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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 3:22 pm 
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I apologize for the length of my post, but I have gone thru several steps in trying to solve my problem.

I turned my Win-7 PC on and got the error message "CMOS/GPNU checksum bad". Research suggested one cause might be the CMOS battery (#2032), which I replaced. I entered BIOS and everything looked good except for the date/time, which I reset. I then rebooted and got the error message "invalid partition table".

At that point I inserted my Win-7 installation DVD to try and repair my installation. Unfortunately, no OS was found on the hard drive. So I selected the option to re-image (using a fairly recent system image stored on an external drive). After about an hour, the process was finished and I got the message that the restore was successful. A system restart was then required, but it was not successful....I once again got the error message "invalid partition table".

I also got the message that the reason that the startup repair was not successful was because 'no OS found on disk".

Any help/advice would be appreciated. At last resort I could try a complete reinstall of Win-7 but I would probably lose a lot of data that I had been backing up via the system image.

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 3:51 pm 
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Restore the system image. I know that you already tried and failed. Assuming that your data is included in the image I would re-install Windows and then restore the image. On the install I would use Advanced Drive Options to take the entire drive down to unallocated space and then do the install.

The above is the easy answer and may or may not work depending on what is wrong with the partition table. You MIGHT be able to repair the partition table using GParted. I would reserve GParted as a last resort after seeing what others have to say.
http://gparted.org/download.php

GParted is a partition tool that resides on a bootable CD/DVD or flash drive. It is NOT for the timid! Of course you would have to create the boot media on another system.

Unfortunately I won't be of much help to you with GParted as I've just played with it a couple of times. It is Linux based so may appear a bit odd in relation to what you are used to seeing but is not too bad to navigate.

It is also possible that either the drive or motherboard has gone bad.

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:25 pm 
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Oh my. I don't suppose you ever made a backup of your BIOS settings?

You could try doing a clean install and then try restoring your image. Is this Windows imaging, or a 3rd party program, and if so, which one?

2 things. Never count on a system image for data backup. Always have more than one type of data backup, with one of them being a native format file copy - whether it is xcopy, or SyncToy, or drag and drop of all user folders to external drive.

2nd, I recently had my first Windows imaging failure in all the years I've been using it. (Which is still a better track record than any 3rd party program I had used before. Every single one of them failed when I needed them, whereas I have done numerous successful system image restores using the native Windows imaging utility.)

Like you, it went all the way to the end, then errored out with a cryptic "Invalid parameter" message. So what's going on? My first guess is that something Microsoft is doing with partitions is causing their utility to fail. For instance, Office Click-to-run, which is what Office 365 uses, used to make a hidden partition "Q" for itself. I assume it still does. I have never been presented with this partition when choosing which partitions i want to include in my image. And by the way, I keep my data on a D partition and do not include it in any image.

Another one is that the upgrade to Windows 10 creates a new partition, and this may not be included in the system image. These are guesses on my part.

Do you have Office 365, or have you ever had it? Did you ever install Windows 10 on that machine? I am assuming it only creates its recovery partition if you actually install it.

I wound up doing a clean install, which was long overdue anyway, and my data was still in place.

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:41 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Restore the system image. I know that you already tried and failed. Assuming that your data is included in the image I would re-install Windows and then restore the image. On the install I would use Advanced Drive Options to take the entire drive down to unallocated space and then do the install.

The above is the easy answer and may or may not work depending on what is wrong with the partition table. You MIGHT be able to repair the partition table using GParted. I would reserve GParted as a last resort after seeing what others have to say.
http://gparted.org/download.php

GParted is a partition tool that resides on a bootable CD/DVD or flash drive. It is NOT for the timid! Of course you would have to create the boot media on another system.

Unfortunately I won't be of much help to you with GParted as I've just played with it a couple of times. It is Linux based so may appear a bit odd in relation to what you are used to seeing but is not too bad to navigate.

It is also possible that either the drive or motherboard has gone bad.

Thanks Jay, I will try your suggestions, holding off on GParted as a last resort. Sadly, I realize that something might have gone bad in my 11-year old system (and that's how long my CMOS battery lasted).

While I have you on the line, I have another question. Years ago you guided me on the installation of Windows XP Mode so that I could run a few very old programs that wouldn't run under Win-7. I still use these programs (address book, trip planning, and calendar); the companies have gone out of business, so I couldn't update/upgrade if I wanted. My question is......if I upgrade to Win-10, can I still use Windows XP Mode or something equivalent? Thanks......

