 3 yr. extended warranty; you can use that Warranty to get it repaired, also for free through your retailer.
[waiting for your answer; do you have the purchase date for the laptop, an original sales receipt; if so, what's the date and retailer?]

roodap gave you some good advice, but, if your hardware has failed his methods won't resolve your issue. 

Lastly, did you make a set of Recovery Discs using the Toshiba built-in Recovery Media utility program? If not, you can call Toshiba in Irvine, CA and order the discs to be sent to you for about $20-$50. If you don't have much on that laptop, since it's pretty new, you can just reinstall Win8.1 and if it works, you've solved the problem. If the Recovery install doesn't work; and it can't find or see your hard drive, you've probably scrambled some settings in your BIOS that have to do with the new UEFI setup and you'll need to take to a local repair shop to diagnose/fix it. Once they get it talking to the hard drive, applying the Recovery discs and doing the Win8.1 reinstall at that point will be easy.

Remember that if you ship off your laptop to Toshiba or a retailer you have an extended warranty with, TO TAKE YOUR LAPTOP IN FOR DATA RECOVERY BEFORE YOU SEND IT AWAY! Major manufacturers will not make any attempt to recover your data unless you SPECIFICALLY REQUEST it while getting a RMA (Return Material Authorization) over the phone; AND IT'S NOT COVERED IN ANY OF THE WARRANTIES I MENTIONED!! THEY WILL CHARGE YOU EXTRA UP TO $100 IN SOME CASES; SOMETIMES MORE!!

Post back answers and we can advise you further.

Best,
BIGBEARJEDI


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Thanks for your reply. No I have not dropped the laptop. I was attempting to configure a hard drive to work with my xbox 360. I do not believe that I wiped the drive. I think that I changed a setting or something in Windows hard drive partition utility. I did not delete any partitions though. Not exactly sure what I changed is the problem. I was working with this hard drive all day and tried multiple things on it so narrowing what exactly caused the disruption is hard.

I had the external drive (that I was attempting to configure for xbox 360) hooked up via USB port. But like I said, I think I may have messed with the wrong hard drive in Windows partition utility.

It worked fine in the morning before I left. Before I left I shut the lid like I always do. When I got back home, I opened the lid and that is when it said "checking media" "[fail]", "no bootable drive detected -- restart system"

The laptop was bought just over a year ago as I got it for Christmas last year. I am not aware of any extended warranty that was purchased. The laptop was bought at Nebraska Furniture Mart.


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> Thanks for your reply. No I have not dropped the laptop. I was attempting to configure a hard drive to work with my xbox 360. I do not believe that I wiped the drive. I think that I changed a setting or something in Windows hard drive partition utility. I did not delete any partitions though. Not exactly sure what I changed is the problem. I was working with this hard drive all day and tried multiple things on it so narrowing what exactly caused the disruption is hard.
> *>>>YOU DIDN'T WIPE THE HARD DRIVE; YOU JUST SCRAMBLED THE PARTITION TABLE, WHICH FOR THE LAYMAN IS THE SAME RESULT: IT WILL NO LONGER BOOT AND YOUR WINDOWS SETUP IS GONE PERMANENTLY. YOUR DATA IS PROBABLY STILL THERE, BUT YOU NEED SPECIAL TOOLS TO GET IT OFF OF THAT DRIVE. YOU NEED TO TAKE IT TO A LOCAL REPAIR SHOP. OF COURSE, IF IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO GET THE LAPTOP RUNNING AGAIN THAN RETRIEVING ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM IT; JUST KEEP MESSING WITH IT, AND THAT CHANCE WILL RAPIDLY DISAPPEAR.<<< *
> 
> I had the external drive (that I was attempting to configure for xbox 360) hooked up via USB port. But like I said, I think I may have messed with the wrong hard drive in Windows partition utility.
> ...


*>>>THAT'S UNFORTUNATE FOR YOU. PERHAPS YOU CAN LEARN FROM THAT MISTAKE AND GET ONE THE NEXT TIME YOU PURCHASE A LAPTOP OR ANY COMPUTER.<<< :nonono: :facepalm: *
*p.s. EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T BUY THE LAPTOP, YOU SAID IT WAS A GIFT, YOU CAN STILL BUY AN EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR THE LAPTOP FROM A 3RD PARTY COMPANY WITHIN 30 DAYS OF YOUR ORIGINAL PURCHASE OR A GIFT PURCHASE. *

*>>>LIKE I SAID BEFORE, YOU SHOULD LOOK AT THE DATA RECOVERY OPTIONS I'VE PRESENTED TO YOU, AND EITHER SEND IT TO TOSHIBA AND PAY FOR THE REPAIR OUT OF POCKET, OR GET A LOCAL REPUTABLE COMPUTER SHOP DO IT FOR YOU. A GOOD COMPUTER PRO CAN RECOVER MOST OF YOUR DATA, CORRECT THE SETTINGS YOU INADVERTANTLY CHANGED IN YOUR BIOS, MOST LIKELY YOU MESSED UP THE UEFI BIOS SETTINGS, AND IT'S BEYOND YOU TO FIX IT. THE PRO CAN RESET THEM CORRECTLY, AND REPAIR YOUR HARD DRIVE AND REINSTALL YOUR WINDOWS8. :dance:*
*IF IT STILL FAILS, THEN YOU MAY HAVE DAMAGED MORE THAN JUST YOUR PARTITION TABLE, YOU MAY HAVE DAMAGED YOUR BIOS OR WORSE, "BRICKED YOUR MOTHERBOARD". SINCE YOU HAVE NO EXTENDED WARRANTY, YOU ARE LOOKING AT A $300 REPAIR OR BETTER PARTS AND LABOR; AND PROBABLY MORE THAN THAT IF YOU SEND IT TO TOSHIBA; CAUSE YOU HAVE TO PAY $50 SHIPPING TO GET IT BACK TO THEM.<<<*

*FROM YOUR POST #1: *
Is there any way I can recover the drive to how it was two or so days ago? Or before the deletion took place?
*>>>THE SHORT ANSWER HERE IS NO, DUE TO YOU CHANGING ALL KINDS OF SETTINGS IN THE WINDOWS PARTITIONING PROGRAM, AS WELL AS THE BIOS. :nonono: IF YOU OR THE XBOX HARD DRIVE HADN'T SCRAMBLED THE LAPTOP SO BADLY, YOU COULD RESET THE BIOS SETTINGS TO DEFAULT, AND RUN SYSTEM RESTORE FROM THE WINDOWS8 RECOVERY CONSOLE AS ROODAP HAS SUGGESTED. SINCE THAT'S NOT WORKING, I'M GUESSING YOU HAVE IRREPARABLY DAMAGED WINDOWS AND THE MBR, BOOTCODE, AS WELL AS BOTH COPIES OF THE FAT INDEX TABLE. :frown: OF COURSE, THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW THIS FOR SURE IS TO TAKE IT TO AN EXPERIENCED COMPUTER PRO, AS I HAVE STATED BEFORE, AND HAVE HIM TRY IT. THERE'S A SLIM CHANCE HE COULD ROLL IT BACK TO THE POINT IN TIME BEFORE YOU BROKE IT; BUT IT'S UNLIKELY. :ermm: THE MORE YOU MESSED WITH IT THE WORSE YOU MADE IT, SORRY TO SAY.<<< *

*:cri: BBJ*


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

What if it was not imperative that I get my data back? Would there be a way to reset to factory settings and have the laptop work?


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

get hold of a live linux cd ubuntu like and boot up with it
see f your hdd is still working.
it looks like your bios is not finding the hard drive
if linux cd can find a hard drive you may be able to re partition and reinstall windows
there are very advanced ways of recovery of the hdd f you have the factory supplied recovery disk with you.


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> What if it was not imperative that I get my data back? Would there be a way to reset to factory settings and have the laptop work?


