Laptop does not boot up ... Suspect Partition error

[coolshades]

Hi, I am a noobi trying to fix partition errors in my laptop. Please direct me if I'm in the wrong section. I have a Fujitsu LH-531 laptop that uses a 2.5” Toshiba MK7575GSX hard disk. It came with Windows 7, upgraded to Windows 8 a few years ago, then to Windows 10 last year. The hard disk has a hidden section containing the System/OS files. It also has 2 partitions called C and D drives. I believe the Windows files are in the C Drive.

Recently, it was acting up, closes down by itself. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, it would not boot up. It would run into an eternal loop trying to repair itself, diagnose itself and basically just would not boot up. Sometimes, it gives me option to wipe disk, reset to factory settings etc. But when I tried it says either no partition or something like partition failure. I took the hard disk out of the laptop and, using a SATA HDD USB docking station, I was able to transfer some of the data to another hard disk. Before I was able to transfer everything important, including the recovery/OS sections in the hidden part of the hard disk, the drive could no longer be recognized.

I could not find my recover/repair disks. So I tried to boot from the CD drive using a Windows 10 installation disk. I chose Repair your computer instead of installing a new OS. Then I was given 4 choice buttons: Continue, Use a device, Troubleshoot, and Turn Off PC. At that point I opened a DOS command window, which says

x:\Sources>

Using diskpart and list disk, it shows

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
Disk 0 Online 698 GB 0 B *

Using list volume, it shows

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
Volume 0 E J_ CCSA_X64F UDF DVD-ROM 4209 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C C; NTFS Partition 340 GB Healthy
Volume 2 D NTFS Partition 340 GB Healthy
Volume 3 RAW Partition 768 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 NTFS Partition 503 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 NTFS Partition 15 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 7 FAT32 Partition 768 MB Healthy Hidden

Using select volume 1 and detail volume, it shows

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
* Disk 0 Online 698 GB 0 B *

Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter : No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
Bitlocker Encrypted : No
Installable : Yes

Volume Capacity : 340 GB
Volume Free Space: 171 GB

Using select volume 2, and detail volume, it shows

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
* Disk 0 Online 698 GB 0 B *

Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter : No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
Bitlocker Encrypted : No
Installable : Yes

Volume Capacity : 340 GB
Volume Free Space: 66 GB

Using select disk 0 and list partition, it shows

Partition ### Type Size Offset
Partition 1 Recovery 768 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 OEM 768 MB 769 MB
Partition 3 System 260 MB 1537 MB
Partition4 Reserved 128 MB 1797 MB
Partition 5 Primary 340 GB 1925 MB
Partition 6 Recovery 503 MB 342 GB
Partition 7 Primary 340 GB 342 GB
Partition 8 Recovery 15 GB 683 GB

Using select partition 5 and detail partition, it shows

Partition 5
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required : No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes : 2018508800

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
* Volume 1 C C; NTFS Partition 340 GB Healthy

Using select partition 7 and detail partition, it shows

Partition 7
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required : No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes : 368033398784

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
* Volume 2 D NTFS Partition 340 GB Healthy


As indicated above, nowhere does it show any partition as active. Other than what I have done, I don’t know how to check if I have an active partition, and a correct one. I wonder if I need to make Partition 5 (C Drive) active to fix the problem? Would it hurt to make a partition active and if it doesn’t work, make another one active? I tried to format the DOS layout here by I noticed the formatting does not work. I hope the information is sufficient to reflect my issue and questions.

Thank everyone in advance in guiding me on how to fix my laptop!

Cool

 

[Colif]

Partition 3 (Vol 4)- system - should be the active partition. System partition is always boot partition
Making C active won't boot windows. The bios looks for particular files to act as a boot loader, C wouldn't include them.

Use the Detail partition command in diskpart to show if its active - https://superuser.com/questions/449717/finding-which-partition-on-a-particular-disk-is-active-from-the-command-line

vol 3 being raw is different, looks like it is the OEM partition based on sizes. You might want to consider a new ssd to replace the hdd as they bigger now anyway and speed isn't even close. Shouldn't see raw partitions, could mean drive on way out.

if you have almost everything backed up, why not fresh install win 10 and delete half those partitions as they would include drivers for win 7, and you wouldn't want to roll system back that far. Give you more free space.

