Windows 7: Missing operating system windows 7

Well I decided to build a computer because it was on my bucket list. I probably got a little deeper than my talent. Someone at the store said I could get some more performance using an SSD for the operationg system. I put the computer together and everything booted the first time. Imagine that. So than I rebooted loading Windows7 to the SSD. I had not downloaded and new drivers; however, good ole MS loaded some 54 updates.

I started tweaking files, moved temp and tmp to HDD and other items relative to using an SSD for OS and program files. Everything was fine, than, I come back to the machine and it says that it cannot boot. Tried repairing, no luck. Then I found a restore point and restored successfully. Windows says it has some updates to do and I said remind me in 4 hours. Came back to do some more stuff in 30 minutes and had the same message about booting, so I guess Windows just did the updates anyway. This time I was not able to repair or restore successfully. The diagnostic message said my Windows was on Drive E, which is the HDD.

Browsed the forums and decided that I would do a "Clean All" from the "Diskpart" command. Then reinstall Windows7 from the original MS installation disk. It seemed to me that I should be back to where is was when I originally installed Wins7. There are probably other things happening in the original install that I am not aware. But generally, if you get back to square one, you can re-install?

I Set the BIOS to boot from CD/DVD drive. Keep getting missing operating system. One thing I might have failed to do, which may cause a problem is I didn't set the format of the SSD to NTFS, I inadvertantly left it RAW. If that is the only problem, I can take it to a friend's house who has a SATA port and format it. I have spinning HHD disconnected and to be sure the CD/DVD was being recognized, I disconnected it on one try..

I just found a thread for SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation and it has some steps which I didn't do besides NTFS. Also in the thread, it would appear I should not have rebooted, but performed the install.. If I had found this one first I might not have this problem...

Any suggestions for getting this beast running again would be appreciated...

why not start from scratch? reformat the drive and reinstall windows?