Serious failure and problem with installation

Waldie

New Member
Messages
7
Location
Innishannon, County Cork, Ireland
On my 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate computer, I used a guide from CNET to install Windows 8 Preview Release. I first shrunk a partition, formatted it, named it a simple directory (K), put the MS download assistant on it and ran it as an administrator, so that the installation would be downloaded to K, and it appeared to be doing just that. Everything worked (download and installation) until the window came up to enter windows live email address. In accordance with the advice from the CNET writer, he said "If you choose to enter a Windows Live ID here, make sure you have access to your email and can confirm your computer. Otherwise it might not let you boot into it. Since I do not use Window Live, I chose the option SKIP on the bottom. That might have been fatal. The next step SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE OPENING OF WINDOWS 8 graphical boot menu which would have allowed me to selerct Windows 7 as default, and therefore enabled a Dual Boot capability.
What actually happened is that nothing happened. I did not get the Win 8 boot screen. Finally I turned off the computer and restarted it,l and then I got the Win 8 Welcome screen greeting me, but after about 15 seconds it disappeared and my cursor appeared on a totally black screen. Nothing more. Shutting down and starting gave me the same result. No Windows 8 and no Windows 7.
Frustrated, I booted the computer from my Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit installation disk, and tried the repair function. It found an error, corrected it, and then booted me back to the ineffective Win 8 15 second boot and disapperaring act.
The Win 7 installation DVD will not UPDATE except from a functioning system. The alternative is to lose all settings and have to reinstall both Win 7 Ultimate 64 and all my software.
I have tried everything I know to get the computer to boot from the Win 7 boot sector, but no luck. Before I do a complete new installation, I am looking for suggestion as to how to get the computer to boot itself back in Win 7.

I tried F2, F10, F11, Delete key, but nothing brings me back to the Win 7 boot sector. Any help will be appreciated. If any guru is anywhere in Europe, I would be happy to call you and try to get this figured out. My last choice is to completely re-install Win 7, so I can actually see if my Win 8 is located on the K partition. It is about 100 GB so plenty of room for the Win 8.
Waldie (Ireland)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate
The key you are after is f8 that should bring up the boot menu and then you should be able to choose between windows 8 and windows 7. Once you are on I would suggest downloading easybcd this allows you to easily change the boot menu. Have you tried putting the windows 8 disk in and repairing it from that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 release preview
Waldie, over on sevenforums, the sister site to this, they recommend that you should run startup repair three times for windows 7.

This apparently enables the BCD to be thoroughly repaired. A single pass may repair some problems, exposing deeper problems etc.

I would concentrate on getting 7 working again, and getting rid of the incomplete 8 installation.

Boot from the win 7 setup disk.

Give your location and when you get to the install Windows screen select repair your computer.

The system recovery options will open.

Press shift+f10 together, and a command prompt window should open, with the prompt at x:\sources>

Welcome to WinRE!

This limited version of windows will enable you to see where your windows 8 is located. There is no windows explorer, so if you are not used to the command console, you might feel more comfortable in the windows environment.

type notepad and then press Enter

When notepad pops up, click file, open and a file open dialog will show.

go down to Files of type: and select all files

Now you should be in familiar territory

Select computer in the left side bar

and your drives should show in the right pane.

One of them should be your windows 8 installation - explore it but don't close the window - and when you are satisfied click on computer again to show all the drives. make a note of the drive letter of the windows 8 installation - we shall now format it. For the example I shall assume it is L: (I know it was k:, but everything changes)

click on the command window, and at the prompt type format L: /q (remember to use the drive letter you noted earlier)
if asked to unmount it enter y
label the volume - it is useful to have a name when the drive letters keep changing

A few seconds later and the windows 8 volume has been reformatted

If you go back to notepad, you can confirm the status of the drive, with the new label and free space.

go back and allow the recovery to repair and restart, and repeat twice more.

