Cant boot system, says 'Invalid partition table', also cant access advanced boot options?! HELP!

[mrmotivator]

I got the blue screen of death and it restarted...

It read 'Invalid partition table'

Since then i have tried to press f5 and f8 to access the advanced boot but nothing comes up.

I have also been into bios to try and see what harddrive is assigned to boot, its all okay there.

I dont have a disk drive on this computer as its a custom build but i installed windows 7 originally using a usb pen and set the boot to boot from that and installed it. Even tried sticking the usb stick with the setup again and it wont seem to reboot from that either.

Any help would be much apreciated as im getting so desperate here :/

Thanks in advance for any help!!

P.S. (More info)
I have windows 7 x64 i think and a corsair 128gb ssd drive with my operating system. I also have a few other hardrives. The computer is about two years old, was thinking maybe its a failed ssd drive but then i cant seem to boot from the usb pen either as thought about installing windows again on another hardrive.

 

[Jetster]

So it ether your HD was set to AHCI and switched to IDE at some point so check that. BIOS setting. Did you reset the BIOS at some point?

Or it was formatted with windows 7 with C drive and with another HD connected and now its disconnected so it won't boot because the MBR is on the other drive (Windows 7 does this never have another drive connected during an install)

 

[mrmotivator]

So it ether your HD was set to AHCI and switched to IDE at some point so check that. BIOS setting. Did you reset the BIOS at some point?

Or it was formatted with windows 7 with C drive and with another HD connected and now its disconnected so it won't boot because the MBR is on the other drive (Windows 7 does this never have another drive connected during an install)

I did do a reset Bios settings after all this had happened to see if that would help? I will check when i get on in a minute, where would i find AHCI and IDE settings in Bios?

Also what your saying is to boot from a usb and re install windows i have to have all other hardrives unplugged?

 

[Jetster]

No I'm saying if there was another harddrive connected when the system was formatted and Windows installed then it needs to be connected or it will not boot

IDE /AHCI setting is under the SATA sections. If it was formatted as AHCI it will not boot if its set to IDE and Visa Versa

 

[fullinfusion]

You won't be able to repair windows off a USB stick. I betcha if you clear the CMOS (bios) that might just do the trick so you can boot.
Give it a try and post back.

 

[mrmotivator]

You won't be able to repair windows off a USB stick. I betcha if you clear the CMOS (bios) that might just do the trick so you can boot.
Give it a try and post back.

Thanks. I have tried reseting the cmos and been in bios to play around and went back to factory defualts and nothing :/ Cant seem to be able to boot from my usb stick which is what i did to install windows two years ago when i built to the rig.

 

[fullinfusion]

Yeah that's the crappy part of not having a DVD drive. You can boot into the bios correct?

What about just unplugging the ssd and try a spare HDD and see if you can load off the stick.

:edit.. How about selecting boot override in the bios?
You have all the boot drives there but just below there should be an option to boot off whatever so when you goto restart its going to load off what you selected.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Threads merged and cleaned up!

 

[mrmotivator]

Yeah that's the crappy part of not having a DVD drive. You can boot into the bios correct?

What about just unplugging the ssd and try a spare HDD and see if you can load off the stick.

:edit.. How about selecting boot override in the bios?
You have all the boot drives there but just below there should be an option to boot off whatever so when you goto restart its going to load off what you selected.

Well to be fair i havent used a DVD drive once lol.

I cant boot into bios but cant seem to change the boot overide to boot from USB?!

I have tried unpluging the ssd drive, think its had it?

 

[silkstone]

No, it sounds like It was installed in AHCI mode and it's flipped back to IDE.

 

[Shambles1980]

heres a secenario that can cause issues..

you build your system and connect hard disks in any old manner you like.
you get to windows install and say I think il use "this drive" (not the 1st one)
You dont think a thing about it. but remember that windows is installed to your (x ammount of GB hard disk)
you get an issue and reset bios or flash bios or similar. You go check the settings and tell the pc to boot from the hard disk you installed windows to.
"will not boot"
Windows actually installed the boot table to the 1st disk any way even though you told it to use a diferent drive. (probably to save bios config head aches for noobs)
Or you swaped the drives physicall location. (moved the hard disk from sata 2 to sata1 so bios sees it as the primary)
In either situation the fix is to set the correct drive as the primary. (which ever drive was primary when you set up windows, and its best to have them conected in the same physicall location 2)

As others have mentioned changing from ide to ahci or vice versa will also cause it to be unable to find the correct info. so change it back. always remembering that it could be a combination of both of the above..

and it is possible that you would need to fix the mbr if you BSOD'd
if all teh hard disks are found in the bios and there is no horrible noises (mechanical drives) then you could boot with a windows disk and use the command prompt to fix mbr.

the bot order for usb isnt in the "cd rom hdd boot order list. its in a second hdd boot order list. and will only be there with the usb attached.

 

[Tatty_Two]

No, it sounds like It was installed in AHCI mode and it's flipped back to IDE.

Especially true if he has done some CMOS resets!