*>>>AT THIS POINT, NO THERE IS NOT. :uhoh: AS ROODAP SUGGESTED, IF YOU COULD GET YOUR LAPTOP BIOS TO RECOGNIZE THE HARD DRIVE (HOW MANY MONTHS ARE YOU WILLING TO WAIT TO LEARN HOW TO DO THAT?) YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO DO A SYSTEM RESTORE. BASED ON THESE QUESTIONS YOU ARE ASKING, I WOULD SAY YOU HAVE LESS THAN A 1% CHANCE OF GETTING IT WORKING AGAIN WITH AS IT WAS BEFORE YOU SCRAMBLED THINGS. AND IF YOU DO GET IT WORKING WITH ANOTHER HARD DRIVE, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO BE RELOAD WINDOWS FROM THE RECOVERY DISC THAT ROODAP MENTIONED. :wink: UNLESS YOUR XBOX DRIVE KILLED THE BIOS. SINCE I WASN'T THERE TO SEE PRECISELY WHAT YOU DID, I CAN'T TELL IF YOU DID SOMETHING THAT WAS CATASTROPHIC OR NOT. :facepalm: THERE ARE SPECIAL TOOLS TO REPAIR THEM; THOUGH USUALLY IF THE DAMAGE TO YOUR BIOS WAS PERMANENT YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GET ANY HARD DRIVE TO WORK WITH THAT LAPTOP.  YOU'D HAVE TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE MOTHERBOARD: ABOUT $300 REPAIR AS I MENTIONED. :nonono:<<<*

*BBJ*


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Running Linux on the Xbox | Linux Journal

read this what ae all ossible things it can do to your computer if you try to make it xbox.
i was strongly adviced not to try that by gentoo veterans .luckily before commiting i got riight advice.

though it is for linux you will have an dea how the bios is bypassed fro working of the xbox
if it not pertinent ignore this post


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> Running Linux on the Xbox | Linux Journal
> 
> read this what ae all ossible things it can do to your computer if you try to make it xbox.
> i was strongly adviced not to try that by gentoo veterans .luckily before commiting i got riight advice.
> ...


Roodap, I was not trying to make my laptop a xbox.. I was trying to format a hard drive to work on my xbox 360. In the process I changed something on the internal hard drive.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Would it be possible to make a bootable USB that could retrieve my data or flash my internal hard drive to where the BIOS would recognize it again? I really don't think what I did is as serious as you guys seem to think. All I did was change a setting on the hard drive..


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

you will need to have working computer to make usb bootable ubuntu pendrive
see ubuntu forums how to make it
then you can boot from usb stick and retreive your data.
first try to chkdsk if it finds your hard disk
mostly it would have over wriiten the first boot sector .
once you can boot your laptop you can do other things
it is a lot of work and needs patience.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Ok. I am currently downloading Ubuntu and I am going to make a bootable USB drive.. In order to undo the changes I made to my hard drive, what do I need to do?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Best I can find https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

after downloading the iso file burn a cd at slowest speed of the writer. and boot from the cd in your cd drive. i see from your laptop specs it has an optical drive.
just boot to the live cd and explore your laptop
careful of using any linux commands. drives will have different names.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I made an Ubuntu bootable USB drive using UNetBootin. I made the USB first priority when booting. The laptop still says there is no bootable drive detected. I also turned secure boot off. Is there something else I need to change in the BIOS?


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

did you check the md5sum of the downloaded file?
you will hae to check the pendrive you made with some other computer.
sometimes it is problem with usb sticks.
can't you make the cd which will work positively
UNetBootin probably works for the computer hardware which made the stick bootable.
keep trying
a cd is a better thing to work with and also faster than the pendrive


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

how ever the pendrive should have been found as bootable device by the bios.
now i am worried your bios itself misbehaving.
you can enter the bios setup and apply all default settings.
you must be having any bootable cd windos xp or windows 7 try to boot from any bootable cd and see if it will boot after setting boot from optical drive in the bios. be sure to set the fast boot off
that should confirm the bios works ok


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## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Looks like OP you did more damage than you thought you did! If you can't reset the BIOS to defaults then your Mobo is "bricked" as I stated earlier. Trying to retrieve your data with a bootable linux flash drive is also very risky since you don't know what you're doing. Still won't take it to a Computer shop? If you keep messing around with that laptop you're going to lose your data as well.

BBJ


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

roodap said:


> UNetBootin probably works for the computer hardware which made the stick bootable.


Not really. I have used UNetBootin on my laptop countless times to create bootable usb for use on my client's PCs (you'll be surprised how unwilling they are to replace failed optical drives despite their cheap prices!).

Back to the problem at hand, try to manually select the usb flash drive by pressing F9 immediately after powering the pc on to bring up the boot device selection menu. If the drive is indeed detected, it will be listed. Select it and press enter to boot from it. If UNetBootin worked as it should, the bootloader it installed on the thumb drive should load, allowing you to boot into Ubuntu. If it doesn't then your thumb drive could be defective or UNetBootin didn't work as it's supposed to.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I was able to boot Ubuntu from the USB by turning boot mode to CSM.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I made a boot-repair summary. Please take a look at it. I don't know if any of the information is useful or not. 

Ubuntu Pastebin


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Link not working for me maybe someone else can see it


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I fixed the link. Sorry.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I think it just made a summary of the USB I used for Ubuntu...


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Hi you have a 750Gb hdd according to that but we would need someone better versed with linux to check it, as from what I see there has been a mess up but no action was taken to try to repair anything.


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

that is encourraging . the bios finds your hdd and as t says the boot sector is corrupted,
what is wrong with your cdrom ?
a more familiar environment will be available f you can boot to a windows .


hiren boot cd is the best friend in this stage, it is a smmall download and make a cd.
it has all tools necessary to repair hdd , system.
it has helped me may a times to repair my desktops.
you ca view the contents of the cd 


if only you can boot a cd.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> that is encourraging . the bios finds your hdd and as t says the boot sector is corrupted,
> what is wrong with your cdrom ?
> a more familiar environment will be available f you can boot to a windows .
> 
> ...


Nothing is wrong with my CD ROM.. What kind of CDs do you need for this? I highly doubt I have any.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

What tool should I use within Hiren's Boot CD? There are so many. I am assuming Toshiba Hard Disc Diagnostic..


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

you can boot the cd to windows xp not linux.
then you can save your data to a usb stick or so
after that you can try to fix the mbr of the hdd
and then you can find if the partitions are as per old configuration.
if looks alright try boot from hdd
mostly your hdd recovery folder must be allright
do not do any serious commitment on the hdd if you are in doubt.
you can ask here . someone will help you
right now it is a better picture than it was.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

joeten said:


> Hi you have a 750Gb hdd according to that but we would need someone better versed with linux to check it, as from what I see there has been a mess up but no action was taken to try to repair anything.


Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table
... 
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT.

No action was taken because fdisk doesn't support GPT. Your hdd has the GPT partition table and not the ordinary DOS partition table. This is not a bad thing though so don't worry. fdisk is the equivalent of CHKDSK in Windows, arguably even better than chkdsk. 
... 
Invalid MBR Signature found.

You messed up the MBR and consequentially the partition table so none of those utilities was able to detect the partitions on your drive. Disk geometry seems fine so we should be seeking to restore the MBR if its mirror backup is still intact. The best tool for this would be testdisk (personal opinion) as it is capable of doing exactly that. I'm not sure if it's included in Hiren's boot cd.


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

which program finds the hdd ?
can you see the drive c or d
does it find all devices
you might be able to find a partition program like EaseUS Partition Master 9.1.1 Home Edition
which will find the hdd .probably because of corrupt mbr xp is not showing the hdd.
wait and see for more replies from others also before you make he hdd more troublesome


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

testdisk operations need more linux experience or one can make it worse 
no doubt testdisk is the best tool find the dead / overwriiten partition table
he must be able to run gparted from the ubuntu disk.
but he does not seem able to boot to desktop of the live cd
the minixp cd tools usually are more than ample to repair most computers.
any partition programs like easeus can fix the mbr of hdd.
i was thinking more of the hddrecovery oem program if he can find the folder 
that would have the partition table


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

roodap said:


> testdisk operations need more linux experience or one can make it worse
> no doubt testdisk is the best tool find the dead / overwriiten partition table
> he must be able to run gparted from the ubuntu disk.
> but he does not seem able to boot to desktop of the live cd
> ...


I suppose you mean the recovery partition and the corresponding utility that would restore to factory or refresh Windows 8. That won't be possible because the recovery partition is recorded in the partition table that was messed with so the OEM hdd recovery utility won't even find the recovery partition and the other(s) that housed Windows and his data.

Testdisk is easy to use and safer because changes made are not automatically applied to the disk. The changes have to be committed manually so he can tinker around with it and cause no further problems as long as the changes aren't recorded to disk. Besides, testdisk may feature a dos-like UI, but it's not command line, usage is as simple as making selections using arrow keys and pressing enter so the OP should be fine using it. 

