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General discussion

Windows Vista will not boot to OS

by cidisbell Feb 11, 2010 3:50AM PST

At first I received "invalid system disk". I was able to use bootsec utility to fixmbr and fixboot. When I try and run rebuildbcd, I get an error message when trying to add the installation to the file - "not enough space on the disk". I get this same error message if I try and use bcdedit. I have tried deleting bcd and recreating it with the same result - "not enough space on the disk". I have been on hold to try and talk to Microsoft for 5 hours now. I am pretty frustrated. This is a Dell PC that is still under warranty and Dell's answer was to format the hard disks! Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

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2 Posts

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If It's Not Working As Designed...

by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Feb 11, 2010 5:13AM PST

..try returning it and getting a new computer under warranty.

Or, you can format the disc and perform a clean install using the Recovery discs or Recovery partition on the machine. Generally, the "invalid system disc" error means there's a problem with the hard drive.. (Thus my first suggestion above.)

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Got it fixed.

by cidisbell Feb 15, 2010 11:51PM PST

Hey Grif,

I did diagnostics on the HDDs in the PC. Hardware was fine. I happened to have another Vista Ultimate machine and so I copied all the BCD files and copied them onto the machine that wouldnt boot. After that I rebooted to the install CD, let it do a startup repair, then rebooted to the startup CD again and another repair and then the PC booted into the OS. I did discover that if I attached my external storage, the system wouldnt boot. In the BCD file, in the boot manager section, the device was unknown. I fixed that as well.

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