Windows 7 Repair CD

Are you having trouble with Windows 7? Well, I am. I migrated my W7 installation to a new hard-drive using HDClone (There is a free version there!). The problem is, the new HDD is about three times as big and the bootloader can’t make it work. I get an error saying “Device not accessible”. It looks something like this:

I couldn’t find my W7 DVD so I could not repair it. After spending some time with Hiren’s BootCD, and failing completely to fix the MBR, and after booting up Mini XP and using CheckDisk, I gave up. I installed an old Windows XP that I had, thinking, “Oh, this might fix it” but no luck.

Creating a Repair CD

I found out that the “repair” portion of the W7 DVD can be recreated WHILE running Windows 7. And since my original Windows 7 installation still works, I tried it. Here is how:

1. Type in “recdisc” into the searchbar in the start menu. Click on that.

2. Click on Create Disc (Remember to put in a blank CD, you don’t need a DVD).

That’s it. You can boot into this CD (change BIOS settings etc etc) and use it the same way you would use your W7 installation DVD to repair your computer.

TIP: Label the CD and keep it handy just in case. It’s good practice to create the CD just in case something screws up BEFORE it screws up.

Check out this tutorial on the usage. There are tons more ways to use it, so just search google with the terms “Windows 7 repair” or “restore” and you’ll find it.