About Linux experience in order to use testdisk, that's not really the case because I have never used testdisk from the Linux environment, in fact I didn't even know it's been ported to Linux until I checked out Hiren's boot cd moments ago. It's included in the Linux environment that houses Parted Magic among several other tools.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Use Parted Magic. A Linux environment should load. You can then run testdisk to try and recover the damaged mbr. Don't mess around with Parted Magic because messing around with a partition manager is what started all this in the first place. Just be patient and wait for further assistance in using testdisk, until we totally fail to restore the MBR should we look to other options. If all goes well the mbr and partition table will be recovered and you'll be back to Windows with all your data intact as if nothing had happened.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I suppose the Windows 8 installation was 64-bit. This therefore means the hdd was most likely partitioned in the GPT partition table style and not the ordinary MS-DOS partition table because 32-bit Windows doesn't support GPT.

Step1. Choose to create a log.

Step2. Choose the hdd in question. Make sure to select the correct drive!

Step3. Select the partition table type (EFI GPT); the second option. Take note of the hint in green at the bottom of the testdisk window. It automatically tries to detect the correct type. Post screenshot (take good photos using phone because it's not gonna be easy acquiring a screenshot from Parted Magic's Linux environment).

Step4. Select Analyse. The current partition structure will be shown. I doubt it will find any, but if it does, post a screenshot so we can have a look.

Proceed with the quick search. If it throws up an error, post a screenshot for further advice, otherwise let it scan for partitions. When it's done, post a screenshot of the listed partitions. We are interested in all it can find. It should find the system (boot) partiton, the one with Windows, the recovery partition and any others that existed.


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

oops i am sorry to have brought it up.
can we not remove the posts regarding that?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Yes but I wanted to give you a heads up before proceeding.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Done now


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



joeten said:


> Done now


What are you talking about? Did we break some sort of forum rules?


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

This is what TestDisk came up with. It never stopped and gave me errors..


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> What are you talking about? Did we break some sort of forum rules?


I sent you a PM with an explanation.


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

your hdd seems to be working ok
as it shows hddrecovery partition you may be able to recover that and the hdd partitions.
wait till Stancestans gives an opinion


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

tsYes, your hdd is fine and so is its partition structure/table. None of those partitions is flagged as deleted so all is well. Now all we need to do is rewrite the boot sector to the boot partition labelled 'system'. The boot sector houses the mbr so what we need to do is rewrite the boot secto, but before we do that, select the listed partitions and press P to list their contents, that way we can identify the partition that houses windows if it's still intact and to know what the others contain. The no name partition is most likely the Windows one. Once you've verified their contents, get out of the file listing and back to the one you posted a shot of. Do NOT change any attributes of the listed partitions. Hint: untouched partitions will be in green while those that have been changed will be white so make sure all of them are still listed in green. Press enter to continue to the next screen.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> Step4. Select Analyse. The current partition structure will be shown. I doubt it will find any, but if it does, post a screenshot so we can have a look.


I assume no partitions were listed as the current structure before you ran the quick search, is that so? If it did, we wanna know what it looks like so don't proceed with the steps below, but instead Press Enter to continue then quit to the main menu. Select Analyse and before running the quick search again, post a shot showing the current structure. Otherwise, if the current structure doesn't list any partitions, proceed with the quick search again then perform the steps below.



Tristan10 said:


> This is what TestDisk came up with. It never stopped and gave me errors..


That looks good. I've looked at the partition sizes (in sectors) and this is what the partition structure looks like:


​*1st:* 417MB
​*2nd:* 272MB
​*3rd:* 134MB
​*4th:* 738GB
​*5th:* 367MB
​*6th:* 749MB

Total: *749GB*

All of them are primary partitions. None was deleted/lost so there's none to recover. I do not understand why there are three small partitions in addition to the system partition,perhaps your doing while trying stuff in Disk Management?

The 738GB partition with label TI106534000 must be the Windows drive. I do not think this was the original label because mostly the Windows drive is never labeled, though this shouldn't be a problem. 

Conform its contents by selecting it and pressing *P* as advised in my previous post. Once you've done that, press *Q* to return to the list of partitions then repeat the same for the recovery partition. 

*In case the files cannot be listed for any of the partitions, take note of the partition and post a screen shot of the error that is shown.*

When ready to proceed, press *Enter* to continue to the next screen and here you'll be offered to write the structure to disk. Select that option and conform that you want to write the structure to disk. Do this even if the listed files and folders are not what they ought to be. At this point we want to recover at least the recovery partition which you can then use to restore to factory state if it comes to that.

Once you've done that, post back with feedback as to whether there were any errors or if the structure write was successful. Don't quit testdisk just yet. We still have to check the boot sector and see if we can restore using its backup or if we have to rebuid it. Once we are sure the boot sector is okay we can then write the new MBR to disk.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here are the screen shots of what you want.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> That looks good. I've looked at the partition sizes (in sectors) and this is what the partition structure looks like:
> 
> 
> ​*1st:* 417MB
> ...


I think all 6 partitions were there before I changed anything. I remember one being called a "health" partition? I guess it doesn't matter, but I am pretty sure all the partitions were there when I first opened Windows' Partitioning Utility. But once again, I am not positive.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

the partition sizes do not seem ok.
there was a system partition of 1.8 GB windows 7 [it is 328 GB disk] and hddrecovery 20 GB
now that i have changed the partitions i cannot post the original which was in my laptop.
but i still have hddrecovery partition 18 GB and the system partition 1.8 GB
make commitments only when you are sure

it should be possible to explore the files in each folder shown in testdisk
follow what Stancestans sugests


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

roodap said:


> the partition sizes do not seem ok.
> there was a system partition of 1.8 GB windows 7 [it is 328 GB disk] and hddrecovery 20 GB
> now that i have changed the partitions i cannot post the original which was in my laptop.
> but i still have hddrecovery partition 18 GB and the system partition 1.8 GB
> ...


What are you talking about? Are we on the same problem? The hdd is 750GB not 320GB. You must be doing this on your pc, right? I'm following the OP'S screen shots and they'll definitely look different from what you see on your computer.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Good. The second screenshot indeed conforms that the current partition structure is bad because it lists not a single partition. If those six partitions were existing then don't stress about them and proceed with the quick search and the steps outlined in post *#46* all the way to writing the structure to disk. This will write the found partitions into the partition table and they should now be accessible by the hdd recovery as well as Windows bootloader. 

Reboot your pc (remove the boot cd/usb from the drive) and let's see if Windows will load. If it doesn't, try the hdd recovery and see if it can access the recovery partition. Keep us posted.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

i was giving him an idea of the partitions. as our laptops are almost same.
only i have my hdd 328 GB. the hddrecovery partition has to be around 20 Gb.
also i don't get how more than 4 primary partitions possible 
that is true op's screen shot show small partitions


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Make sure you are using the USB2.0 port that model has 1 2.0 and 2 3.0 ports.

Can you check that the USB pen drive will actually boot on another PC?


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Wrench97 said:


> Make sure you are using the USB2.0 port that model has 1 2.0 and 2 3.0 ports.
> 
> Can you check that the USB pen drive will actually boot on another PC?


He was able to boot from the pen drive after changing boot mode to CSM (or something similar, not sure.)


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

To Legacy from CSM probably, that means Win 8/8.1 with secure boot. To install/run any other OS Secure Boot needs to be turned off, to run Win8 Secure Boot and CSM mode need to be enabled or it won't boot.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> i was giving him an idea of the partitions. as our laptops are almost same.
> only i have my hdd 328 GB. the hddrecovery partition has to be around 20 Gb.
> also i don't get how more than 4 primary partitions possible
> that is true op's screen shot show small partitions


Not necessarily. Windows 8 image wouldn't be so big. Yours could be loaded with bloatware (extremely common with OEM distributions). GPT partition type is not affected by the 4-primary-partition-limit which plagues the Intel (x86, DOS) type.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Wrench97 said:


> To Legacy from CSM probably, that means Win 8/8.1 with secure boot. To install/run any other OS Secure Boot needs to be turned off, to run Win8 Secure Boot and CSM mode need to be enabled or it won't boot.


Thanks, this actually triggered something important i forgot to mention.

OP, once you've written the partition structure to disk, reboot and set boot mode back to Secure Boot and enable CSM so that Windows 8 boots. Don't leave it in Legacy mode (meant for pre-8 OS). If all goes well Windows should boot now that the partition table is restored. Update us on how it goes.


