Windows7 broke after changing SATA ports

[Blazzok]

I will try to explain everything I did that led up to my Windows, well, breaking (for lack of a better word).

First off, let me describe what I mean with breaking. I have Windows 7 64bit SP1. As soon as it boots and displays the desktop, I get two errors, both seeming to do with the registry. I'd love to show you the screenshot that I uploaded, but windows won't let me copy and paste, and typing the url is a bit much. But the is for Kies (the Samsung phone pc software) and the other one is for Skype.
On further inspection I noticed that most of my registry entries were gone (when I went into my add/remove programs).
I also am unable to install new software. It just tells me error during execution.

Oky, so what I did for this to happen was: I got a new GPU today, a KFA2 GTX670 EX OC. I had an Asus GTX570. So I put that in, and while I was doing this, I remembered reading somewhere that on my motherboard (Asus P67 Sabertooth B3) the brown sata ports were Intel Sata 6Gbps ports and that the grey ones are 3rd party Sata 6Gbps (in this case Marvell), and that the Intel ports will generally be a little bit faster. So I decided to move my SSD (Windows drive) and my other Sata 6Gbps drive to the brown ports (they were on the grey ones) and to move the drive in the brown port over to a grey one.

So I started up my pc. The post process took quite some time now, as well as the boot taking longer than usual. However once in windows everything was fine (except the resolution ofcourse, due to new gpu). One of my harddrives did not detect however, but I didn't think anything of it, I just thought I maybe didn't put the cable in properly. I had the 310.70 drivers on, but I had downloaded the newest drivers before switching GPU's, so I installed them (310.90) and restarted my pc.

Everything was still good and I ran 3DMark11 just to see what kind of increase I got. I then decided to turn off my pc, and switch back the sata cables as they were before, since this seemed like the easiest and fastest way to get my other undetected harddrive back. I am unsure which of the two Sata6 cables were in which port originally, so I just put them in as I thought they were.

So now the two sata6 drives were back on the grey ports, and the other drive on a brown port.

I started up my pc and I got a windows recovery error. So I told to start with the previous settings on which windows worked. Upon entering windows I got those errors I spoke of earlier.
I restarted my pc and was met with a BSOD. Restarted again and it didn't BSOD, but once again in windows I got those errors. I read somewhere that the 310.90 drivers gave people some problems, so I decdided to uninstall them and reinstall the 310.70 drivers. The only problem was, I couldn't uninstall them. It just did nothing when I tried to uninstall it.

After trying several things and not beeing able to fix it, I am now here to see if someone has an incling of how to fix it, or even if it is fixable. I was on my way to reinstalling windows when I decided to post here first.

If I get no fixes here, I will just reinstall windows I guess (joyous times).

 

[RealBeast]

I would probably just do a clean installation with the multiple issues that you have created, although you can repair the system reserved partition bootloader for the controller change with a system repair disc in your CD/DVD drive when you start up next time.

Try to do one thing at a time and when you change graphic cards uninstall the old driver first, before adding the new card. And if you decide to move your boot drive, have a repair disk ready and be sure that it can boot on the other controller.

Also, if you are not using the Marvell controller just shut it off in the bios to save a few seconds at start up. When you get all reinstalled, make a system repair disc -- just type that into the start button box and follow the wizard so you can repair small things easily in the future.

 

[tripledouce]

possibility that when you changed to the SATA 6 Ports the drivers are not backwards compatable with the older SATA ports and that could be causing it. have you tried putting the drives back on the SATA 6 again?

 

[hedwar2011]

I will try to explain everything I did that led up to my Windows, well, breaking (for lack of a better word).

First off, let me describe what I mean with breaking. I have Windows 7 64bit SP1. As soon as it boots and displays the desktop, I get two errors, both seeming to do with the registry. I'd love to show you the screenshot that I uploaded, but windows won't let me copy and paste, and typing the url is a bit much. But the is for Kies (the Samsung phone pc software) and the other one is for Skype.
On further inspection I noticed that most of my registry entries were gone (when I went into my add/remove programs).
I also am unable to install new software. It just tells me error during execution.

Oky, so what I did for this to happen was: I got a new GPU today, a KFA2 GTX670 EX OC. I had an Asus GTX570. So I put that in, and while I was doing this, I remembered reading somewhere that on my motherboard (Asus P67 Sabertooth B3) the brown sata ports were Intel Sata 6Gbps ports and that the grey ones are 3rd party Sata 6Gbps (in this case Marvell), and that the Intel ports will generally be a little bit faster. So I decided to move my SSD (Windows drive) and my other Sata 6Gbps drive to the brown ports (they were on the grey ones) and to move the drive in the brown port over to a grey one.

So I started up my pc. The post process took quite some time now, as well as the boot taking longer than usual. However once in windows everything was fine (except the resolution ofcourse, due to new gpu). One of my harddrives did not detect however, but I didn't think anything of it, I just thought I maybe didn't put the cable in properly. I had the 310.70 drivers on, but I had downloaded the newest drivers before switching GPU's, so I installed them (310.90) and restarted my pc.

Everything was still good and I ran 3DMark11 just to see what kind of increase I got. I then decided to turn off my pc, and switch back the sata cables as they were before, since this seemed like the easiest and fastest way to get my other undetected harddrive back. I am unsure which of the two Sata6 cables were in which port originally, so I just put them in as I thought they were.

So now the two sata6 drives were back on the grey ports, and the other drive on a brown port.

I started up my pc and I got a windows recovery error. So I told to start with the previous settings on which windows worked. Upon entering windows I got those errors I spoke of earlier.
I restarted my pc and was met with a BSOD. Restarted again and it didn't BSOD, but once again in windows I got those errors. I read somewhere that the 310.90 drivers gave people some problems, so I decdided to uninstall them and reinstall the 310.70 drivers. The only problem was, I couldn't uninstall them. It just did nothing when I tried to uninstall it.

After trying several things and not beeing able to fix it, I am now here to see if someone has an incling of how to fix it, or even if it is fixable. I was on my way to reinstalling windows when I decided to post here first.

If I get no fixes here, I will just reinstall windows I guess (joyous times).

Long story short, you have severely confused either the partition tables or the master boot record or even both by moving those drives around so much. It is fixable but finish reading the rest of my response first.

You mentioned having two errors coming up when you start the computer up and you cannot install or change anything. Have you recently attempted to reinstall Windows from within Windows?
You may have gotten some form of malware on the computer. I would recommend running either MalwareBytes Anti-Malwarehttp://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_pro/http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_pro/ or Super Anti-Spywarehttp://www.superantispyware.com/http://www.superantispyware.com/ or even both to see if one or both of those find anything.

If you have nothing to lose in the process, you may essentially be better off reinstalling if that's what you want to do but be sure you unplug or disable the other two drives (not the SSD) before you attempt to reinstall or you will get other issues.