The bcdedit export operation fails. windows vista not booting

I'm fixing my boot record with bootrec.exe, the first command goes:
C:\>bcdedit /export c:\BCD_Backup
Immediately I receive this error here:

The store export operation has failed.
The requested system device cannot be found.

Likewise, the next command fails, because bcd file is missing:
C:\>attrib bcd -s -h -r

Lastly, when trying the next command, all it returns is "The requested system device cannot be found". C:\>bootrec /RebuildBcd

I'm using Windows 7 setup image to operate. Have Vista installed atm. Has it happened to you? I'd appreciate some orientation.

Set drive C: as the active partition and try again.

I just solved the same problem. But my scenario was a bit different: My Windows 7 was not booting because I was trying to set a multi-boot up with Grub. For this reason I had to shrink the Windows partition and add other 3-4 partitions.

To solve, I tried with a Windows 7 Recovery Disk, launched from a USB drive.

Everything was good, the launch from the USB fine, but when I was trying to fix either the boot record or the BSD that error was popping up.

I then looked up online and found that there's a problem with USB and the Recovery Environment, especially USB 3.0 slots. I had just USB 3.0 slot. I was screwed.

I then thought of EasyBCD, life-saver (now) free software. This little software allows you to load and lunch ISO files from your USB stick BUT most importantly without accessing the disk. It caches the ISO in RAM at the boot.

I then prepared my USB stick with Recovery on and caching, booted from it, removed it right after the caching and voila'. The Recovery fixed (without my intervention) the partition, didn't overwrite the MBR (Grub was safe), saved my life! :-)

Hope it helps even if it's a bit long.