Vista won't boot or repair

[puppetworx]

I am receieving the following error in Windows Boot Manager when I try to
start Vista (Home Premium 32-bit) -

--------------------------------------
FILE: \BOOT\BCD

STATUS: 0xc000000e

INFO: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.
--------------------------------------

Windows Boot Manager suggests that it may be due to a recent hardware or
software change and encouraged me too repair using the original DVD. This I
tried however the repair could not be made.


This error occurred after I accidently booted into Vista in IDE mode instead
of RAID mode, when my BIOS was reset. (I have 2 hard drives setup in a Matrix
array with half the hard drives setup as a mirror and the rest striped.) When
Vista booted it installed a bunch of new drivers (I am assuming the non-RAID
drivers for my HDDs - I wasn't paying attention.) since it was in IDE mode,
two partitions were visible in Vista however they were both of the mirrored
drives setup in the Matrix array. Therefore when Vista booted and installed
drivers it will have done so in only one of the mirror partitions and so the
mirror array is no longer a mirror.

Can anyone suggest a method for repairing Vista? or alternatively suggest a
method for cloning the original mirror bac on to the booted Hard drive?

Many thanks in advance for any advice

Alex
Carnoustie, Scotland

 

[flexy]

thinking....repair-consolre from the Vista SP1 DVD does actually *a lot* already..ö.it tests for a lot of stuff and tries to repair.
Sadly, Billy took out a "real" repair-install option as we had in XP....so if the startup-repair doesnt work the only option you have is

1) custom, 100% new install
2) boot into current vista and to "upgrade" install off the DVD which preserves your stuff <--- but which is moronic if you cant boot into Vista since its corrupted!

You can try a boot utiliy like "Bootit NG" or some other 3rd oarty ultily trying to restore your BCD

or....wait...go in recoveryconsole, "install now", then shift-f10, open console...did you already try to fix BCD as described here

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

???

Add: Fixing BCD should hopefully not be a big problem...i hope the above works

 

[puppetworx]

Thanks for the advice flexy!

Unfortunately no success yet.

As I feared I left out some data about the problem. Some more information about my attempt to repair-

- I am using a Vista original disc (not SP1). It's a standard disc containing all data and the WRE.
- I received a message saying "Failed to save startup options." after the recovery console automatically tried to repair problems it found with the BCD. Then I treid to load the RAID drivers and received the message "The installation has failed.", therefore I couldn't continue with the repair process.

I tried the solution you advised and I couldn't get Bootrec.exe to successfully perform the RebuildBcd command - after identifying the installation, it told me "The requested system device cannot be found" when adding it to the boot list.

Any more suggestions will be gratefully welcomed.

Alex