lost access to w7 drives

System is home built multi-boot primary is w7, second is w8 and third is w7 all were current as of 4/25/2013 Have NIS on prime and second drives, 360 on third - all current Downloaded, installed and ran the new version of CCleaner All seemed well until reboot. At that point I could only boot to the w8 drive. Booted to safe mode and deleted CCleaner Did a full restore to primary without any change - still unable to boot to drive Now I'm unable to boot to safe mode on the primary Thanks

Running CCleaner's cleaning tool should not have done this. If you ran the Registry cleaner, I am not sure how any Registry cleaner works with multiboot setups but do know it prompts to backup up the Registry before making changes permanent. Did you backup the Registry? Personally, I would not have uninstalled CCleaner, but instead, would have tried to restore the Registry from the CCleaner backup.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee851681.aspx

Agreed, CCleaner should not have done anything to cause this problem. The reason is that I have lost access to both of the drives running w7. Currently I'm working from the only drive that boots - w8. Without being able to boot in any way to that drive I'm at a lost to determine what might be wrong and how to fix it. Thanks for responding Dick

Hi Dick,

perhaps this "famous" MS update is the reason:

patch-tuesday-fatal-system-error

kb/2839011
Could you try Option 4: Uninstall security update 2823324 by using a downloaded package from Microsoft

To help customers who have problems restarting their systems after they install security update 2823324, Microsoft is making available a bootable media ISO image through the Microsoft Download Center (DLC). Customers who cannot restart their systems after they apply the 2823324 update can download this image to create a bootable DVD or USB drive. Then, they can use this DVD or USB drive to boot their systems, uninstall security update 2823324, and return their systems to a normal operating state.

I'm downloading the .ISO now I'll be back later to report on the results Thanks PS: study hard, lots of us need good help

Update: no joy ran the CD and still can't access the drive either by normal boot or via safe mode

how do you choose which os to boot? is there just the one boot loader that shows all the os in one main menu, if so which drive is it on and which os installed it? does it still show each os but fails to boot either win7 os when chosen? or do you manually choose which drive to boot first on startup? (if so try turning off uefi in bios and see if the win7's now boot.) you say you did a full restore of main win7 os, how did you acheive this? and did it also re-create/write the bootloader? i'm thinking win 8 and uefi might have something to do with why the win 7 os won't boot, but don't know why running a cleanup utility should stop them booting in the first place unless the signed keys allowing the win7 os to be bootable where in a temp file somewhere(wouldn't have thought so.) and got deleted. don't know enough about uefi and win 8 but do know they can stop any os or software from booting if those signed keys are not present somewhere. which os were you in at the time of running ccleaner? i think i'd try using the win 8 cd to repair the bootloader and see if that fixes the problem, if not then i'd probably try win 7's cd to again repair the bootloader and see if that changes anything. sorry can't be of more help but i just don't know enough about win 7, win 8 and uefi to troubleshoot them for you, but my first thoughts are the problem is related to uefi and/or win 8 causing your non boot issues with win 7 and the best bet of fixing them is to use the win 8 cd to fix things.

how do you choose which os to boot?

from the list presented

is there just the one boot loader that shows all the os in one main menu, if so which drive is it on and which os installed it?

I'm assuming only one, it is on the primary drive [normally the C: which has W7 installed]

does it still show each os but fails to boot either win7 os when chosen?

it is still showing and I'm able to select any of the three bootable drives. When "C:" is selected it gets to the splash screen then does a very quick blue screen and then reboots

or do you manually choose which drive to boot first on startup? (if so try turning off uefi in bios and see if the win7's now boot.)

the default boot is to "C:" unless I choose differently within the allowed 30 seconds. [walk me through the uefi boot method - never tried it so in the dark]

you say you did a full restore of main win7 os, how did you acheive this? and did it also re-create/write the bootloader?

used the SRD for Ghost15 and selected the last full backup on the external backup drive [USB] Not sure on the bootloader but I did check that it should rewrite everything and then reboot

i'm thinking win 8 and uefi might have something to do with why the win 7 os won't boot, but don't know why running a cleanup utility should stop them booting in the first place unless the signed keys allowing the win7 os to be bootable where in a temp file somewhere(wouldn't have thought so.) and got deleted.

don't know enough about uefi and win 8 but do know they can stop any os or software from booting if those signed keys are not present somewhere.

which os were you in at the time of running ccleaner?

