I’m trying to repair a Windows 7 installation with a Windows 8.1 DVD. I’ve configured the BIOS for Windows 8 mode, and I’m booting from the UEFI-DVD option. It dumps me into the EFI shell. I switch to fs3 (the drive name). I see BOOTX64.EFI on the drive, but when I run it from shell, it gives a screen saying to hit any key to install. I do that, and it dumps me back into the shell. Anyone have any idea what’s going on, or how to diagnose?
[Update a few minutes later]
Huh. Never mind. For some reason, now it’s working.
Now, next question. I selected the option to “repair the PC.” But it says that the drive where Windows is installed is “locked,” and I have to “unlock” it. What the hell does that mean?
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I followed these instructions. After firing it back up, it’s back to it’s old trick of dumping me back into the EFI shell when I try to run bootx64.exe. Guess I’ll give it a few minutes and try again.
[Update a while later]
OK, separate (but related subject). Has anyone ever experienced a computer that kills flash drives? I just tried to copy an updated BIOS on to one. It didn’t work. When I put it back into the (Fedora) laptop that I’d downloaded it too, it can no longer see the drive. My Fedora desktop has done this as well, to the point that I’m afraid to put USB drives in it.
[Update a while later]
OK, this is weird. It turns out that the machine that’s destroying the flash drives is the one that I’m trying to flash the BIOS on. They’re OK when they leave linux, and get bricked when I plug them into the other machine, without even an OS running.
[Update a while later]
OK, it appears that the front USB port on the machine is killing the drives. The rear ones seem to be OK. Guess I’ll just tape them over.
[Update Saturday afternoon]
Still can’t figure out why I can’t boot Windows from the installation DVD. Anyone have any ideas?
It is possible that the front USB ports are connected to the mother board incorrectly. If the connector to the motherboard is not keyed, it may be attached backwards. This would put power on the wrong pins and possible fry the chips.
Like George mentioned above, could be wiring. In my case, a nice Antec, wiggling the inserted USB drive a certain way would cause a system hard reboot.
I just used the back ports, with an extender cable, rather than try to disassemble the plastic/metal facade on the front.
The weird thing is that this only started happening after I replaced the motherboard, so it’s not the wiring of the ports themselves. But I think the card readers use the same USB wires, so I don’t understand why they work all right (or at least the SD), but the ports don’t.
If you have access to another Windows 7 machine you can create a bootable system recovery disc. Just click on start and in the search field type ‘Create a system repair disc’ and the shortcut should appear above.
If you don’t have another computer but do have your Windows 7 product key you can download and create a bootable USB key to run the system recovery.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery
If you don’t have your product key than a little bit of Googling to search for WINRE.WIM image to create your own bootable USB key should get you going.
The Windows Recovery Environment should automatically analyze your system boot files and try to repair them on its own. If not then it will give you access to tools that you can try to repair the boot configuration database from the command line, run check disk for a corrupt file system, or restore your computer to an earlier time using the system restore utility.
I have a new Windows 8.1 install disk (not OEM) with a product key. It will not boot. It goes into EFI shell, then when I run bootx64.exe, it says “Press any key to load Windows.” Then when I do that, it bounces back into the shell. Lather, rinse, repeat. It booted once yesterday, but then told me my Windows installation was locked. Since I unplugged the whole machine, and rebooted, I have not been able to get it to load WIndows again.
Just install Windows 8.1 on a formatted drive and then copy files over. It will save you a lot of pain.
I’m trying to restore an older system, with software.
I think it is because the disk is currently setup while it was legacy BIOS mode and now the UEFI BIOS mode is seeing the drive as a non-UEFI bootable device and hence just bouncing you back to the press any key prompt. That’s why I suggest just switching back to the legacy mode and using the WINRE key to repair your Win7 installation. If Win7 is not booting because you swapped out the motherboard and the processor you will need to reinstall windows to re-register your product ID. Significant hardware changes will require you to reload windows completely. In that case I agree with Godzilla that in terms of total resource hours it may in fact be faster to just reload everything from a clean install of Windows then trying to save the existing Win7 install.
Well, that would imply (for instance) having to purchase another copy of Office.
How significant is “significant” hardware changes? It’s a new MB, and processor, twice the memory, but still 64-bit, and still AMD.
And you’re still not explaining (at least in a way that I understand) why the Windows install disk doesn’t at least load. The BIOS is set for Windows 8 mode, it’s a Windows 8.1 disk. If I set it to legacy mode, it doesn’t even go into the EFI shell. Nothing happens, no attempt to boot at all.
Also, riddle me this. If 8.1 can upgrade a 7 system, why in the world would it not be able to repair it?
There are ‘upgrade’ versions and retail versions of 8.1. I assume you are using the retail version.
Try changing the BIOS settings.
Because they’re different versions of Windows. If you want to repair a Win7 system, you probably need a Win7 CD.
OK, but that won’t work, either, because I upgraded the hardware, and it was an OEM OS (HP).
I just had this crazy idea that if I paid full price for a Windows upgrade, I could upgrade Windows with it.
“Significant hardware changes will require you to reload windows completely.”
That’s nonsense. You only have to activate Windows again–saying you have to reinstall it is absolutely wrong. I’ve done the “change hardware” thing several times. Too many times trying to use the same key and you’ll have to do it by phone, which is not as horrible as you might think.