----------



## acav69 (Jun 27, 2006)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

It has been a very long time since I sorted out a computer issue but I know what your issue is. There is a file on the hard drive but I can't remember the file name. This file tells the system where the OS is located on the hard drive. This file has either been corrupted or removed so the system cannot locate the OS so it gives the error you are getting. Replace this file and your system will boot properly. The only other way is to reinstall the OS which will lose all of your data so I do not recommend this solution. The file is likely located on your original OS install disk, there may also be a way of restoring the system on this disk but I have been out so long I could be mistaken.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here are the lists of files in each partition. One of them has red. Not sure what that signifies.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I went ahead with the steps in post *#46* (write structure to disk). I then took out the boot disk and re-booted the laptop. I went in to the BIOS and enabled Secure Boot and changed boot mode back to UEFI (from CMS). I exited saving changes and this is what I got. At least now the system recognizes a problem.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

F8 safe boot you can try
it may give an idea what is going on
if you can get hold of a windows 8 disk you can reapair the system


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> I went ahead with the steps in post *#46* (write structure to disk). I then took out the boot disk and re-booted the laptop. I went in to the BIOS and enabled Secure Boot and changed boot mode back to UEFI (from CMS). I exited saving changes and this is what I got. At least now the system recognizes a problem.


Press F8 to load _Start-up Settings_ as roodap suggests then select the *Disable early launch anti-malware protection* option. It's possible the winload.efi file is not passing signature checks and is getting blocked by Secure Boot. This is a less risky option compared to Disabling Secure Boot altogether.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> Here are the lists of files in each partition. One of them has red. Not sure what that signifies.


I think the files in red are deleted files. You see, testdisk can also be used to recover lost/deleted files. Don't worry about them for now, let's get Windows loading first, or the hdd recovery utility at least. I remember you stated recovering your data may not be imperative. Anyway, factory reset/reinstall will be our last resort.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> Press F8 to load _Start-up Settings_ as roodap suggests then select the *Disable early launch anti-malware protection* option. It's possible the winload.efi file is not passing signature checks and is getting blocked by Secure Boot. This is a less risky option compared to Disabling Secure Boot altogether.


If the quoted suggestion doesn't work, there's the other possibility of the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) having incorrect data and a Windows 8 64-bit recovery cd or usb is required to rebuild it so that the Windows 8 boot manager actually points to the correct locations for the winload.efi file. I strongly think this is the case because I don't see how messing with a partition manager could result in corrupting that specific file.

If we are lucky, the hdd recovery option is now available when you press F12 and it actually loads the recovery environment. We may be able to rebuild the BCD from there instead of using the recovery cd/usb if the recovery environment actually offers us access to Command Line. If it doesn't, you'll have to gain access to a Windows 8 64-bit system to create the recovery cd/usb. Anyway, try the previous suggestion of F8, F12 and this post. Keep us posted of the result of each suggestion.


----------



## acav69 (Jun 27, 2006)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> Here are the lists of files in each partition. One of them has red. Not sure what that signifies.


The files in red are likely corrupted or truncated files so the system cannot read or interpret their contents. I would contact the tech support for the hard drive in question or the laptop manufacturer to get a clarification on these files. These are likely proprietary files that only apply to the specific laptop brand they are on.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I pressed F8 in order to access Startup Settings, but nothing will happen. It just stays on the Recovery screen.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

i was afraid of this after seeing the error code 0x0000225
was the partition showing ntfs format before saving ?
seems many people had the same error while installing windows 8
google search show plenty of people who had this error


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

you might need a windows 8 install disk


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> I pressed F8 in order to access Startup Settings, but nothing will happen. It just stays on the Recovery screen.


Try F12 and see if hdd recovery is listed as an option.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Stancestans
yes he has not specified when he got this screen shots whether normal start up or safe boot
F12 might show an option to recovery
also try keeping the F8 pressed while boot option shows up
still feel he can do better exploring with ubuntu boot up with live cd


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

F12 offers no new options. Just to go into BIOS settings.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



> I pressed F8 in order to access Startup Settings, but nothing will happen. It just stays on the Recovery screen.


Press F8 repeatedly imediately after powering on instead of waiting for the screen your posted earlier and see if the advanced boot menu loads.

Toshiba support advices to hold 0 (zero) while the laptop is off then turn it on to start the recovery utility. Release 0 the moment the Toshiba recovery screen appears. Give that a try.


----------



## mlesniak (Oct 20, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

My best guess is that the Master Boot Record (MBR) has become corrupt.
I thing that roadmap's suggestion to find a Linux boot CD and use that is a good one. That way you can check if you can list the folders and files on the disk (assuming that the disk is not physically damaged). If the files and folders are visible then you could try a fix mbr utility. See How To Fix Windows 8 MBR (Master Boot Record) | Redmond Pie

Good luck


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> Press F8 repeatedly imediately after powering on instead of waiting for the screen your posted earlier and see if the advanced boot menu loads.
> 
> Toshiba support advices to hold 0 (zero) while the laptop is off then turn it on to start the recovery utility. Release 0 the moment the Toshiba recovery screen appears. Give that a try.


Tried both of those. Still just brought me to the Recovery screen.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

linux fixing mbr will not do.
you need windows cd for fixing mbr.
you can use livecd only for checking the folders and contents .
probably the efi file copy may be there in the recovery folder
you can try using that.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I am currently downloading Windows 8.1 ISO. I am going to use that and make a live USB.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

why not dvd ? that will be more useful.
first try repair of the system from the menu of the windows boot cd.
if it finds the system repairable it would do it.
otherwise to boot to install will need a partition with ntfs format made beforehand,
do not commit any action except repair for the time being.
if it shows any fix boot option you can try it.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I do not have any DVDs laying around. But i do have multiple USB drives.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



mlesniak said:


> My best guess is that the Master Boot Record (MBR) has become corrupt.
> I thing that roadmap's suggestion to find a Linux boot CD and use that is a good one. That way you can check if you can list the folders and files on the disk (assuming that the disk is not physically damaged). If the files and folders are visible then you could try a fix mbr utility. See How To Fix Windows 8 MBR (Master Boot Record) | Redmond Pie
> 
> Good luck


I fixed the MBR by using these instructions. Nothing changed. Still get the recovery screen.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

does it mean you were able to get to your system command prompt ?
try fixboot there
it might work


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> I fixed the MBR by using these instructions. Nothing changed. Still get the recovery screen.


We need to take a look at your partition structure and then your *BCD*. The BCD contains info for the *bootloader* (boot manager). In this case, I believe the winload.efi file is not corrupt or missing, but is simply not found by the bootloader because the BCD is not pointing to the correct partition(s). This has happened a lot to people who have attempted resizing/shrinking partitions on Windows 8 systems.

Step1: Partition structure
Boot off the Windows 8.1 usb and load *Command Prompt*​Run *DISKPART* then *LIST DISK*. Note the 750GB drive's number (numbering starts from 0). Next type *SELECT DISK X* where X is the drive's number.​Run *LIST PARTITION* and post the screen shot of the listed partitions. Run *LIST VOLUME* and post the screen shot of the listed volumes​
Perform these steps and post back so that we can proceed with rectifying the contents of BCD. Refer to the image for correct syntax if you have problems.



We can get the Windows recovery environment to scan for Windows installations and rebuild the BCD once we are certain that the partition structure is indeed correct.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here are the screenshots.


----------



## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

From your last screenshots, it appears from the LIST VOLUME command that your boot volume is C: drive, with the SYSTEM next to it, is only 450MB in size. :uhoh: This is not large enough to boot Windows7 or Windows8, and is also part of the problem. Even XP would have a tough time loading into a partition that small; typically 6-8GB is required. So, it's no wonder you can no longer boot Windows! 

The "F:" drive shows a partition of 688GB which is where Windows needs to boot to; but it's not set to the boot drive. It's possible this can be done by repairing the winload.efi file, but as I have no experience with this, I'll leave to Stancestans to continue walking you through the repair. I would have given up long ago on this hard drive and reinstalled Windows8 on it on another drive. If the winload.efi file can be rebuilt or the BCD can be redirected, you still might yet get it fixed. If so, I'll be taking notes on how this was done on a Win8 system. 

Continued luck,

BBJ


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I'd say the *System* partition (similarly labelled as System, sometimes called (System Reserved)) is sufficiently big. If anything, it's bigger because in most systems it's often 100MB only, so no worries there. This partition doesn't house the OS, but it only contains boot files necessary to boot Windows hence the reason it's that small. I was expecting the Info column to say the System labelled partition is of type System (note that there is the label=system and the type=system), so lets not confuse partition type and partition label. When I refer to 'System' partition type I'm not necessarily referring to the 'System' labelled partition. Take a look at the image i posted. My configuration has the 100MB partition of type=system and label=System Reserved. I don't mean yours should be identical to that, I'm just explaining that there is the partition type called system, while there is the label. Naturally, the system type partition will be given a label that describes the type, hence the similarity between the label and the type of the partition. For clarity, when I refer to partition type, I'll use red font and use blue font for the labels. 