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:03 pm 
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MacDuffie wrote:
Oh my. I don't suppose you ever made a backup of your BIOS settings?

You could try doing a clean install and then try restoring your image. Is this Windows imaging, or a 3rd party program, and if so, which one?

2 things. Never count on a system image for data backup. Always have more than one type of data backup, with one of them being a native format file copy - whether it is xcopy, or SyncToy, or drag and drop of all user folders to external drive.

2nd, I recently had my first Windows imaging failure in all the years I've been using it. (Which is still a better track record than any 3rd party program I had used before. Every single one of them failed when I needed them, whereas I have done numerous successful system image restores using the native Windows imaging utility.)

Like you, it went all the way to the end, then errored out with a cryptic "Invalid parameter" message. So what's going on? My first guess is that something Microsoft is doing with partitions is causing their utility to fail. For instance, Office Click-to-run, which is what Office 365 uses, used to make a hidden partition "Q" for itself. I assume it still does. I have never been presented with this partition when choosing which partitions i want to include in my image. And by the way, I keep my data on a D partition and do not include it in any image.

Another one is that the upgrade to Windows 10 creates a new partition, and this may not be included in the system image. These are guesses on my part.

Do you have Office 365, or have you ever had it? Did you ever install Windows 10 on that machine? I am assuming it only creates its recovery partition if you actually install it.

I wound up doing a clean install, which was long overdue anyway, and my data was still in place.

Patty, this is a secondary computer, and it doesn't get a lot of my attention. But no, I don't think I made a BIOS backup, although I did find some notes where I copied down many of the settings. After I replaced the CMOS battery, all the settings looked correct except for date/time.

I always use the Windows imaging program....not a 3rd party. I am going to do what you and Jay suggested.....do a clean install and then restore my image.

To answer your other questions and concerns:
- I have never installed Win-10 or Office 365 on this computer
- Luckily I don't have a lot of data on this secondary computer, and the important data files are also backed up on a flash drive
- On my primary computer, I create a system image on two separate external drives; I also do a Windows backup of my data files; and thanks to you I started using SyncToy several years ago. On my really important data files (spreadsheets, documents, financial, etc.), I also do a drag & drop to a flash drive whenever I create or modify a file.

Thanks for your help........I will post my results.

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:42 pm 
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bbarry wrote:
While I have you on the line, I have another question. Years ago you guided me on the installation of Windows XP Mode so that I could run a few very old programs that wouldn't run under Win-7. I still use these programs (address book, trip planning, and calendar); the companies have gone out of business, so I couldn't update/upgrade if I wanted. My question is......if I upgrade to Win-10, can I still use Windows XP Mode or something equivalent? Thanks......

I do not believe that XP Mode will work on any system other than 7. In fact it seems, since support for XP ended, that you can no longer install it period.

I didn't realize that the system was 11 years old. It is quite possible that a drive channel has gone bad on the motherboard. It is a slim chance but you could try plugging the drive in another port on the board.

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 6:17 pm 
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you are good! :) I'm so happy you are properly backed up!

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:38 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
I didn't realize that the system was 11 years old. It is quite possible that a drive channel has gone bad on the motherboard. It is a slim chance but you could try plugging the drive in another port on the board.


Well, I think something has gone bad on my 11-year old computer. I couldn't even do a clean re-install. My hard drive has 3 partitions and I tried them all....I kept getting the error message "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing partition". I'm going to give it a rest (it being my old brain) for a few days, then try a few other things you suggested like GParted, plugging the drive into another port, and any other ideas that you/others might have. Also, I was wondering if it would help to reformat my hard drive during the re-install process and then try another re-install on the reformatted drive?

Anyway, thanks for your help. I will keep you posted on any results. This old computer has served me well, but it may now become my next boat anchor.

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 Post Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:45 pm 
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It is worth trying other options first but GParted is probably your best bet if a clean install will not work. Yes, try plugging the drive in to another port.

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 Post Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 9:29 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
It is worth trying other options first but GParted is probably your best bet if a clean install will not work. Yes, try plugging the drive in to another port.