Then let us know what happened. If there are still problems, we will help you get back your windows 7. Best of luck
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
Normally f8 brings the boot menu up so somethings not working properly if that doesn't work but i normally start pressing is as soon as I turn on the device. Sometimes the bios will bring up a thing ask what device to boot from but after choosing keep pressing it until something comes up. Just keep repeatedly pressing it. If windows boots up and it doesn't come up with the boot menu then it isn't working.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 release preview
To fafhrd: I followed your instructions and used the command prompt. My Win 8 installation was not on K but on X BOOT.
I issued the ionstruction to format that drive,l but got the response that it could not be formatted because it is write protected. How can I remove the write protection of the X drive? Obviously if I could access my C drive or the system partition I could start my computer in Win 7, but rioght now X is getting in the way.
Waldie
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate
Waldie, the command prompt says x:\sources> that is the recovery environment, not the Windows 8 installation drive.

get to the command prompt again, type notepad <enter>, and select file,open, click computer in the left sidebar and in the right pane, what drives do you see?

Since I cannot send a personal message to you - you have them blocked - perhaps you would PM me?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
Depending on what you did there may not be a Windows 7 to repair. If you didn't do a custom install, where it lets you pick the partition to install too, it will do an upgrade. Upgrade replaces windows 7 with Windows 8. Your files may still be there, also depending on what you did during the install. If you delete or format the wrong partition they may be lost though. There is an option to create a local account instead of a windows live ID account logon. That might be a mute point now though. If you did do an upgrade and not a dual boot that would explain why you are not getting the OS selection screen. I'd try what fafhrd suggested, to see what your disk structure looks like.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
To fathrd: I am unable to find the location of the win8 installation. When I am using notepad, and ask for all files I find the following:
Drives C, D, E, G all are exactly as they were before this fiasco. I System Reserve now shows 33.7 MB used and shows Temp folder dated 6/9/2012 and contains several text documents (very small) K drive contains only the Windows Release Preview Upgrade Assistant application which I put in there 6/9/2012, and which I activated using Run as Administrator command yesterday.
Then there is X drive, called BOOT, which contains files folders Program Files, Services, Users, and Windows. In Windows most files are dATED 7/13/2009 so it looks like my Win 7 Ultimate is there. Just a few entries in Windows show date 6/10/2012. Also in X BOOT is setup application.
All the windows 8 files I downloaded yesterday do not aseem to be anywhere.
As I said, X is write protected so it would not allow me to format. I guess I am glad about that.
Now, having divulged everything I can see on my computer, how can I get the computer to boot into Win 7, and thern figure out if it is worthwhile trying to install Win 8 as a dual boot. I have this spare K partition just waiting to become the container for Win 8.
I would be most happy to call you in Sussex and request your verbal guidance.
Waldie
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate
Waldie thanks, ignore x - it is the virtual drive of the recovery system. just

take time to note the dates* of the windows folder in all c, d, e, f, g, drives you find, and if you find a windows.old folder in any of those drives -and let us know. Thanks

*the windows folder belonging to windows 8 will be recent - 2012

I can't put my contact details here - pm me with your email, or allow PMs on your profile
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
to fafhrd: I do not undersrtand PM, and I can't find anything in my profile that relates to prohibiting PMs, whatever they are.
As to the contents of my C drive, I have found Windows.old. Under it: program files, program files (x86), users, and Windows. The files in theere have mostly older dates, with some dates of yesterday.

also in C drive: Windows . Under it are files with old and new dates. It looks like my Win7 has been blown.
Is this repairable or do I re-install Win 7 from scratch?
Waldie
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate
If there is a windows.old file in there then it would seem you have installed W8 over W7 as this is a file the upgrade installer leaves behind with all your old files in it (my documents folder) which means W7 is pretty much gone I fear

Did you ever take a backup/system image of your 7 system before any of this
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7 Ultimate with a little bit of 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    i5 3570K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z77X
    Memory
    8 Gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 Evo
    PSU
    800W Arctic
    Case
    Antec
Hi Waldie,