Now that we have that confusion out of the way, let's look at the remaining part of the volumes list. The boot partition (the one housing Windows) should be recognized as such under the Info column.

The system partition often doesn't have a drive letter, so I suppose you gave it the letter C while you were trying out stuff in Disk Management. Normally, the Windows partition (of type=boot) should be the one having letter C. The other smaller partitions and the Recovery partition also normally don't have drive letters allocated to them hence are never visible in Windows Explorer. Changing the drive letters especially for the Windows partition could be the reason for this problem and since the drive letters are referenced in the BCD, the bootloader is definitely not locating the winload.efi file where it expects it to be. So let's go ahead and look at the contents of the BCD.

Let me organize the steps for clarity and ease of use, so be patient and await for them.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



BIGBEARJEDI said:


> From your last screenshots, it appears from the LIST VOLUME command that your boot volume is C: drive, with the SYSTEM next to it, is only 450MB in size. :uhoh: This is not large enough to boot Windows7 or Windows8, and is also part of the problem. Even XP would have a tough time loading into a partition that small; typically 6-8GB is required. So, it's no wonder you can no longer boot Windows!
> 
> The "F:" drive shows a partition of 688GB which is where Windows needs to boot to; but it's not set to the boot drive. It's possible this can be done by repairing the winload.efi file, but as I have no experience with this, I'll leave to Stancestans to continue walking you through the repair. I would have given up long ago on this hard drive and reinstalled Windows8 on it on another drive. If the winload.efi file can be rebuilt or the BCD can be redirected, you still might yet get it fixed. If so, I'll be taking notes on how this was done on a Win8 system.
> 
> ...


The boot volume is the 688GB one (housing Windows) and I expect it to have letter C and not F. The system volume is more than enough at 450MB and it shouln't be having a drive letter for obvious reasons. Making it visible in Windows Explorer is very unwise because it houses files used by the boot loader to load Windows. If these files are messed with, Windows won't boot.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> The boot volume is the 688GB one (housing Windows) and I expect it to have letter C and not F. The system volume is more than enough at 450MB and it shouln't be having a drive letter for obvious reasons. Making it visible in Windows Explorer is very unwise because it houses files used by the boot loader to load Windows. If these files are messed with, Windows won't boot.


Your partition structure is fine :thumb: because it meets all requirements of UEFI-GPT setup. Here’s the breakdown of the structure:

*Partition1:*
Label = “System”
Size = 450MB
FS = NTFS
Purpose: utility partition; also contains boot files inside a boot directory for booting in non-UEFI mode. Must be located before the Windows, data and recovery image partitions. It’s not required for GPT setup, but it’s wise to have it for legacy boot support. Being a utility partition, it’s not wise to give it a drive letter because we don’t want it to be accessible to the user in Windows Explorer.

*Partition2:*
Label = none
Size = 260MB
FS = FAT32
Purpose: The system partition for EFI systems, aka EFI System Partition (ESP). It’s required for GPT setup and UEFI booting. The PC boots to this partition. It must be FAT32 file format and at least 100MB. For 4KB-per-sector drives, it must be at least 260MB (65527 sectors) big. It shouldn’t have a drive letter for obvious reasons. It is managed by Windows.

*Partition3:*
Label = none
Size = 128MB
FS = NTFS
Purpose: Microsoft Reserved Partition. It cannot be used to store user data and should not have a drive letter either. It is added to each HDD for drive management

*Partition4:*
Label = TI106534000 (optional)
Size = 688GB
FS = NTFS
Purpose: Windows partition. Must be at least 20GB (64-bit) and 16GB (32-bit), of NTFS filesystem and at least 10GB free space after the user has completed Out-Of-Box-Experience (OOBE). Additional free space is required in order to use the Refresh PC functionality of Windows 8.

*Partition5:*
Label = none
Size = 350MB
FS = NTFS
Purpose: Windows RE partition, must be at least 300MB in size and contains the winre.wim (250MB) image.

*Partition6:*
Label = “Recovery”
Size = 9GB
FS = NTFS
Purpose: Recovery image partition. It contains the Windows recovery image (install.wim, at least 2GB) and is placed after all other partitions so that users can reclaim the HDD space occupied by it if they so wish, without affecting Windows, data and system utility partitions before it.

From this, I can boldly say _testdisk_ recovered the correct partition structure:grin:, so let’s now please focus on getting Windows to boot, shall we?opcorn:

Source: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Stancestans
very brilliant explanation and deductions. congrats
sure testdisk is most dependable to recover the hdd partitions if it has not been mnipulated otherwise.
is it not enough to rename the drive leter of F to C and remove C designated system folder/ partition drive letter
at the current state it is not able to mount any partitions for boot up
hope this system comes up soon.
Tristan10
carefully follow what Stancestans says.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



> sure testdisk is most dependable to recover the hdd partitions if it has not been mnipulated otherwise


Yes it is. I guess its star ceases to shine when a disk has been erased (zero'd)! :devil:



> is it not enough to rename the drive leter of F to C and remove C designated system folder/ partition drive letter


That brings me to the next question I have for OP.

Tristan10, What was the original letter assignments for these volumes and most importantly, what was the original letter for the Windows partition? Was it C as is often the case of a single-boot setup? 

You surely must remember how many local drives you could see in My Computer (NOT in Disk Management) while Windows was still booting. Drives without letters are not visible in My Computer, so let's get this straight once and for all. 

If any of those small partitions were indeed visible in My Computer, kindly indicate so (you don't have to recall each of their drive letters). I need this info so that I can include steps to remove or change drive letters for any of the volumes, and most importantly for the Windows volume. I do not believe that Toshiba guys were careless enough to assign drive letters to the system, utility and recovery partitions too. In fact, if we could get the original letters, simply reassigning the original letters would be all we need to get your system up and running again.

We are so close to getting this fixed, so let's lighten up :dance: For what it's worth, I have recovered systems in worse conditions, so let's not speak of giving up just yet :nono:


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

for example my windows 7 partition has a name C:[TI106412W0C] windows 7
system
and i added afterwards windows 8 and gentoo 
the last is hddrecovery
it came with OEM windows 7 installed


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

The only drive that was visible in My Computer was the C: drive with my documents, etc... I believe according to DiskPart it now has the letter F.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> The only drive that was visible in My Computer was the C: drive with my documents, etc... I believe according to DiskPart it now has the letter F.


Just as I thought. We need to remove drive letters for the small partitions and assign C back to the Windows partition. A total of five volumes (C, D, E, G and H) need to be changed.

To Do:
1. DISKPART
2. LIST DISK
3. SELECT DISK #
4. LIST VOLUME

At this point, you need to select the volume that needs to be changed. You can either use the volume number to select it or the current letter. The command to remove the drive letter requires that the volume is selected first, so that means you'll select one volume, remove the letter, select the next volume, remove the letter and so on. Do this for all the small volumes so that only the Windows drive remains.

5. SELECT VOLUME <# or letter>
REMOVE LETTER=<current letter> e.g. REMOVE LETTER=C

If you encounter any errors removing the drive letter of any of the volumes skip the volume and select the next one, but post the error(s) shots here for further advice.

If all goes well (no errors) Exit DiskPart and run it again then LIST VOLUME to conform the volume letter changes. Only the Windows volume should still have the letter F. The next step would be to change the letter to C. To do this, select the volume (SELECT VOLUME F) then change its letter using *ASSIGN LETTER=C* and it should say successful. If any error is encountered, post back, otherwise relaunch DiskPart and conform the volume has been assigned the letter C. At this point you can attempt to boot Windows normally (if we are lucky enough, the bootloader will successfully locate Windows' boot files and installation partition.) If it still doesn't boot, we can then move to the next step of repairing the BCD. As long as the Windows partition is intact with all its files, rest assured your PC will boot successfully soon.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

i keep my fingers crossed for you


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I will do this as soon as I get home. Approx. 4 p.m. my time. (Central US)

I will let you know how it goes.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> I will do this as soon as I get home. Approx. 4 p.m. my time. (Central US)
> 
> I will let you know how it goes.


Please do. I'll be on standby.


----------



## web_tracker (Jan 3, 2010)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Hey I am wondering if, you still have your external drive still plugged in when you rebooted. I would unplug any usb memory sticks, or usb external drives, then try to reboot. This may seem simple, but it is often over looked. The computer may be trying to boot the the external device and since it finds no os on the device it causes this issue.


----------



## Ad Hardenberg (Mar 3, 2010)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

To-day I had a similar issue with my laptop (Sony Vaio VGN NR31z/s).
The bios had moved the SSD harddisk to the inactive boot devices after I played with a bootable DOS USB stick.


