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Ok, so my computer will not boot Windows 7. I have a dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14, where I had to click enter on Ubuntu's Boot Menu (In Grub) to get to Windows 7. I turned on my computer on the 26th, and it just will not load Windows 7, and gets stuck on the Starting Windows screen(The Windows logo does not freeze, it just sits there). I have tried to format the drive, but apparently BMR or whatever it is would not let me because it was a different thing (not sure). I have gotten rid of grub(hopefully, it does not boot to Ubuntu anymore, but straight to Windows 7), and I still cannot re-install Windows. I had 2 partitions, one being the A: with all my programs and files on it, and the other being the C: with Windows. Ubuntu was the B: but its gone now. When I try to repair, there are no restore points, and I cannot click F8 anymore on the Windows Boot Manager, because it says failure to start. It says the file is \Boot\BCD and the status is "0xc000000f". It tells me to fix the problem put in my windows disk and restart my computer, click next, and repair my computer. I do this, and it brings me to that page. I click next, I click repair my computer, and it says "This version of system recovery options is not compatable with the version of windows you are trying to repair. try using a recovery disk that is compatable with this version of windows", but I am using the exact same disk I used to install windows 7 in the first place. If I click install(Instead of clicking repair), it says "setup is starting..." it just gets stuck on that page. Any help? I have tried everything I can think of, and have even contacted my friends, who work on computers and repairing/fixing them, and they have no clue whats wrong. Please help! I will try to post anything else past the "setup is starting..." if I get there, I have left my computer on that screen for about 2 hours. Thanks!
**Edit: Just got the the install windows screen, after about 2 hours, i clicked accept the license terms, clicked next, and I clicked Custom. It sits spinning for a while I wait for it to load (You would think it would be faster because I have built a thousand dollar high end gaming computer). I wait for about 20 minutes, and it says windows cannot be installed on any of the partitions(It says I have 4, but I though I had 2). Here are the error I am getting: "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed on GPT disks. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk." It will not let me extend partitions, there are no drivers to load, and when I try to format the partitions, I cannot extend the formatted spaces into one partition.
*Edit 2: When I try to format another partition, it tells me "Failed to format the selected partition. [Error: 0x8004242d]". This was the partition that originally had Windows 7 installed on it.
Joshua
Posted 2014-12-28T04:09:21.807
Reputation: 1
1If this happened to me, I would boot a Linux Live CD, try to mount all of the partitions & copy off everything critical, and then firebomb the partition table and reinstall the OS(es). It sounds like the boot area of the drive that Windows uses may have gotten irretrievably munged. – hBy2Py – 2014-12-28T04:20:57.263
yup. I'd suggest shred on the root device of your HDD as a great way to nuke the partition table. A good proper wipe might be the solution here. @Brian - may want to elaborate and post that as an answer ;) – Journeyman Geek – 2014-12-28T05:06:27.147
Was hesitant to suggest the apocalyptic route so soon after the Q went up. Also, I don't have too much I'd be able to add, beyond my comment. (I didn't know about being able shred /dev/sdX, e.g.) OP has set up dual-boot Linux/Win, so I didn't feel I had enough additional specific expertise to promote my thoughts from comment to answer. I'll leave the rep to someone else. – hBy2Py – 2014-12-28T12:12:11.733