Question How to backup corrupt Win 7

[dagsky2]

Hey guys, hope I can get some help, my win 7 has become unbootable after an update, BCD appears to be the issue but after 3 days of trying to get it up & running again I figure it’s time to just do a fresh install. My problem is that my last backup was 6 months ago & there are files I need & cant afford to lose on this non working win 7.

I have a copy of Hirens Boot CD which has some back up software on it, should I use this or do I need something else? And am I creating an image rather than a clone?

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Simply use Hiren's Boot CD to boot to the bootable Windows on the disc, then you can use a flash drive or external drive to transfer the files from your old Windows (by simply browsing to them from within file manager) so you can use them later. Then you can do a clean install of Windows and have your important files on your flash drive.

 

[SkyNetRising]

my win 7 has become unbootable after an update, BCD appears to be the issue but after 3 days of trying to get it up & running again I figure it’s time to just do a fresh install.

What steps have you tried?
Did you try:

booting from windows 7 installation media,​

run bcdboot command to fix bootloader?​

 

[dagsky2]

hi, yes i have tried booting from win7 bootable usb, tried the automatic repair which did not work,.

I've tried & failed with all the below:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

I've tried running chkdsk with various switches and no joy.

I've tried using easybcd but it even gave an error saying boot config store could not be opened, requested system device cannot be found.

 

[dagsky2]

Simply use Hiren's Boot CD to boot to the bootable Windows on the disc, then you can use a flash drive or external drive to transfer the files from your old Windows (by simply browsing to them from within file manager) so you can use them later. Then you can do a clean install of Windows and have your important files on your flash drive.

ok so this might be a dumb question but how to do i use hirens to boot to my windows? When i use it, it boots to it's own PE windows or something.

 

[punkncat]

The easiest thing to do would be to use another computer and a drive caddy. Have the computer powered up first then add the disk in question to the caddy. It will come up the same way a USB drive/ etc. would then you can surf though the folders to find the files you want to back up and even format the drive when you are done.

 

[dagsky2]

thanks for that, i've just discovered that whilst i am in my win 10 system i can access the win 7 ssd & i can actually browse and open all the files on the ssd! I remember a long time ago, you would always encounter a problem about ownership when trying to open files this way, think it may have been an XP issue or earlier days of Win7. If this is the case that i can easily access all of my files then i think i'd just leave the win 7 ssd as an old archive of stuff and order a new ssd & install a new win 7 on it and then copy necessary files one by one while knowing that i still have access to the originals should i ever need them.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

thanks for that, i've just discovered that whilst i am in my win 10 system i can access the win 7 ssd & i can actually browse and open all the files on the ssd! I remember a long time ago, you would always encounter a problem about ownership when trying to open files this way, think it may have been an XP issue or earlier days of Win7. If this is the case that i can easily access all of my files then i think i'd just leave the win 7 ssd as an old archive of stuff and order a new ssd & install a new win 7 on it and then copy necessary files one by one while knowing that i still have access to the originals should i ever need them.

That's exactly what I was telling you to do. Instead of buying a new SSD (unless you just want to), you can use a flash drive to store the files.

Not sure if you understood, but Hiren's Boot CD comes with (depending on which version you have) a tiny version of Windows XP or Windows 10 you can boot from to access your old Windows files.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

ok so this might be a dumb question but how to do i use hirens to boot to my windows? When i use it, it boots to it's own PE windows or something.

Right, you don't boot to your Windows. You boot to the PE Windows and then browse in file explorer to your other Windows installation and get the files you need and transfer them to an external media or secondary drive.