----------



## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Ad Hardenberg: 
are you asking for help with your problem, or simply commenting on the OP's problem being similar to yours. If you ARE asking for help, please don't piggyback on the OP's thread, but rather go to the LAPTOP SUPPORT forum or the HARD DRIVE forum and post a new Question (new Thread). 

Just to avoid confusion, the OP is in a world of hurt here, and doesn't need distractions with your problem. That being said, I apologize if you were just trying to add to the mix of suggestions.

BIGBEARJEDI


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



BIGBEARJEDI said:


> Ad Hardenberg:
> are you asking for help with your problem, or simply commenting on the OP's problem being similar to yours. If you ARE asking for help, please don't piggyback on the OP's thread, but rather go to the LAPTOP SUPPORT forum or the HARD DRIVE forum and post a new Question (new Thread).
> 
> Just to avoid confusion, the OP is in a world of hurt here, and doesn't need distractions with your problem. That being said, I apologize if you were just trying to add to the mix of suggestions.
> ...


Thanks for pointing this out. I was in the process of requesting for the post to be moved to its own thread, but wasn't sure whether it was a comment or a request for help with an isolated, but "similar" case.


----------



## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Looks like a comment guys


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Sorry for the long wait. I still get the blue recovery screen. Here is a screenshot proving what I did in DiskPart worked. I left my DVD ROM and the flashdrive letters alone.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

i would like to see if a live cd boot up can mount these partitions and explore contents
is there a way to scandisk at the command prompt Stancestans ?
having fixed the mbr may be has to do something with this problem
it will be empty now
even though problem is for op i have the nagging troubles. :ermm:


----------



## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I was wondering why you still have your Flash Drive connected to your laptop usb port? web_tracker brought up a very important point
in his Post #95. You should not be attempting Partition Table level repairs with a Flash Drive plugged in. Perhaps that was the bootable Flash Drive you were using to with the Unetbootin linux to access the partition table? In this case, web_tracker, the OP has to have it plugged into the usb port in order to access linux and the BIOS setup. 

It is possible that a USB flash drive, especially one that has been configured with an OS boot, whether Windows or Linux can keep Windows from booting properly. I've seen it in both cases. Unplugging a faulty flash drive or a bootable flash drive with an OS on it (Windows or Linux) will magically allow Windows to boot. :grin:

I'm not familiar with Unetbootin, but I have build XP bootable flash drives that worked. Since Windows did still not boot, it's possible that Unetbootin has a RAMdrive image that will allow it to boot, unplug the bootable flash drive, and allow Windows to attempt to boot. Stan and Roodap might know better if this is possible; but it might be worth a try if they agree.:whistling:

It sounds like Stan would like you to try the BCD repair first, and that makes sense to me. Follow all his steps, but don't forget about the USB flash drive issue; Windows reads the Flash Drive at the HAL layer, when Windows is initializing and communicating with all hardware devices connected to the Motherboard before it boots [BIOS, RAM, CD/DVD, CPU/GPU, LCD DISPLAY, USB PORTS, FIREWIRE PORTS, PCMCIA, ETC.]. If the Flash drive is faulty (probably not the case here since you used it to boot linux), it CAN keep Windows from starting. (web_trackers comment to you). Perhaps as a last resort, and all of Stan's suggestions still don't get it to boot, you can try to unplug the Flash Drive from the laptop usb port and try a final Windows boot. If THAT fails, we'll have to take a consensus on whether there is anything else to try. :huh:

BBJ



Tristan10 said:


> Sorry for the long wait. I still get the blue recovery screen. Here is a screenshot proving what I did in DiskPart worked. I left my DVD ROM and the flashdrive letters alone.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

> i would like to see if a live cd boot up can mount these partitions and explore contents
> is there a way to scandisk at the command prompt Stancestans ?


Are you asking about SCANDISK, the old disk check utility that came with Windows 98 and Millennium? It is succeeded by CHKDSK now. See  scandisk 

OP can indeed browse the contents of the lettered volume (C) from CMD using DIR. For example DIR C:\Users or he could boot off a live cd and browse the drive's contents using any file management program. Perhaps he should do this just to make sure the Windows partition is mountable and contains all we would expect.



> having fixed the mbr may be has to do something with this problem
> it will be empty now
> even though problem is for op i have the nagging troubles. :ermm:


That will be taken care of when we run boot repair utilities. There are several to choose from, we are getting there :smile:.


----------



## Ausgurad (Dec 13, 2010)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Sounds like you have picked up a virus.
It is unlikely that you could have deleted the boot sector by playing.

What Virus program are (were) you running?
What is the origin of the external HDD? Was it from a trusted source?


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



BIGBEARJEDI said:


> You should not be attempting Partition Table level repairs with a Flash Drive plugged in. Perhaps that was the bootable Flash Drive you were using to with the Unetbootin linux to access the partition table? In this case, web_tracker, the OP has to have it plugged into the usb port in order to access linux and the BIOS setup.


Perhaps to clear any confusion, partition table repairs were performed on the 750 hdd (testdisk requires that the physical drive be selected first, so it's absolutely safe to do this with a usb or any other drive connected) and it's not necessary to have the usb drive plugged in to access the BIOS.



> It is possible that a USB flash drive, especially one that has been configured with an OS boot, whether Windows or Linux can keep Windows from booting properly. I've seen it in both cases. Unplugging a faulty flash drive or a bootable flash drive with an OS on it (Windows or Linux) will magically allow Windows to boot.
> 
> I'm not familiar with Unetbootin, but I have build XP bootable flash drives that worked. Since Windows did still not boot, it's possible that Unetbootin has a RAMdrive image that will allow it to boot, unplug the bootable flash drive, and allow Windows to attempt to boot. Stan and Roodap might know better if this is possible; but it might be worth a try if they agree.


I totally agree that you should unplug the bootable usb before attempting to boot Windows, especially if the usb is listed as a boot device before the internal hdd in BIOS/UEFI setup utility. Unplug all other bootable drives even if the boot order lists them after the hdd, and plug in the usb drive only when we need to further use the bootcd utilities.



> It sounds like Stan would like you to try the BCD repair first...


Yes, that's the next part after removing/changing volume letters. We shall be rebuilding the BCD and restoring boot files in the EFI System Partition. This will also update the UEFI firmware's settings in the NVRAM to point to the correct partitions and will also update/rebuild the boot menu to finally allow Windows to load. The steps will follow momentarily.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Ausgurad said:


> Sounds like you have picked up a virus.
> It is unlikely that you could have deleted the boot sector by playing.
> Download a copy of Hiren's boot disk, and burn it onto a CD.
> That will at least let you see what is going on.
> ...


That was a possibility and we already considered it by attempting to Disable Malware checking just in case the winload.efi had been altered by malware and was failing hash checks enforced by Windows' implementation of Secure Boot. Unfortunately, the F8 option to load the Start-up Configurations isn't working most likely because the UEFI boot loader doesn't point to the correct Windows RE, system and boot partitions. That's why we've been doing drive letter alterations and will next attempt to rectify boot loader files and settings and get Windows to boot.

Thanks for the refresher though, I highly appreciate it :thumb:


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

What do I need to do in order to fix the BCD?


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> What do I need to do in order to fix the BCD?


This is how we shall go about it.

1. Boot off the Windows Recovery USB and run Command Prompt (Shift+F10) as you've been doing.

2. Launch *DISKPART*, *LIST DISK*, *SELECT DISK #*, *LIST PARTITION* then *SELECT PARTITION #* for the ESP partition (260MB is size). We are going to set the partition as the EFI System Partition so that the firmware knows it is the ESP. This is not necessary, but for good measure we'll just do it as follows:

*SET ID=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b*

Take extra care to ensure you select the correct PARTITION and ensure the dashed ID is typed exactly as it appears. If the ID doesn't seem clear, you can copy paste it from SET ID's help. To display help for the SET ID command, type *HELP SET ID* then copy the ID from the ESP section displayed in the image below.



If the SET ID command returns an error, post the error here. If it goes as planned, exit DISKPART.

3. Still in Command Prompt, run *BCDBOOT C:\Windows /v* and post the shot of the output whether successful or not. I need to see what transpires out of running BCDBOOT.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

SET ID=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b

Stan
please excuse my ignorance .
but how do you get this id to be set ?
his photos don't show any partition of this name
is it some standard default id ?


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> SET ID=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
> 
> Stan
> please excuse my ignorance .
> ...


