Unable to detect HDD from windows 7 bootable disc

Question

I tried making and running live Ubuntu zip drive and succeeded but somehow i messed up my previous MBR, HDD drivers, file system or maybe something else while trying to make a dual boot system. Now i am able to see my HDD from Ubuntu zip drive but windows 7(ultimate 64 bit) which was already installed and running prior to all this started to crash on every boot, also when i tried to repair it, some error came up, then again i tried to boot it from windows 7 bootable disc, its not detecting my HDD, althought i can see my partitions still there with diskpart command from command prompt through that disc.

I have a 500GB SATA HDD Seagate Previously it was partitioned as: 700KB 100MB C 63GB D 100GB E 100GB F 197GB

Now from running command prompt with a bootable win 7 disc and executing DISKPART command with select disk 0 and list partition commands i am getting

partition 1 700KB partition 2 100MB partition 3 63GB partition 4 437GB(Not exact)

I have some very important data scattered in partitions other than c: which is fully dedicated to windows.

So please help/guide me to bring my previous windows 7 back or reinstall it without effecting my data.

Or if it is not possible please tell how i can erase that 63GB partition and re-install windows 7 from scratch using command prompt since in GUI mode my HDD is undetectable.

Thank you.

Answer 1

First, what do you mean Ubuntu zip drive?

Second, can you explain in detail what have you done with this hard drive and MBR?

As it seems, it sounds like your boot sector has damaged or you deleted the system reservation partition (the one with the 100MB space).

if the windows installation can discover your partitions you can just install from scratch the windows on the partition in which you had the OS, it won't damage the rest of your partitions.

Answer 2

Your best bet here is going to be to back up your data and reinstall Windows, if Windows 7 boot CD isn't properly detecting your installation to do a repair install.

Ubuntu will be able to mount your Windows partitions; you can just mount them and copy data from them to elsewhere. (If you have lots of free space on the drive, one suggestion would be to copy important data from your 63GB "C: drive" to one of the other partitions, then when you do a clean reinstall from your Windows 7 disc, you can just make sure to do a "Custom install" and tell it ONLY to install onto that 63GB partition, not overwrite any of the others.)

This kind of problem is sadly all too common with dual boot type installations. It sounds like when you did your Ubuntu install, you accidentally told it/allowed it to overwrite the MBR on your primary hard drive. In the future, to be ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY 100% SAFE, when doing an OS installation and you DON'T want that OS installed on the system drive, you might consider temporarily disconnecting the system drive entirely until the installation has completed. Can't break what isn't plugged in!