I think you can restore your system, but you will

a) need to have a stiff drink available at all times
b) need to remain perfectly sober
c) follow all instructions to the letter

How to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista

describes the situation in vista - read and understand that the situation is actually just the same, except that the references to xp and windows 2000 are irrelevant and for vista read windows 7

I'll copy and edit the instructions an post them here shortly
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
Pm stands for Personal Messages. The settings are under the General Settings section in your User Control Panel.
My Settings > My Account > General Settings.
Personal Messaging > Personal Messaging On
Receive Personal Messages > From all members
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
We have determined that there is a windows.old folder - we don't know if there is sufficient space -we can only do this within the WinRE - unfortunately I have just busted my boot USB for Windows 7 - i need to rebuild it!


Step 1: Determine whether there is a Windows.OLD folder and whether there is sufficient free space on the Windows hard disk
Click Start, and then click Computer.


On the View menu, click Details.
In the Free Space column, note how much space is available for Local Disk (C: ) under the Hard Disk Drives area.
In the Hard Disk Drives area, double-click Local Disk (C: ), and then determine whether the Windows.OLD folder exists.


Right-click the Windows.OLD folder.
Windows win7 will determine the size of the folder after several seconds.
Determine whether the Windows.OLD folder is smaller than the free space that is available for Local Disk (C: ) in step 2.


Note If the Windows.OLD folder is two times as large as the free space that is available for the Local Disk (C: ) entry, you may be unable to restore the previous Windows installation.
Back to the top
Step 2: Start the Windows Recovery Environment
Put the Windows win7 installation disc in the DVD drive, and then restart the computer.
Press a key when you are prompted to restart from the disc.
In the Install Windows window, select a language, a keyboard input method or other input method, and then click Next.
In the Install Windows window, click Repair your computer.


I think at this point you can use shift+F10
(In the System Recovery Options window, click the version of the Windows win7 operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
If prompted for a user and password enter them
In the System Recovery Options window, click Command Prompt.)
The Command Prompt window opens, and it displays the command prompt. The command prompt is where you will type the commands that are described in the following steps.


Step 3: Rename the Windows win7 folders
Note When you type one or more of the commands at the command prompt in the following steps in this section, and you then press ENTER, you may receive the following message:
The system cannot find the file specified.
If you receive this message, go to the next step in this section, and then type the command in that next step.


Type the following commands at the command prompt:
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
c:
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
ren Windows Windows.win8
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
ren "Program Files" "Program Files.win8"
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
ren "Users" "Users.win8"
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
ren "Documents and Settings" "Documents and Settings.win8"
Back to the top
Step 4: Copy the contents or move the contents of the Windows.OLD folder
Type the following commands at the command prompt:
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
move /y c:\windows.old\windows c:\
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
move /y "c:\windows.old\program files" c:\
Type one of the following commands at the command prompt, as appropriate for your situation.


When the previous Windows installation was a different version of Windows win7
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
move /y c:\windows.old\users c:\
Back to the top
Step 5: Restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation
Note D: represents the DVD drive in the following commands. If the DVD drive on the computer is represented by a different letter, such as E:, use that letter in the command.
When the previous Windows installation was a different version of Windows win7


Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
D:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:
Back to the top
Step 7: Close the Command Prompt window, and then click Restart
Type the following command at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
exit
Click Restart.
The previous Windows installation will start.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
ok - to find the size of the windows.old folder - having booted from the setup dvd, opened the command prompt window, and notepad, file open, computer, C:\ right-click c:\windows.old and select properties and wait until size and size on disk had been calculated - if well used, it can easily reach 20 GB

In this case the free space on the c: drive is greater than 10 GB it should be ok to attempt to do this as in the previous post, but if you wish you can delete the windows 8 windows, users, and program files folders to make more space since they are redundant.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
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