I'm running a dual-boot setup with Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I accidentally deleted the partition that contains the boot files for Windows.
Here is my output from fdisk -l
in Ubuntu:
/dev/sda1 * 330545152 369606655 19530752 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 36944325 330543151 146799413+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 428199936 812201983 192001024 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 428201984 447868927 9833472 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 447870976 812201983 182165504 83 Linux
Key Partitions: sda1: Ubuntu sda2: Windows data sda6: Ubuntu data partition
When I select sda2 from GRUB, it says <Windows ROOT>\system32\hal.dll
is missing (obviously this does not boot, since this is the data partition).
When I try to boot from a Windows 7 recovery disk, I get this error:
Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your PC.
This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device, or by faulty
hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM. Make sure any removable storage is properly
connected and then restart your PC.
File: \Boot\Bcd
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occured.
I don't have the Windows 7 install DVD, or any type of recovery partition. Also, I accidentally formatted over the Windows boot partition, but have not written data to it yet.
Is it possible to recover the Windows boot partition or to re-install boot files without buying a DVD?