Windows 10: Problems after repairing MBR

Hi all,

First time poster here that is hoping for a little help possibly.

Hopefully this isn’t too long winded, just want to give as much info as possible to help with a solution.

PC specs:
Dell XPS 9000 (I know its old, but it still works for what I need)
Win 10 (early 2019 build)
i7 960
24GB ram (running on 12 at the moment)
GTX 260
256GB SSD (boot)
4TB HD

I recently installed some new ram (24GB) and upon first boot encountered some strangeness. It went into some sort of boot loop, starting up and then restarting about half through the boot process. Even if I booted into the bios it would shut itself down after a few seconds of entering the bios and then restart itself a few seconds later.

I removed the ram and reseated half of it (12GB) and tried again. I was able to get into the bios successfully and it was stable. I then rebooted into windows and got to the login screen. Seeing that seemed successful too I shut it down without logging in. Just to double check I restarted it just to make doubly sure it was ok. I was then met with a blue screen with the message...

The boot configuration data file is missing some required information

File:\Boot\BCD
Error code: 0xc000000d

After searching for that error code I came along some info on rewriting the MBR with the following instructions from the command prompt ...

Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup
attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r- s
bootrec /rebuildbcd


This seemed to fix my problem and I was able to boot into windows once again. This is where I ran into the next problem. When I originally installed windows I set the path of the user directories to my D drive as my boot drive (C) was only a 256GB SSD. So now by the looks of it after repairing/rewriting the MBR the links to the redirected user directories has been wiped. After checking the properties of my D drive it appears all the files in the users directories are still there, they're just not visible. The D drive is 4TB and the size of the visible files is around 1.1TB but the available space on the drive is 890GB, so there is about 2TB that appears to be invisible, which I'm assuming is the user directories?

When I login to windows my actual user name still appears (minus the user picture) and my password still works, but my user directory is not visible.

I'm hoping someone can help me with either recovering the user directories to bring windows back to how it was before all this went wrong, or at least recover the files that are not visible.

I do have a drive with 7 on it which I have booted into but am still unable to see the user directories on the D drive.

If you've read this far thank you for taking the time, I appreciate it.

Hopefully someone can help.

:)

 

"Preparing Automatic Repair" problem

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

This issue may occur if one or more of the following conditions are true:

• The basic input/output system (BIOS) does not detect the hard disk.
• The hard disk is damaged.
• Sector 0 of the physical hard disk drive has an incorrect or malformed master boot record (MBR).
  
  Note: Some third-party programs or disk corruption can damage an MBR.
• An incompatible partition is marked as Active.
• A partition that contains the MBR is no longer active.

I suggest you to follow the steps and check if it helps.

1. Set your BIOS to use the DVD drive as the primary boot device.

2. Boot with your Windows 10 installation DVD or the Windows Repair CD.

3. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …" appears.

4. Select a language, a time and currency, and a keyboard or input method, and then click Next.

5. Click Repair your computer.

6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, choose the drive of your Windows installation and click Next.

7. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Startup Repair.

If the issue still persists Contact your hardware manufacturer. Your best bet may be to contact the manufacturer of your computer or your hard disk.

Thanks.

 

Programs not working

In post 26 there were steps listed to fix the operating system corruption.
Are you able to follow them?
In post 29 was the suggested dism repair command.

 

how to repair the windows 7 MBR on a dual boot install with windows 10

Hi Martin,

To assist you better, I would like to know how exactly you are trying to repair the MBR. Is it using the repair disk?

I suggest you to use the Windows 7 disk and try to repair the MBR. I suggest you to enter the recovery environment using the Windows 7 disk and choose Command prompt and enter the following commands.

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /scanos

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Hope the information helps. Please do let us know if you need further assistance. If the issue still persists. We will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.