I was running "C:" which is my W7 primaary drive - older copy of CCleaner had just been replaced with the new version and was trying it out. Looked at the list of things it wanted to 'fix' and didn't see any surprises so allowed it to do so. All worked well until I rebooted and lost access

i think i'd try using the win 8 cd to repair the bootloader and see if that fixes the problem, if not then i'd probably try win 7's cd to again repair the bootloader and see if that changes anything.

sorry can't be of more help but i just don't know enough about win 7, win 8 and uefi to troubleshoot them for you, but my first thoughts are the problem is related to uefi and/or win 8 causing your non boot issues with win 7 and the best bet of fixing them is to use the win 8 cd to fix things.

Thanks for the response and the recommendations. I'll work on them tonight when I'm back on my system

don't know enough about uefi and win 8 but do know they can stop any os or software from booting if those signed keys are not present somewhere.

And actually, for factory installed OEM Windows 8, it is a requirement "Secure Boot" be enabled in the UEFI Setup Menu as a security measure. But CCleaner does not touch that so it is likely something else.

I think if me, I would try the questionable drives in an enclosure or installed as secondary drives in another system to see if accessible.

ok, seems you only have 1 drive then and it has multiple partitions with each os on.
windows calls those partitions drives c,d,e etc. but they are not really drives but parts of a single drive called partitions.

it is still showing and I'm able to select any of the three bootable drives. When "C:" is selected it gets to the splash screen then does a very quick blue screen and then reboots

your problem doesn't seem to be a bootloader problem to me now because it does boot to win 7 but win 7 gives a quick bsod before restarting.

what you need to do is disable the restart on error option in win 7 ( don't remember know exactly how, so hope this link helps:- http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproble…t-windows-7.htm )

now when you boot win 7 it will give you the bsd and you will have plenty of time to write down exactly what the error is.

please post it back here, so the windows experts can pin point where your problem is.

ok, seems you only have 1 drive then and it has multiple partitions with each os on.

Did I miss that? I know the words "drive" and "partition" are often interchanged, but I don't see where we established this is one physical drive with multiple partitions.

I "assumed" (perhaps wrongly - again :() more than one physical drive because devans said,

Have NIS on prime and second drives, 360 on third
I have lost access to both of the drives running w7.
Currently I'm working from the only drive that boots

Now granted, "partition" fits in all those too. So, for me at least, I need clarification. How many physical drives? How many partitions? If partitions, where?

my bad all the way around: I can log into only the w8 drive when logged in I can access all of the drives in the box and the connected external [USB] backup drive each os is on it's own physcial drive without partitions backup is the USB external, also a separate physical drive sorry for the confusion, I'm being a user and not providing all of the needed details

Terry1966; I'll try to disable the auto reboot and capture the error message on the BSOD this evening when I'm on that system again. This network won't allow me to establish remote access to the machine Dick

Digerati; Sorry, no second system to play with The w8 drive is usually a secondary with the large drive running w7 is the primary. The third physical is running w7 and some software I was getting familiar with as part of my volunteer work on another forum.

sorry for the confusion, I'm being a user and not providing all of the needed details

No need for you to apologize. We should have asked.

That said, I have to bow out as I am out of ideas to suggest here. The fact you can access all of the drives in the box, and the connected external drive tells me the hardware is good.

When you ran CCleaner, was it just the Cleaner, or the Registry Cleaner too?