Invalid system partition

i am a newbie as far as computer hardware is concerned. after struggling for days to install windows 7 onto my new pc which came without and 0s installed,
specs are:

hp pavillion elite m9255.uk
amd phenom 9500 quad core
4gb ram
1tb hard drive ( comprised of 2 500gb hard drives)
note 1 of them i made a partition of 30gb where i installed the win 7 OS the rest of the 465 used as storage for my files.

the other 500gb i left untouced which on disk management is unused incase i do decide to dual boot a mac os on that one.

i was using my computer for almost 2 days installing all my files and softwares etc when suddenly it shut down on me and when i tried turning it on it said

Disk boot error please insert system disk and press enter

i tried changing the boot order in the BIos
open the cpu casing unplugging blowing and re plugging the cables to the hard drives in.
however on the bios both hard drives are listed and wen i check status says that they both okay

i tried booting using the installation disc trying start up repair no luck with that
went into command prompt option
tried typing in
diskpart (enter)
lis vol (enter)
it list the 465 which i use for storage but the 30gb where the 0s is installed dosent show. surely if the hard drive had a problem the 465gb wouldnt show as it an te 30gb makes up te 500gb?

i tried
selecting the 465 volume enter and then exiting diskpart
then it says

BOOT MGR IS MISSING PRESS CTRL +ALT+DEL TO RESTART

so basiclly i have read almost all forums concerning this and followed most of the steps listed above for however mine says boot manager missing or corrupt, wen ever i run start up repair its says

start up repair cannot repair this computer automatically.
sending more information can help microsoft create solutions.

please do help me out as i have seen that almost everyone you helped so fars problem has been solved.

SIW2 said:

Hi will,

Let's start from the beginning.

You already have 7 installed and are now unable to boot ?

What partitions did diskpart list, is there a small 100mb partition and your main windows partition?


Are you awake? LOL

I am having a similar problem and I noticed you asking about the 100mb partition and I noticed that my system does not have that is that something that I need to create or what should I do?

Hi siw2 or anyone that can help

I have windows 7 installed into the only hard drive I have which is a 2tb, when I turn on my computer it won't load to windows instead I get a message: reboot and select proper boot device

In system repair it says root cause found: boot sector code for system partition is corrupt.....

After doing the what siw2 wrote I still can't seem to get the problem sorted please I have been sitting pulling out my hair someone heeelllppp!

Hello,

I'm having similar problems. I followed all the tips given in this topic but to no avail...

My windows crashed during install of software. I used the reset button and then the problems started.
First it asked if I wanted to safe boot, I chose no.
It tried to boot but during booting again halted. I used the reset button.

Then I got a message that I should use startup repair. I tried it, it restarted and then I got the message: Insert boot disk blablabla.
I got my windows 7 cd in, went to the repair section but it didn't see any version of windows installed. I tried to use startup repair but it didn't work.

I used DISKPART to make my windows disk active (it showed up as "healthy"). After rebooting i got the error: NTLDR is missing.
Again I followed instructions, using bootsect but now I'm getting the error
"BOOTMGR is missing"

When I use the repair CD I see a windows install that I can repair, but when I select it it gives the error:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to Repair".

I'm pretty sure it is the correct cd however....

Furthermore, when I goto DISKPART and use lis vol the order of the disks is incorrect. I have 3 harddisks, one of them a small SSD and I have windows installed on the SSD.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do about this? I would really appreciate help...

Anorionil said:

Hello,

I'm having similar problems. I followed all the tips given in this topic but to no avail...

My windows crashed during install of software. I used the reset button and then the problems started.
First it asked if I wanted to safe boot, I chose no.
It tried to boot but during booting again halted. I used the reset button.

Then I got a message that I should use startup repair. I tried it, it restarted and then I got the message: Insert boot disk blablabla.
I got my windows 7 cd in, went to the repair section but it didn't see any version of windows installed. I tried to use startup repair but it didn't work.

I used DISKPART to make my windows disk active (it showed up as "healthy"). After rebooting i got the error: NTLDR is missing.
Again I followed instructions, using bootsect but now I'm getting the error
"BOOTMGR is missing"

When I use the repair CD I see a windows install that I can repair, but when I select it it gives the error:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to Repair".

I'm pretty sure it is the correct cd however....

Furthermore, when I goto DISKPART and use lis vol the order of the disks is incorrect. I have 3 harddisks, one of them a small SSD and I have windows installed on the SSD.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do about this? I would really appreciate help...

managed to fix it by copying bootmgr to the SSD disk... did some other things too, i dunno exactly what fixed it but my pc is booting windows again :)

SIW2 said:

Boot 7 dvd to system recovery options command prompt. Type:

Diskpart

lis vol

( find the vol letter e.g C or partition number e.g. 1 for the system partition )

sel vol C ( or sel vol 1 , obviously use the correct letter or number)

act

exi

see if that helps.

I know this thread is old, but I have to say that this method along with running startup repair 2x worked like a charm and saved me many hours of grief. For those who may be interested, my scenario was with a dual-boot system of the same OS:

Drive 1: Windows 7 Enterprise (new HDD)
Drive 2: Windows 7 Enterprise (old HDD)

I had no problems with dual booting and set up everything properly (so I thought). The intention was to get all of my programs and files installed on the new drive at my leisure and remove the old drive when I was done. Unbeknownst to me, the old drive was failing and finally started to cause issue. I noticed that my backups were indicating that the system reserved partition was not found, so that part of the backup would fail and after a little searching, I noticed that my old drive wasn't showing in disk management. I removed the old drive and upon doing so, could not boot to my new one. The system reserved partition was on my old drive! After Googling for hours, SIW2's solution worked for me perfectly and I am back up and running.

My only question now is, what about that system reserved partition? I've removed it from the backup, but is there a way to create a new one or move the old one? Is it even necessary in this case? Thanks for your excellent advice and any help you may provide us with in the future.

You don't need a separate system reserved partition.

It is perhaps better not to have one in your case - makes backup and restore much easier.

I don't have a separate one myself on basic mbr disk.

Pleased you are up and running agin - thanks for the feedback:)

My names karel and I have a problem. Listed below are the exact steps in which i discovered and tried to remedy the problems.

- Got my pc built at NCIX. Was impatient, I decided to install win 7 at home
- installed win 7. worked fine.
-installed all my drivers, asus gate and what not, antivirus. all the reboots are fine.
- install all my games and patches.
- shutdown comp for night.

Then booted comp to black screen after bios.
Check bios boot order is correct Cd/dvd>hdd

pop in windows 7 disk.
click repair. no os' found.
run windows repair. 6 times all said invalid system partition.
run cmd prompt type in exactly:
diskpart
lis vol
sel vol c
act
exi.

reboot. same problem so i do this 2 more times. there is only 2 partitions that show up. my 500g seagate and an external wd passport. both say healthy.

so what do I do. I need my WOW fix man...
thanks.

When you ran lis vol, what letter did it give for your windows partition ?

Probabaly a good idea to disconnect the external HD.

SIW2 said:

When you ran lis vol, what letter did it give for your windows partition ?

Probabaly a good idea to disconnect the external HD.

so I unplugged all the external hardrives and it worked with 0 problems
so what the hell. but thanks for both the excellent advice and prompt help