Ok,
data safe. Used robocopy to make a copy of the system partition. On a whim decided to try and boot off that. No luck! same problem.
Booted into the recovery console. Typed "fixmbr." Exited. The system rebooted into the same problem.
So I'm no different than before.
I've seen some places that talk about a repair install. But they all require a restore point. I don't have a restore point. I turned that off years ago because it clogged up my system so bad I was fighting it on a regular basis.
Any ideas?
Thanks for your help so far.