 

[coolshades]

Thank you for your answer Colif and explanation. There are still some important files that I would like to save. I also want to recover the OS installation key to hopefully avoid having to buy another one. I will try to make the system part active when I go home later today and try restarting the computer. Thanks again.

 

[coolshades]

OK. I selected partition 3 (volume 4) and typed active. It shows:
The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk.
The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks.

Did I do something wrong?

 

[coolshades]

BTW, my laptop model is LH532, not LH531, if it makes any difference.

 

[Colif]

OK. I selected partition 3 (volume 4) and typed active. It shows:
The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk.
The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks.

Did I do something wrong?

no, it is right... i didn't know efi partitions couldn't be made active. Seems you don't want to make any of them active as your drive is formatted as GPT

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
Disk 0 Online 698 GB 0 B *

the * under GPT means its gpt, i checked it on my PC

You cannot have mbr partitions on a GPT drive

MBR was the drive format for all Windows PC up until win 8 (though win 7 64bit could use GPT). It matches what is now called Legacy boot method
GPT is the new replacement for MBR, and matches UEFI boot method

this is my drive, no active partition -

this was my drive on mbr, and with an active partition -

So lack of active partition isn't reason drive won't boot. Your motherboard has UEFI bios and I see no reason to believe you swapped to legacy as its not the default.

You could try this but you would want hdd in the laptop when you run it - https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-rebuild-the-bcd-in-windows-2624508

 

[coolshades]

Hi Colif, thanks again for your continued support and guidance.
I read the article and tried the bootrec /rebuildbcd at X:\Sources>. It says will take a while, then a blue screen came up and said "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart". Then it rebooted to a blank screen. I restarted the laptop and boot to DOS again. Retried bootrec /rebuildbcs, and the same error message and this time rebooted to the Preparing Automatic Repair routine. What would you suggest I should try next?

 

[Colif]

What I suggest is a clean install. IT will fix all this unless the problem is the actual hdd itself, but this will at least tell us if its windows.

Thank you for your answer Colif and explanation. There are still some important files that I would like to save. I also want to recover the OS installation key to hopefully avoid having to buy another one. I will try to make the system part active when I go home later today and try restarting the computer. Thanks again.

what files can't you get?

As for licence, you shouldn't need it. When you upgraded from 8 to 10, all the info of machine + old licence key were saved on a Microsoft server, alongside info supporting that you have a valid win 10 license. As such, if you clean install win 10 and get to screen asking for a licence, you choose "I don't have a key" and win 10 will continue to install and should reactivate itself once it contacts the servers.

If it doesn't reactivate, there is a troubleshooter in Settings/update & security/activation. It is possible your licence is attached to the email address you registered windows with - if on current install your user had an email address attached to it. If so, click the add account link on the activation page to login to that account, that will activate install.

You can also link that email address to PC during install process and it may auto activate it for you

follow this guide: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

 

[coolshades]

Hello Colif, sorry for the delay in answering. I will try a clean install. I still have some old photos from trips and work files that would be impossible or very difficult to recreate. But if there is no other option, I will just reinstall Windows 10. Thank you for your help and guidance! Very much appreciated!

 

[Colif]

there are data recovery apps but it sounds like the hard drive itself is dying so I would get a new drive and install windows on it, as trusting any of your data to that drive might be a mistake

But when I tried it says either no partition or something like partition failure. I took the hard disk out of the laptop and, using a SATA HDD USB docking station, I was able to transfer some of the data to another hard disk. Before I was able to transfer everything important, including the recovery/OS sections in the hidden part of the hard disk, the drive could no longer be recognized.

the 2 bolded lines are not good signs for that drive.

Buy a new drive and maybe you can still rescue info off that drive at a later time.

 

[coolshades]

Understood. I will get a new drive for the new install. Thank you again!