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I had a setup where I has 2 windows options on startup. Basically originally I had 1 hard drive with Windows 7 Pro, then I added another hard drive where I setup Windows 10 Pro. Somehow automatically a windows 10 generation boot menu was added so I could choose, but seems like for some reason it was added on the hard drive with Windows 7 Pro because I had it as priority for boot.

Anyway my guess is that after Windows 10 got an update this broke somehow and I couldn't boot anymore to the Windows 7 Pro hard drive. It would give some command like bar "_" then move to startup of Windows 10 Pro hard drive. If I pointed to Windows 7 Pro hard drive now it wouldn't boot either on manually selecting boot device.

I can access the files on it but I need to access SQL database for work and I cannot simply copy it and the program. I decided to try and convert the hard drive to VHD, and tried running it but that wouldn't work. Then I read somewhere about changing it to Generation 2 option when creating VM and now I get the following message: screenshot

Pressing F8 doesn't work.

I'm not sure that putting in a Windows 10 Pro image ISO and booting to it to fix startup will work because it's Windows 7 Pro. And I don't have original image for Windows 7 Pro and one I have doesn't work, says wrong version. Please advice on how to fix.

PS: As I posted this, I wanted to try and mount Windows 10 ISO image and boot to it just to try, however I don't see that option, I am not sure but guessing that the blue menu is just "BIOS" of the hyper-v? And not the actual image of VHD? As I should be able to mount another ISO to boot to but I can't. So not sure what's going on, maybe it's not bootable by Gen2 either.

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  • From a WinPE/WinRE command prompt: BootRec /FixMBR && BootRec /FixBoot && BootRec /RebuildBCD (UEFI: remove && BootRec /FixBoot)
    – JW0914
    Commented Mar 21 at 12:29

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Try and install the Windows 7 drive inside another computer or use an adapter ( (connector type) to USB, but replace (connector type) to your drive's connector type, e.g. SATA or IDE), plug your Windows 7 drive into your computer, and boot to it through BIOS/UEFI.

If both solutions didn't work, but Windows 10 is still bootable, check the EFI partition by booting into it and mounting your EFI partition from your Windows 7 drive into an unused drive letter. Open CMD or Powershell as administrator and use the following command: mountvol Z: /S Replace Z: with an unused drive letter if it is already taken. Open Task Manager and kill "explorer.exe". Then, from CMD, type explorer.exe to restart it with admin privileges, open Explorer, and open the EFI partition. Reply to this answer with the contents of the folder "Microsoft".

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  • Hi, so seems like somehow the hard drive has Windows 7 Pro installed but a Windows 10 boot manager on top of it. Tried booting from Windows 10 installation media and repairing startup, that doesn't work. If I try Windows 7 installation media it tells me I have different version installed, I probably don't have the disk that I installed with initially it was some OEM or Refurbishers version or something like that.
    – 1Advanced
    Commented Mar 25 at 15:08
  • Tried mounting but it just hangs. Does not mount. Don't I need to input the disk number somehow to mount it?
    – 1Advanced
    Commented Mar 25 at 15:11
  • @1Advanced this isn't a threaded forum. If you need to add more info to a question edit the question. If you need to reply to an answer, use the comments. DO NOT edit an answer someone else has posted to add commentary or replies.
    – music2myear
    Commented Mar 25 at 15:52

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