Well, I spent most of the day trying everything I could think of and all suggestions I could get off the internet forums, without success. Sadly, I have concluded that my 11-year old hard drive has failed. I didn't use GParted, but I did use several bootrec commands without success, including RebuildBcd. As a last resort, I deleted the 3 partitions on my drive (one of which was my Win 7 partition) and then tried to reinstall Win 7 but kept getting Setup errors regarding lack of a system partition.

Since hard drives are relatively inexpensive these days, I have decided to replace the drive, do a Win 7 reinstall, and then restore from the system image I have on an external drive. Hopefully I will retain most of my settings and data.

One last question if you don't mind. My previous Win 7 installation was actually an upgrade from Vista. I am assuming that I will be able to now do a fresh install on my new drive using my upgrade installation disk......is that correct? Or will I have to go locate old installation disks, since as best I recall Vista was an upgrade from Win XP (this is a really-old computer)?

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 Post Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:12 pm 
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Just curious as to why you have determined that it is the hard drive. Can you attach the drive to another system via an enclosure and read the drive?

Sorry but, since you deleted the existing partitions, it is not going to be a repair.

Of course you can plop in another drive and restore your last image. If it works that would be great but I doubt that it will. I can't say for fact but, just instinct from what you have said, I strongly suspect a mother board issue.

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 Post Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:44 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Just curious as to why you have determined that it is the hard drive. Can you attach the drive to another system via an enclosure and read the drive?

Sorry but, since you deleted the existing partitions, it is not going to be a repair.

Of course you can plop in another drive and restore your last image. If it works that would be great but I doubt that it will. I can't say for fact but, just instinct from what you have said, I strongly suspect a mother board issue.

Jay, the one thing I failed to do until a few minutes ago when I finally reopened my computer case was to plug the drive into a different port on the motherboard as you suggested. When I did, Win 7 started reinstalling!! Everything went well until it asked me for my product code.

I entered the code from the sticker I saved, but it came back and said that was an invalid code. So I got out my flashlight and magnifying glass and checked all the digits. I even reentered the code a 2nd time but still got the invalid error. This is definitely a good code.....I've never tried to screw Mother Microsoft.....all my products have been legit.

Any idea what is causing this 'invalid code' error and/or what I can do about it? Thanks again........

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 Post Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:56 pm 
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The most likely cause is that the install disk you are using is a retail version and the code you are entering is OEM.

If all actually seems well except for the entry of the code you may want to contact MS support.

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 Post Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:13 pm 
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Just restore the image, you don't need to do an install first as the image is going to over-write everything anyways.


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 Post Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:12 am 
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dvair wrote:
Just restore the image, you don't need to do an install first as the image is going to over-write everything anyways.

From what I have been able to discern from the issue an image restore fails.

An attempt to just restore the system image has already been done without success.

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 Post Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:53 am 
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jaylach wrote:
dvair wrote:
Just restore the image, you don't need to do an install first as the image is going to over-write everything anyways.

From what I have been able to discern from the issue an image restore fails.

An attempt to just restore the system image has already been done without success.

Jay and dvair - Good news is that Win 7 Ultimate has been successfully reinstalled on my computer. Out of frustration I just left the product code blank and clicked next and installation resumed. I don't know why my valid code wasn't accepted, but I no longer care.

Jay, my image restore failed when I was still having my original problems with the drive and/or motherboard. Back then, everything was failing. But now that I finally have a successful reinstall of Win 7, I am going to again try the image restore in hopes of getting back my programs and data. I'm thinking it should work this time. I'll keep you posted.

And Jay, thanks much for sticking with me on this problem. You suspected motherboard problem all along, and I guess you were right.

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 Post Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 10:15 am 
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Jay and dvair - My image restore was successful last night, so it looks like I am back in business. Since the original problem was caused by a bad motherboard port, this 11-year old board will now remain suspect in any future problems. Thanks again for your input.

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 Post Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:36 pm 
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You are quite welcome. :)

It is probably time to replace the motherboard. Quite often when something goes on a board it will cascade from there. Of course there is no way to actually know that will happen but I'd be concerned. On the other hand I once had an old Epox board that blew all of its IDE ports (PATA). I threw in a PCI card with IDE ports and ran it for another 1.5-2 years.

If you end up deciding to replace look at TigerDirect.com and Newegg.com for their refurbished/recertified systems as you can get a lot of bang for your buck. Also their bare bones kits can save you a lot and you can still use such things as your old CD/DVD drive, possibly even your hard drives.

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