A new windows conundrum

Sp00n · 25 Oct 2009 at 19:35

After swapping out one of my 500 drives for a 1500 drive, my windows 7 install now doesnt boot. It fails with: bootmgr missing

Now reading about it looks like win7 has installed the bootmgr on a different disk, is that right? If so, how do i repair the bootmgr, the win7 auto startup repair thing doesnt make any difference.

What was wrong with ntldr

scooby555t · 25 Oct 2009 at 20:20

i had that issue with vista it took a couple of atempts with the start up recovery from boot the vista disk but it evently fixed it

Meatball · 25 Oct 2009 at 20:29

I had this problem. Follow this:
1) Physically disconnect all hard drives except the one with Windows 7 installed on
2) Boot up to your Windows 7 disk and select recovery
3) Select start-up repair

When I had this problem the repair would not work till I repaired the installation with only the 'Windows 7' hard drive plugged in.

Sp00n · 25 Oct 2009 at 20:46

I tried all of the above and it still won't boot, however i let it run past the windows cd boot thing by accident and its actually booted up in to windows but it won't if the dvd isn't in the drive.

What can I do from within windows to repair it permanently?

Meatball · 25 Oct 2009 at 20:49

Have you tried this? I would physically unplug all drives again apart from your Windows 7 drive, just so you can be 100% sure it's using the right drive.

Repair said:
SOLUTION 2

If the previous method does not resolve the problem, you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:

- Get your installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
- Then restart your computer.
- Press a key when you are prompted.
- Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next
- Click Repair your computer
- Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next
- In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt
- Type bootrec /rebuildbcd and then press ENTER

• If Bootrec runs successfully, it will present you with the installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type Yes . A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.

• If Bootrec cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order shown below: (Remember to press ENTER after each command)

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

- Restart the computer.

Sp00n · 25 Oct 2009 at 21:07

Still comes up with Missing BOOTMGR when i remove the dvd

Weird thing is, startup recovery detects the window drive as F: and not C:

However, the c: drive does have the boot folder.

Meatball · 25 Oct 2009 at 21:09

Sp00n said:
Still comes up with Missing BOOTMGR when i remove the dvd

Weird thing is, startup recovery detects the window drive as F: and not C:

However, the c: drive does have the boot folder.

Are you sure you've got the right drive plugged in, ie. the one where the OS files are installed? Obvious question I know but we all have 'blonde moments'

.

Sp00n · 25 Oct 2009 at 21:11

Well yes, I'm posting this from the windows installation.

It's a RAID 0 across 2x80 wd's, the volume is detected fine in the raid manager.

memyselfandi · 25 Oct 2009 at 21:13

I've had this with Vista before and couldn't get past it (even using the solution as posted above). In the end the only fix I could do was to unplug the other drive, thus leaving only the OS drive present, and reinstall the OS.

Sp00n · 25 Oct 2009 at 21:15

I've only just installed, why on earth is this such a challenge, its just a simple drive change! Bloody microsoft :mad:

Both windows and EasyBCD state the system drive as C: and yet when I run bcdedit (from the install repair option), it states windows as F:

Sp00n · 26 Oct 2009 at 21:28

Anyone else got any more ideas other than reinstalling?

It boots off of the dvd so what does the dvd have that the hdd doesnt?

/edit I also have 2 "boot" folders, one on D: and one on F:

Dano · 26 Oct 2009 at 21:38

Had the same thing happen with my nephews system, ended up re-installing with the other drives disconnected.

Sp00n · 26 Oct 2009 at 21:39

If i re-install with the other drives disconnected, does that then force the bootmgr on to the c: drive?