That ID sets the PARTITION_SYSTEM_GUID attribute of a partition to tell UEFI firmware that the partition is the EFI System Partition inside which UEFI boot files are to be located, it is NOT a partition's name :nono:

SET ID is one of DiskPart's commands, just like LIST DISK, LIST PARTITION, LIST VOLUME etc. It is used to set attributes for both GUID and MBR disk partitions. Run DISKPART then run HELP to list supported commands and what they do. Don't go about messing with them though. More info can be found here


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here is what happened when I attempted to run BCDBOOT.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Also, I just went into *HELP SET ID* but the ID listed in mine is different than the one you gave me. Is that ok?

EDIT: Never mind. I realize my mistake. Sorry.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Tristan10
have you corrected the mistake in set id and right id set ? after that
did you not try the 3 rd step of Stan's post run BCDBOOT C:\Windows /v ?
we are also interested in the outcome of that command line


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> Tristan10
> have you corrected the mistake in set id and right id set ? after that
> did you not try the 3 rd step of Stan's post run BCDBOOT C:\Windows /v ?
> we are also interested in the outcome of that command line


Yes. As shown in post *#111*.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

then it is time find dir c:\ and dir c:\windows
and sub folders contents
either boot files are missing or corrupted in the system partition just set id
anyways wait till Stan gives an opinion


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

I'm up now :smile:. That error seems to happen a lot more often than I like! Anyway, let's get going.

We'll force bcdboot into writing onto the ESP and System (reserved) partitions, but to do that we'll have to temporarily assign letters to the two system partitions.. We'll also do this while in non-UEFI boot mode. 

Step1. Change boot mode to LEGACY or CMS and disable Secure Boot.

Step2. Boot off the Windows RE thumb drive and load CMD.

Step3. Launch DISKPART, LIST DISK, SELECT DISK, LIST PARTITION, SELECT PARTITION # for the "System" 450MB one, not the ESP. Set the selected partition as active by typing the command:

ACTIVE

Step4. LIST VOLUME, SELECT VOLUME # for 450MB "System" partition then ASSIGN LETTER=D

Step5. SELECT VOLUME # for ESP partition 260MB then ASSIGN LETTER=E
Note Windows partition's letter. It should still be C.

Relaunch DISKPART and conform the letter assignments.

Step6. Run BCDBOOT with the following syntax:

*BCDBOOT C:\Windows /s D: /f BIOS /v*

*BCDBOOT C:\Windows /s E: /f EFI /v*

Step6. Post feedback of failure or success for the two lines of commands above.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

win8prox64/Windows/Boot/EFI/ screen shot attatched. it should have the shown files
this i have posted from linux boot up. probably windows explorer may not show all files. try dir c:\Windows\Boot\EFI must show these files

by the time i posted this Stan has replied in more specified way.follow that.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

roodap said:


> win8prox64/Windows/Boot/EFI/ screen shot attatched. it should have the shown files
> this i have posted from linux boot up. probably windows explorer may not show all files. try dir c:\Windows\Boot\EFI must show these files
> 
> by the time i posted this Stan has replied in more specified way.follow that.


We shall mount the drives and browse their contents if none of the boot repair options work. A great suggestion there roodap! :thumb:


----------



## RchUncleSkeleto (Oct 14, 2013)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

This happened to a PC that my buddy gave me, he had his ipod plugged in and he rebooted and from there forward it would not recognize the Hard Drive. Turns out that having the ipod plugged in somehow made the Bios change the hard drive mode from LBA to CHS. As soon as I changed it back it began to work again. 

Too bad for me I had accidentally broken the GPU in the process, the damn thing had a molex power connector on it that would not come off for the life of me and in the process of using a pair of vice grips to pull molex connector out I hit a heat sink and knocked it off and god knows what else.

Either way you may want to check those HD mode settings in the bios if they're there at all.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



RchUncleSkeleto said:


> ...it would not recognize the Hard Drive...


His HDD is recognized just fine. His partition structure got messed up hence the reason Windows nor its locally installed RE won't load.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*




Step1. Change boot mode to LEGACY or CMS and disable Secure Boot.
Step2. Boot off the Windows RE thumb drive and load CMD.
Step3. Launch DISKPART said:


> BCDBOOT C:\Windows /s D: /f BIOS /v[/b]
> 
> *BCDBOOT C:\Windows /s E: /f EFI /v*
> 
> Step6. Post feedback of failure or success for the two lines of commands above.


It will not let me boot off of the live USB while in CMS boot mode.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Then just leave it in the mode that it has been booting on


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

When attempting to make the partition active, I get the error in the screen shot below.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> When attempting to make the partition active, I get the error in the screen shot below.


Skip that step and continue with the rest. I forgot all about the ACTIVE command being un-applicable to GPT disks.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here are the BCD boot screen shots. NOTE: I used G and H where you used D and E because those are what I assigned my drive letters to.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Other shot.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Okay, lets try to use the BCDBOOT utility inside the Windows partitition instead of the one on the Windows RE usb. Run the following commands:

C:\Windows\System32\bcdboot C:\Windows /s H: /f EFI /v

C:\Windows\System32\bcdboot C:\Windows /s G: /f BIOS /v

Make sure that H is the ESP while G is the 450MB partition. Don't mix em up.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

For both of the commands it gave: "The system cannot find the path specified."


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> For both of the commands it gave: "The system cannot find the path specified."


Okay, let's try listing the contents of the Windows partition. Do DIR C:\ and DIR C:\Windows\ and DIR C:\Windows\System32\ and DIR C:\Windows\System32\Boot\ then post shots


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here is the shot of DIR C:\

All of the other paths you gave me came up with: 

"The system cannot find the file specified."


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> Here is the shot of DIR C:\
> 
> All of the other paths you gave me came up with:
> 
> "The system cannot find the file specified."


That screenshot is not of the 688GB partition at all. Launch DISKPART, LIST DISK, SELECT DISK, LIST VOLUME and post shot of the volumes listed.

That shot is of the 450MB "System" partition which you supposedly assigned letter G. How come it's being detected as C?


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

For some reason my system partition is labeled C. The 688GB is now labeled D. Though I never labeled anything D. Strange...


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> For some reason my system partition is labeled C. The 688GB is now labeled D. Though I never labeled anything D. Strange...


It's okay. It seems Windows Recovery Environment assigns letters every time it mounts volumes and it's got nothing to do with the drive letters that are stored in Windows registry.

Let's assign the ESP partition (hidden) a letter for use with bcdboot later on.

SELECT VOLUME 6

ASSIGN LETTER=G

EXIT DISKPART


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

DIR D:\ then DIR D:\Windows\ then DIR D:\Windows\System32\ then DIR D:\Windows\System32\Boot\

Lets see the shots


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> It's okay. It seems Windows Recovery Environment assigns letters every time it mounts volumes and it's got nothing to do with the drive letters that are stored in Windows registry.
> 
> Let's assign the ESP partition (hidden) a letter for use with bcdboot later on.
> 
> ...


Done.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Now do post #134


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Here is the photo of the boot section. If you really need all of the other photos I can put them on, but it will take awhile.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> Here is the photo of the boot section. If you really need all of the other photos I can put them on, but it will take awhile.


No need, at least we now know that the partition's contents are accessible. Lets do the bcdboot now.

Step6. Run BCDBOOT with the following syntax:

BCDBOOT D:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS /v

BCDBOOT D:\Windows /s G: /f EFI /v

Step6. Post feedback of failure or success for the two lines of commands above.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

The first command gave a success with "Boot files successfully created."

The second command just brought me to the screen below..


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> The first command gave a success with "Boot files successfully created."
> 
> The second command just brought me to the screen below..


Try BCDBOOT D:\Windows /s G /v


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I typed bcdboot D:\Windows /s G: /v and it worked. I think your post has a typo. (missing colon after G)


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> I typed bcdboot D:\Windows /s G: /v and it worked. I think your post has a typo. (missing colon after G)


Yes, it's 0400H here, was bound to happen sooner or later :smile:.

Unplug usb and try normal booting


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I now get this screen. Not sure why I have two options... nor which one to choose.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> I now get this screen. Not sure why I have two options... nor which one to choose.


You are getting two because we did not clear the initial contents of the system partition. If we had deleted all of its contents first or formatted before running bcdboot, there would only be one entry in the recreated BCD. Choose the first one (added if the BCD is not empty), the one that mentions volume 4 because that's exactly where Windows is. I bet either one should work


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

ray:ray:MY DESKTOP! NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO SEE IT! ray: :luxhello: :beerchug: :thanx:


But I am sure there are still a few things left to be done. Or am I going to have to choose my operating system every time?

