# I cannot figure out why windows won't boot after failed FreeBSD install.



## ClickNazrk (Dec 6, 2011)

I booted up using the freebsd FreeBSD 8.2 i386 bootonly CD, and attempted to install from the contents of the install DVD ISO on a FAT32 partition. The installer seemed not to notice the install files on the FAT32 partiton after I confirmed the install. Before the install my ~750gb harddisk was like this:


```
500gb ntfs primary (windows 7) boot flag | 10gb FAT32 primary (FreeBSD DVD files) lba flag | empty space
```

After the reboot, the freebsd FreeBSD boot manager loaded, and I pressed F1 to load the windows bootloader. The cursor skipped a line on screen, and sat blinking, with no harddisk activity. I used gparted to delete the FAT32 <S>partition</S> slice and the FreeBSD slice the installer created. I then used the startup repair option on the windows 7 installer, which found no problems. 

I knew the FreeBSD bootmgr was still in the MBR, so I used the bootsect utility, located in the boot folder of the windows 7 disc to rewrite the boot sector of the windows slice and the mbr with the default windows 7 bootcode;  with *bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr*. Bootsect informed me that it was successful, and I rebooted. Still nothing. I don't get any error message, or any characters at all now, just a blinking cursor, and no hard disk activity. The only solution I can think of is to write a new partition table to the disk and start fresh, but I have no way to back up my data. 

If it is relevant, I have resized my windows 7 partition several times, using gparted and windows7 disk managment. What do I do?


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 6, 2011)

Windows 7 has the bootrec command to replace the older fixboot and fixmbr.  See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392.


----------



## ClickNazrk (Dec 7, 2011)

I just tried using bootrec to write a new MBR and bootsector, and rebuild the windows BCD. bootrec reported after each command that it was successful, and when rebuilding the bcd it did detect the proper windows installation. After I rebooted, I still had the same blank screen. I believe now that the bios is not loading the code from the MBR. Tonight I will try writing a new partition table with gparted, then using gparted's partition recovery option to restore access to my partition.


----------



## ClickNazrk (Dec 8, 2011)

I fixed the problem by resizing my windows partition with gparted. I installed FreeBSD from CD, and the problem returned, but I fixed it again, and both windows and FreeBSD are running flawlessly.

Also, how do I mark a thread as [solved]?
thanks


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 8, 2011)

Phew!  Next time, back up the drive first.  Clonezilla makes a backup of the boot sector in addition to everything else.

The thread title can be edited when you get past the ten posts in ten days anti-spam measure.


----------