 

[mrmotivator]

heres a secenario that can cause issues..

you build your system and connect hard disks in any old manner you like.
you get to windows install and say I think il use "this drive" (not the 1st one)
You dont think a thing about it. but remember that windows is installed to your (x ammount of GB hard disk)
you get an issue and reset bios or flash bios or similar. You go check the settings and tell the pc to boot from the hard disk you installed windows to.
"will not boot"
Windows actually installed the boot table to the 1st disk any way even though you told it to use a diferent drive. (probably to save bios config head aches for noobs)
Or you swaped the drives physicall location. (moved the hard disk from sata 2 to sata1 so bios sees it as the primary)
In either situation the fix is to set the correct drive as the primary. (which ever drive was primary when you set up windows, and its best to have them conected in the same physicall location 2)

As others have mentioned changing from ide to ahci or vice versa will also cause it to be unable to find the correct info. so change it back. always remembering that it could be a combination of both of the above..

and it is possible that you would need to fix the mbr if you BSOD'd
if all teh hard disks are found in the bios and there is no horrible noises (mechanical drives) then you could boot with a windows disk and use the command prompt to fix mbr.

the bot order for usb isnt in the "cd rom hdd boot order list. its in a second hdd boot order list. and will only be there with the usb attached.

Thanks very much for explaing but thats the first thing i checked, and funily enough the ssd drive i use for windows wasnt showing at all so was a bit concearned. The next day it seems to have magically appeared and i have re set it as the primary boot!

The next think to do when i get home is check the AHCI and IDE settings, how that would have flipped over on its own i dont know.

Was a bit confused when you mentioned 'The bot order for usb isnt in the "cd rom hdd boot order list. its in a second hdd boot order list. and will only be there with the usb attached', Could you explain again lol?! Thanks

 

[Shambles1980]

there are 2 boot order lists in most bioses now.
1st you have

Cdorm
hdd
lan
usb floppy
etc

then if you search you will find a second

which has
Hdd 1
hdd 2
usb

the 1st one tells the bios which type of drive to try and boot from 1st.
the second tell it which hard disk to boot from 1st.
a usb drive these days gets detected as a hard disk so its in the second list.

so you set the 1st list to HDD 1st bot
and the second list you set to usb drive as the 1st hard disk.

 

[OneMoar]

*just in case anybody else needs this info
windows DOES NOT split the /boot partition between drives EVER its always on the same physical disk as the os you can Opt not to have one at all meaning that the boot sector will exist on the same partition as the os(the only exception to this is if you define a system reserved partition manual or one already exists THEN you might have a problem The problem you are having has absolutely nothing todo with what disks where present when you installed the os thats just plain silly

secondly you can indeed repair a no-boot from a usb key I am not sure who tould these people other wise but all you need a windows 7 iso and RUFUS http://rufus.akeo.ie/ Or the mircosoft dvd download tool
secondly you don't need to reinstall to os all you need todo is boot from the usb key and get into a command prompt first try these
1. bootrec.ece/fixmbr
2. bootrec.exe/fixboot
3. bootrec /rebuildbcd
in that order!
MAKE sure you run a "dir" command to ensure the correct disk is targeted sometimes the recovery prompt gets the drive letters wrong
if the above doesn't work you many need to purge the old BCE records and rebuild the table ill walk you though that if needed
a SSD automagicly forgetting partitions usually means the drive is in a death spiral and you should do a full backup and replace the drive ASAP

 

[mrmotivator]

*just in case anybody else needs this info
windows DOES NOT split the /boot partition between drives EVER its always on the same physical disk as the os you can Opt not to have one at all meaning that the boot sector will exist on the same partition as the os(the only exception to this is if you define a system reserved partition manual or one already exists THEN you might have a problem The problem you are having has absolutely nothing todo with what disks where present when you installed the os thats just plain silly

secondly you can indeed repair a no-boot from a usb key I am not sure who tould these people other wise but all you need a windows 7 iso and RUFUS http://rufus.akeo.ie/ Or the mircosoft dvd download tool
secondly you don't need to reinstall to os all you need todo is boot from the usb key and get into a command prompt first try these
1. bootrec.ece/fixmbr
2. bootrec.exe/fixboot
3. bootrec /rebuildbcd
in that order!
MAKE sure you run a "dir" command to ensure the correct disk is targeted sometimes the recovery prompt gets the drive letters wrong
if the above doesn't work you many need to purge the old BCE records and rebuild the table ill walk you though that if needed
a SSD automagicly forgetting partitions usually means the drive is in a death spiral and you should do a full backup and replace the drive ASAP

Thanks for that...

I originally installed from usb stick to ssd, guessing the ssd drive is dead now as it wont show up in the bios or boot register.

Now the problem im having is i cant seem to boot from the usb stick, i click F12 on start up and it shows there but when i click on it i get a black screen with the words 'Start booting from USB device... Remove disks or other media. Pressany key to restart.', I press any key and nothing happens and i wait and nothing so i restart and try again?! Im really struggling here lol, any ideas? Oh and FYI its the same usb stick i used to boot and install windows 7 two years ago, think it was an iso my brother made for me!

 

[Hood]

Sounds like the files on the USB drive may be corrupt, not surprising after 2 years. Try using a fresh copy of windows 7 and a different USB drive, make it bootable using Windows USB Download Tool. Generic copies of Windows 7 are available from DigitalRiver - http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/14-windows-7-direct-download-links - good for booting to make repairs.

 

[OneMoar]

Use rufus to make the windows 7 .iso usb-boot-able I perfer it over the download tool because the download tool can be finnicky

 

[mrmotivator]

Use rufus to make the windows 7 .iso usb-boot-able I perfer it over the download tool because the download tool can be finnicky

Sorry to be a pain but can you remind me how do it?

 

[Tatty_Two]

Sorry to be a pain but can you remind me how do it?

Does this help? ........

http://rufus.akeo.ie/