Blinking Dash in upper left corner... Can't get in Windows

[rh535]

Last week my PSU went out and my computer shut off. I swapped out the PSU and a HD which supposedly had shown S.M.A.R.T errors(Not my OS drive). i took out all the drives and only had my OS drive installed. After getting past the bios screen it just shows a blinking dash in the upper left corner. I have Windows 7 x64 ...

Any ideas on how to fix this without reinstalling Windows 7?

Thanks

Asus P5W DH Deluxe

WD Caviar Black 1TB - SATA

 

[Mussels]

make sure the HDD boot order is correct in the BIOS.


if you had a weird setup (OS drive not on SATA 0, etc) then its possible some of your boot files were on the drive that was removed, even if the OS itself wasnt - a repair/reinstall is the only real fix there.

 

[Arrakis9]

Usually it means that the system is hanging on ID'ing all of the devices hooked to the motherboard. unplug one thing at a time untill your system either tells you that there is no bootable device or just gets into windows. then you'll know whats died on you.

 

[rh535]

make sure the HDD boot order is correct in the BIOS.


if you had a weird setup (OS drive not on SATA 0, etc) then its possible some of your boot files were on the drive that was removed, even if the OS itself wasnt - a repair/reinstall is the only real fix there.

How do i do a repair with windows 7?

 

[Mussels]

How do i do a repair with windows 7?

I think you can start a repair from the install DVD, actually. I've seen a 'startup repair' option somewhere

 

[Arrakis9]

How do i do a repair with windows 7?

boot from the CD, when the system is in windows setup, there is an option after starting setup in the bottom left corner that says "repair your computer" use startup repair to fix the boot files

 

[rh535]

I think it is time to reinstall windows... Thanks for the help.

 

[Arrakis9]

I think it is time to reinstall windows... Thanks for the help.

you shouldn't have to if you can get it to boot off the CD drive

 

[Mussels]

if its just the boot files missing as i said before, startup repair fixes that quite easily.

 

[vbx]

I did this and it worked.

http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-vista/how-to-fix-bootmgr-is-missing-error-in-vista/

I cloned my HD but for some reason, the boot files didn't transfer over and I got a message saying that the data it was trying to access was located in a different device.

I ran windows repair via - command prompt and entered "bootrec /fixboot" and the windows booted up just fine.

 

[rh535]

Well after setting the drive up as the first boot drive I get something to the like of "put in the boot disk or restart the computer". Also when I try to fix the startup errors it does nothing and asks me to restart the computer.

Reinstall?

Can I use the command promt? If so, what should I type in?

Thanks

 

[vbx]

Well after setting the drive up as the first boot drive I get something to the like of "put in the boot disk or restart the computer". Also when I try to fix the startup errors it does nothing and asks me to restart the computer.

Reinstall?

Can I use the command promt? If so, what should I type in?

Thanks

See the post above.

goto command prompt
simply enter: bootrec /fixboot
or enter: bootrec and it will list a few options.

 

[rh535]

The screen before that does not show my drive. I tried going into command prompt and type this

X:\Sources"Not put in by me" bootrec /fixboot

I get "Element not found"

 

[vbx]

what do you get when you just type bootrec

 

[rh535]

4 options

fixmbr
fixboot
scanos
rebuildbcd

 

[vbx]

do all of them in that order. it doesn't hurt to try. if the OS is installed on that drive, it should work.

 

[rh535]

Do I just type in FixMbr? I tried just that and got "FixMbr" is not recognized as an internal or external command

 

[vbx]

no you have to type bootrec /fixmbr

Also, if the screen b4 that doesn't show your drive, that means it didn't find an OS installed in that drive.

 

[rh535]

I tried the first one and it said completed successfully. It did not work and will try down the list. Since my drive was not seen in the first screen is this pointless?

 

[vbx]

I tried the first one and it said completed successfully. It did not work and will try down the list. Since my drive was not seen in the first screen is this pointless?

Yes it is pointless if there is No OS installed on that drive. lol

but try the 4 bootrec fixes down the list and see what happens.

 

[DirectorC]

Seems like you had some gnarly data corruption with this system crash.

Try some of the automated options for system repair.

 

[rh535]

The OS is on the drive

 

[DirectorC]

Startup Repair or System Restore may work. If not you'll just have to reinstall. At least it doesn't seem like you've lost any data.