HDD not detected after install

[jabumbo]

So, a few days ago I downloaded a host of updates over night and set the installer to work before leaving in the morning. It ran for about 12 hours before I checked it again and it appeared to have completed some, but was hung up on one update or another. I let it running another hour or so before killing it since it was really slowing down the PC.

When I restart the PC, it appears as if my primary HDD is no longer detected. I dont have a boot disk for the Windows 7 x64 that I am running, only an old Win XP that doesnt have a useful key. Is a fresh install my only option here?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Dt_leeTmUmbS1MVG1RVlIxcTQ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Dt_leeTmUmTFAzcmVzeVFzdG8/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Dt_leeTmUmOWhfcU1Nc1dvVTg/view?usp=sharing

[Dalai]

The HDD is detected alright, otherwise there would be no GRUB boot manager. It's just not able to boot the Windows system.

How exactly did you kill the process? Did you just press the reset button on your computer case, or switched off power? Then it's highly likely that the file-system has been corrupted. You should definitely back up your data BEFORE repairing it! I recommend a live-system to do that, mounting the file-system read-only. Why backing up data before? File-system checkers like chkdsk (Windows) and fsck (Linux) repair the file-system and if the repair is successful, the file-system is in a consistent state again. But repairing a file-system may cause files to be deleted, corrupted or otherwise destroyed.

After you're done backing up your data, you can check the file-system with chkdsk.

Regards
Dalai

[aker]

Is it an UEFI system?
Which updates were installed?
Does your grub.cfg contain a line "insmod ntfs"?
Did you (or some software) convert all partitions to NTFS? Normally the bootloader of Windows 7 is stored on a FAT32 one.

[jabumbo]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Just getting back to this after the holiday break...

As for your questions:

1) I killed it by closing the DOS window that it was running in.
2) My essential files are backed up on a cloud system, although most are stored on the 2nd HDD that does appear when I F8 the recovery mode during startup.
3) I am unable to run chkdsk, as the grub command doesn't allow it.

Essentially, what you see on those 3 images is what I have to work with at the moment. With all the breaking down of computers I have done in my day, I've never encountered this grub option, so I am at a loss at how to troubleshoot. Trying to get myself a Win7 boot disc while I'm here at work to give a go later.

I honestly don't recall what updates were going at the time. I know that the Windows Update Manager claimed to have about 30 some that needed done, but still wasn't able to download them itself. Not sure if that insmod ntfs line is there, but I can look if you can tell me where to look!

After I forced the updater to close, I rebooted the PC (probably forced a few processes to close) and the screens you see are what I got. Never tried or wanted to partition anything, so I am not sure what that is all about.

[Dalai]

Normally the bootloader of Windows 7 is stored on a FAT32 one.

Unless we're talking about UEFI: No, the 100 MB boot partition of Win7 is always a hidden NTFS when created by Win7 setup.

@jabumbo
I just had an idea. There's an update that has always been problematic on multiboot systems (like the one you have). See the known issues on this MS KB article of KB3033929 (SHA-2 update). Maybe WSUS Offline installed this update before you closed the CMD window. Although MS says that the update can't be installed on some multiboot systems, I can imagine that it's possible that it crashes the Windows partition's file-system instead.

It's really difficult to assist you in your situation, tell you how to proceed to revive your Windows installation. After all it's a remote system for us. Unfortunately I don't know the Grub command line well enough to give any advice to ... do whatever one could do there (check if the partitions are still there or something like that). I recommend to use live-systems (WinPE from the Win7 setup DVD and some Linux) to check what's going on. If you happen to know some tech savvy person I suggest to ask him/her for assistance.

Regards
Dalai

[jabumbo]

Thanks for the assistance, guys. Thankfully I was able to bounce a few of these thoughts off of an IT friend and was able to get things going last night.

I was able to create a recovery disc through my work PC and while the "startup repair" didn't find any issues, I was able to repair via Bootrec.exe /FixBoot

Took about two hours worth of reboots and such, so not as bad as expected. Any suggestions on how to go about installing some of these updates a little more cautiously? I've still got about 35 updates that the Windows Update reminds me about endlessly yet still won't download.

[Dalai]

I was able to create a recovery disc through my work PC and while the "startup repair" didn't find any issues, I was able to repair via Bootrec.exe /FixBoot

Glad that worked for you!

Any suggestions on how to go about installing some of these updates a little more cautiously?

Check C:\Windows\wsusofflineupdate.log for the update I mentioned. Make an image of your system/partition with a tool of your choice* (that's important regardless of failed Windows updates). Then you are free to try again - and can restore the system from the image in case something bad happens.

*) There are free and paid image programs; Macrium Reflect Free, DriveImage XML, and Paragon has something as well - all of them are free. IMO Drive Snapshot one of the best (and definitely the smallest!) paid programs in this field!

I've still got about 35 updates that the Windows Update reminds me about endlessly yet still won't download.

Are there important ones among them? Or are they all optional? I wouldn't bother with the optional ones.

Regards
Dalai

[aker]

@Dalai
Strange. FAT32 here.

EFISYS.png

(23.92 KiB) Not downloaded yet

[Dalai]

Strange. FAT32 here.

Well, judging from the file name this is an EFI system - which I excluded in my statement. I neither have UEFI systems available nor ones with this 100 MB partition; I always partition the drive myself before letting Windows setup anywhere near the drive.

However, I did a quick test in a VM: created a new VM, booted the Win7 setup DVD, created a new partition there (letting it create the small partition), started CMD via Shift+F10, launched Total Commander from DVD and here is the result: NTFS.

Regards
Dalai

[boco]

@Dalai: Both VirtualBox and VMWare Player support UEFI for guests. In VirtualBox, you need to use 8.x or 10 for testing, because VB's EFI implementation doesn't have any CSM (Windows 7 x64 requires UEFI-CSM boot as it still relies on BIOS INT10h features).

MS' EFI support mandates FAT32 for the UEFI partition. AFAIK the UEFI standard itself does not.