Can I boot from a USB and fix a non bootable install

[Docfxit]

I have a PC that I get a BSOD 0x7b when I boot into normal or safe mode.

Can I use Windows Repair AIO to repair it?

It has Win7 on it.  It started giving me the 0x7b when I enabled Driver Verifier. I created a USB bootable Win7 so I can run Windows Repair AIO from the USB.  It would be great if it could load the registry of the D: drive and repair what ever is wrong with it.

I saw this in a different post:
- Also make sure to untick those external drives in the main repair GUI.  A USB HDD today can easily contain 500 GB or more in data/info. Because USB disk I/O is (much) slower than disk I/O for an internal drive. (think: serial data transfer versus parallel data transfer).

Thank you,

Docfxit

[Boggin]

Are you able to boot up into the advanced boot options to try Last Known Good Config or select Repair your computer and either try Startup Repair or the restore points from the Recovery Environment ?

[Docfxit]

Are you able to boot up into the advanced boot options to try Last Known Good Config or select Repair your computer and either try Startup Repair or the restore points from the Recovery Environment ?

Yes.  I can get to Advanced boot options.  When I select Last Known Good Config I still get 0x7b. When I select cmd prompt I still get 0x7b.  When I select safe mode with or without networking I still get 0x7b. When I boot to a Win7 CD I can get to Repair.  I have run through Repair /Reboot  three times.  Then I boot into normal mode.  I still get 0x7b.  When I run rstrui.exe from the repair console I get "No restore points have been created on your computer's system drive"

I'd like to know when I look at the boot options with bcdedit /enum  from the repair console is Boot Loader, Identifier supposed to be default like it is or should it be current?

Thank you,

Docfxit

[Boggin]

default is your identifier.

Which bcd cmd were you thinking of running ?

Enter bcdedit |find "osdevice" then enter chkdsk x: /f where x is your partition letter to see what that reports.

Ignore the error 50 as it is unable to write a wininit log in this mode.

[Docfxit]

I have done that a few times.

Thanks,

Docfxit

[Docfxit]

Drive D: is the Win7 partition I can't boot into.  The partition doesn't say System.  Why?  What is necessary for it to say System?

Thank you,

Docfxit

[Boggin]

Not sure what you've done there but how have you been able to get into disk management if you are getting error 0x7b in both normal and safe mode.

I don't know what that C:\Win 7 Portable is unless that is your install disk but it shouldn't be coming up as C: if it is that.

The D: drive looks to be quite small for the OS

Are you able to get into msconfig to select the OS under the Boot tab as you are dual booting with XP.

When you boot up with the install disk and select Repair your computer, what does it give for the location of the OS to repair ?

[Docfxit]

Not sure what you've done there but how have you been able to get into disk management if you are getting error 0x7b in both normal and safe mode.

The C: drive you see is a Portable USB drive I created.  I haven't been in disk management on the problem d: Windows7_OS drive at all. I wish I could.

I don't know what that C:\Win 7 Portable is unless that is your install disk but it shouldn't be coming up as C: if it is that.

Portable is not an install disk.  Although I could install from it.  It's a full Win7 for troubleshooting.

The D: drive looks to be quite small for the OS

D: Windows7 is on a SSD along with XP Hidden.  I had to hide XP and remove my other 1TB and 4TB hard drives in order to be able to boot into the recovery console for the D: Windows7 partition.  If I didn't when I tried to boot into the recovery partition the Win7 CD would let me know it's the wrong version of the OS it's trying to boot into.

Are you able to get into msconfig to select the OS under the Boot tab as you are dual booting with XP.

No.  Not when I boot into the D: Windows7 partition.  I only get 0x7b.  Of course when I do I unplug the C: Portable USB win7
 

When you boot up with the install disk and select Repair your computer, what does it give for the location of the OS to repair ?

It gives me the C: drive.  When I go into repair Windows7 is the only OS the machine can see.

I hope that cleared it up for you.

I have the USB Win7 called Portable so I can run diagnostics only.  I have run Malwarebytes on D: Windows7.  I realize it doesn't have a chance to look at the registry for D: Windows7 but it does look at the files, which is better than nothing.  It found nothing.

That is why I would like to run Windows All-In-One from my USB portable.  I know it's possible to load the registry from a drive that is not booted from and do the same checking/modifying on that registry.  I know it's possible to apply the same security fixes to files on a different partition.  I don't know if Windows All-In-One is currently set up to do that.  If it isn't it sure would be nice if that was a feature so I could get into my Live Windows7 drive.

Thanks,

Docfxit 

[Boggin]

As far as I know, Windows Repair has to be run on the volume that it is repairing.

It can't be run in one to look at a volume in another drive.

Was that your meaning ?

[Docfxit]

As far as I know, Windows Repair has to be run on the volume that it is repairing.

It can't be run in one to look at a volume in another drive.

Was that your meaning ?

You are correct with Microsoft Windows Repair.  You must be booted from a Windows CD.

I want to run Tweaking.com_Windows_All-In-One while booted up from my USB Win7 and tell it to repair the Windows7 OS on the D: drive.

Thanks,

Docfxit

[Boggin]

I was talking about Tweaking's repair program, but I've never used the portable version to see how that works - but I would think you would still need to be booted into the volume you want to repair when you load the program.

[Docfxit]

Maybe we could get Shane to chime in and see what his thoughts are?

Thanks,

Docfxit

[Boggin]

I've already emailed jpm who is an Admin about this and awaiting a reply - locale time difference.

Not likely to get a reply from Shane anytime soon as he is deep in finalising WR v4.0 and has his blinkers on

[jpm]

Naw - The program won't work like that.  If you boot from portable or any other way, it will work on C:.  You'll have to be able to get it to boot.

You probably have already seen this, but this document may help.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff559218(v=vs.85).aspx

[ProFix]

Hi all, new here... I plan on buying the Win tools Pro, how do i make it portable?.. any links on this.  Thanks, and what a great site!!!

[jpm]

Both the repair tools and the toolbox have portable  versions available on their download pages.