Also, I now have a System (E in my File Manager (My Computer)


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> ray:ray:MY DESKTOP! NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO SEE IT! ray: :luxhello: :beerchug: :thanx:
> 
> 
> But I am sure there are still a few things left to be done. Or am I going to have to choose my operating system every time?
> ...


YES!!! There are things to be done, but for now, let the drums roll lol :dance::4-nopity::jackson::spinning::ukliam2::4-cheers:


----------



## oscer1 (Jan 27, 2010)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

excellent job you guys


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

You can remove the drive letter E from the System partition in CMD, DISKPART ... (by now you know the drill) or if you prefer, Disk Management.

We can quickly edit the BCD to get rid of the extra boot menu entry if you are up to learning a new utility called BCDEDIT :smile:.

The easiest way though is to use a nice program called EASYBCD to remove the entry. It's free and very easy to use. Get it here just ignore the name and email textboxes if you don't want to provide them and click on the download button.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



oscer1 said:


> excellent job you guys


I'll drink to that! :beerchug:


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

The Windows 8.1 (on volume 4) is the correct one. Not the second one. I also downloaded the program you referred to.


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Tristan10 said:


> The Windows 8.1 (on volume 4) is the correct one. Not the second one. I also downloaded the program you referred to.


Okay. Run it, switch to the edit section, uncheck the wrong entry, save changes and you're done.


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> Okay. Run it, switch to the edit section, uncheck the wrong entry, save changes and you're done.


Alright. I am going to shut her down and attempt to boot it.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> ray:ray:MY DESKTOP! NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO SEE IT! ray: :luxhello: :beerchug: :thanx:
> 
> 
> But I am sure there are still a few things left to be done. Or am I going to have to choose my operating system every time?
> ...


i see a lot happened my overnight ! :smile::smile:
congratulations Stan you did it.
i am so happy for Tristan10 
a great forum to have been in.
thanks to all who worked for this end. :smile::smile::smile:

hope you put up your desktop shot


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

When I boot it up, I still get an option to choose an operating system. There is only one thing selected in the program you referred me. What else do I need to do?


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

try any one of it to boot up and worry about the second option later.
i think a fast reboot option set up in the action enter will get rid of selecting system


----------



## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> try any one of it to boot up and worry about the second option later.


I know I successfully booted it. Just would be nice to not have to choose it every time.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

have you not tried to check in start up options ? in action center


----------



## BIGBEARJEDI (Aug 8, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Awesome Job, Stan! :bow: :4-powerup :magic:

I am really amazed you did it. I thought he'd have to reload Windows at the very least. An outstanding demonstration of long-distance Tech Wizardry. 

Congrats to all who helped, especially to Tristan! Way to hang in there fella. :spinning:

Best thread I've been in yet since on TSF. I learned a few things for sure. 
Highly recommended to read. :grin::grin::grin:

BBJ


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Thank you so much guys for your priceless contributions towards a solution, your joint efforts kept us hanging in there for the long haul :bow:

Kudos Tristan, you are a great follower of instructions and you kept utmost focus and patience, that really helped come this far!

As for the extra boot entry, launch easybcd and delete it instead of just unchecking it and also uncheck that timeout checkbox so that Windows boots immediately instead of displaying the OS selection screen; it's not logical if it's the only OS installed. Save the changes and reboot. If that doesn't work, roodap is onto something with the Action Centre startup suggest, I'm not sure what is in there because I'm on mobile and don't have immediate access to Windows 8. Perhaps he could take you through the specific steps. EASYBCD should be enough to do this though. Show us a screen shot of easybcd displaying the boot entries in the first section and the edit section. Now that you are on Windows, use the snipping tool for great screen shots.


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Nice work guys :thumb:


----------



## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Update:

I couldn't find anything in Action Centre regarding startup. Anyway, here is an image to guide you.










Delete the extra entry then select the option to skip the boot menu, unless yours is having different options because my system is using the Windows Seven boot menu (text based) and not the Windows 8 GUI boot menu. I had initially said you uncheck the extra entry, that doesn't apply because the checkboxes are for setting the default entry and not for getting rid of entries, so just delete it and skip the boot menu then save changes. Keep an eye out for the status bar at the bottom, it should report if the settings were successfully saved. Windows should now load bypassing the boot menu so you won't have to select the entry each time. The other extra stuff to be done are simply preventive measures like creating recovery discs for a rainy day. That is a topic for a separate thread if you are satisfied the original issue has been resolved.


----------



## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

:luxhello::luxhello::luxhello::beerchug::arrowu::magic:
Great job congratulations to both of you, way to stick with it.


----------



## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

go to control panel-system-properties-startup and recovery
on top you can see what sstem is default and the time it waits for selecting your system to boot. there you can edit or delete what you don't want
as Stan suggested you can set the time wait to zero so it will boot up faster 
somehow i cannot get the printscreen key to work. hence could not provide a shot
i don't have a camera
if you are in doubt do not change anything of the system settings

also i would like to point out my windows 8 startup screen shows windows 7,windows 8 , recovery etc.
as i use windows 7 default so i get option to select system windows 7 startup screen


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

i found how to make screenshot with sniptool
here it is
enter settings of the startuprecovery
rest all are self explanatory
i think the action center fast startup option is there only in windows 7 action.
there it used to skip all startup screens directly boot windows 7. even now it does same if i enable it skipping windows 8 question :smile:


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

Thanks to all of you. This is by far the best and most helpful forum I have ever been on. I will definitely highly recommend it to everyone.

I just have one last quick question for Stan.

In EasyBCD, the OS that I am currently on (the right one with all of my stuff) should be the one with a check mark right? I would really hate to delete the wrong one.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Tristan10 said:


> Thanks to all of you. This is by far the best and most helpful forum I have ever been on. I will definitely highly recommend it to everyone.
> 
> I just have one last quick question for Stan.
> 
> In EasyBCD, the OS that I am currently on (the right one with all of my stuff) should be the one with a check mark right? I would really hate to delete the wrong one.


The first entry was the one that mentioned volume 4, and it's the one that loads correctly, right? 

EASYBCD lists them in the same order so that if you change the order in easybcd, the order is applied to the boot menu as well. That said, you should delete the second entry. Just select it and click the delete button. If still in doubt, switch to the view section and select the detailed (debug mode) then copy all of the text to a code box in your next post.


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

i would leave it as it is . wrong deletion can make us start all over again
he can just select the system which boots and make time wait zero. which should do the same result
if Stan is willing to take the risk i have nothing more to say.
in any case it is a wonderful remote guidance for a repair of this complicated windows trouble.
congrats Stan again


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



roodap said:


> i would leave it as it is . wrong deletion can make us start all over again
> he can just select the system which boots and make time wait zero. which should do the same result
> if Stan is willing to take the risk i have nothing more to say.
> in any case it is a wonderful remote guidance for a repair of this complicated windows trouble.
> congrats Stan again


:lol: Chill out roodap! Hehehe, the boot menu is way too puny a problem compared to what we just recovered from. We can play with the boot menu all day and we'll be just fine for as long as Windows RE boot disks exist.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

I would recommend getting rid of orphaned boot menu entries to prevent confusion, you never know when you'll be forced to use the Recovery Environment and be forced to use mind-boggling command line utilities! Better get rid of it while you still have access to a graphical ui utility like easybcd, it's just a front end to BCDEDIT, but it makes short work of those commands!

Post the entries as suggested so that I point out which one to delete once and for all (second entry).


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Stancestans said:


> :lol: Chill out roodap! Hehehe, the boot menu is way too puny a problem compared to what we just recovered from. We can play with the boot menu all day and we'll be just fine for as long as Windows RE boot disks exist.


yes i am now chilled out :smile:
that is fine. a lot of things i learned from here especially from you Stan
thanks :flowers::flowers:

we are yet to see his desktop final. i will be patient for it.


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## Tristan10 (Feb 6, 2014)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*

The option is now gone. Once again thanks. I think everything is now back to normal. :dance::rofl::thumb::grin:


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## roodap (Mar 2, 2012)

i am happy your windows problems are over.
i appreciate your patience and hard work.
partly you are very lucky you got your hdd back in fine condition.
Stan helped all the way through. thanks to him
very good.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: Need Help! Messed up laptop hard drive*



Tristan10 said:


> The option is now gone. Once again thanks. I think everything is now back to normal. :dance::rofl::thumb::grin:


:smile: Glad I could be of any help buddy. If you still want to set up the other HDD for xbox compatibility, do not hesitate to seek help on TSF's Console Gaming Support section, I'm certain you'll receive lot's of help there too, and since it's about HDD configuration, don't be surprised to find us there too :grin:

Cheers :beerchug:


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