Windows 7: "Reboot & Select Proper Boot Device"

First of all I am almost too embarrassed to post this. I feel like a total ninkompoop.

Background:

A few days ago I thought my new Seasonic Gold 850 had gone bad. Tested all the leads and the motherboard power leads showed no or low power. Well, the problem was not the PSU but the modular connections had come loose from the power supply itself (very, very hard to see in the maze of wiring in my computers; don't ask)

Well, the result was like a light switch being switch on-off, there was some partial bootup and then a crash. Couldn't even get into the bios, so I knew it was either a motherboard or power problem - Duh!

OK, after fixing the modular connection to the PSU the computer of course could boot and I got into the bios. In the boot section I noticed that everything was scrambled, hard drive order, boot order, everything. So I reset all (pics attached).

Problem: Upon bootup, although the boot devices are CD/DVD optical #1 and then the 120 GB SSD #2, I continue to get the error message "Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device".

My conclusion: The OS kernel and boot loader were corrupted - again a big Duh!

Tried: Put Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit setup disk in and did "system repair", after which the computer will successfully come up into Windows - if and only if the setup disk remains in the optical drive. Same if I do system restore.

Rant: One of the things that has always annoyed me with Windows is the SATA connections come up all willy-nilly in Computer (Disk) Management - basically to hell with order, we will call your SATA connections what we want to.

Note: I have 2 SSD's - #1 is 120 GB for OS and important programs and #2 is 80 GB for less important programs. I had intended to put SSD #1 (120 Gb) on SATA 1 and #2 (80 Gb) on SATA 2 but #2 is actually on SATA 3. This was not a problem before I had the on-off switching of the PSU due to the bad modular connection, which I believe corrupted my OS.



Question: How to Fix It.

Footnote: Please feel free to tell me what a raving idiot I am. I don't mind being publicly humiliated. I just wanna learn.

First, the port # for your second SSD won't make any difference except possibly in performance. I believe on your board, #2 is a sata III port and Port 3 is a sata II port. Was your sata configuration in bios AHCI mode before and is it now? After the problem with your PSU, did you set optimized defaults, then set your ram timings, speed and voltage? If all of that is correct, put in the repair disk or the Installation disk and run startup repair. You will have to run it at least 3 times with starup attempts in between each try. If you still have the first boot device as your CD/DVD you'll need to bypass that on your attempted startups, between startup repairs. ie. We want it to try to start up from the SSD not the DVD.

Dennis, if and when you boot into windows, please post a screenshot of disk management expanded so we can see both the top and bottom. Also open an elevated command prompt ( click the start button, type cmd in the search box, right click the cmd entry select run as administrator) Copy/paste this into the window and press enter. sfc /scannow let it run and tell us what the results are. It is a system file checker. It will attempt to repair any missing or damaged system files. Of Interest
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Bootmgr is missing - Fix

At any time did you clear the CMOS? Sometimes that will fix wonky BIOS problems, and if it won't fix them, it's a good idea anyway. Just thinking out loud.

I'll do my best to answer all these questions. Thanks for the help!

1) In the BIOS SATA 1-4 - AHCI; 5,6 IDE (Opticals) - I have on occasion set all SATA ports to AHCI, just not this time.

2) Ran sfc /scannow - No Problems reported

3) Have run "Startup Repair" several times - BUT will only boot if and only if the Win 7 Disk is in the DVD-ROM

4) No, I did not hit "Reset" on the mobo yet (which would have made sense awhile back because with the PSU problems the settings in the BIOS were completely scrambled, i.e. different from what I had set. Instead of resetting the BIOS, I just reset everything manually.

5) As you will see from the online Crosshair V snippets all my sata ports are 6 GB/Sec

6) Problem: I put my 2 SSD's on SATA 1 and SATA 2 per the manual - which is wrong. (Note: I have corrected other ASUS motherboard manuals in the past, specifically where what's labeled on the motherboard does not agree with what's in the manual. I feel sorry for newbies as a result.). Since the manual is wrong and I must trust the BIOS, it looks like my SSD's are on SATA 1 and 3, not 1 and 2. Note: This has made no difference in boot up in the past, so I doubt that it is suddenly a factor.

Buncha snippets attached.

Dennis, I am not ignoring you, I'm looking. Is there more than 1 OS on the system? You have several drives that are marked 'active' which don't need to be unless they are bootable and can confuse repairs.. Would you recheck and reseat the power and daya cables to the drives, the OS SSD in particular. Is there any way with the Intel toolbox to check tht the drive is functioning properly? The SFC you rand should have detected any corrupted files. It appears that for some reason Your SSD is not recognized as a bootable device. This is what I would do. Disconnect all hard drives except the SSD with windows 7 on it. You can just remove the data cable if that is easier. It is listed in your screenshot as active, system and boot. Clear CMOS, as Kbrady suggested. Reset your sata controller, ram frequency, timings and voltage, set the SSD as 1st boot device. Then follow this tutorial, again running startup repair 3 times with attempted startups in between each, if that does not work go to step 4 Bootmgr is missing - Fix

EDITED

I believe that step 4 in that tutorial is the answer we're looking for.

I hope you are right, TC. But, I think it should be done with only the OS drive connected. Also, your opinion please. With his PSU problem, then the bios being 'all messed up', do you think there was possibly a short during the PSU problem?

Oh, I think that's out of my league.

I was wondering that myself. Was the BIOS ever re-flashed?