Windows 7 - Partition Table doesn't have valid System Partition

Few days back did a Win 7 Pro OEM clean install on a home built PC. Looked great. Installed chipset drivers. Set up my drives and volumes using disk management. Shutdown and on a cold start next AM Win 7 won't boot. Last line on BIOS screen says "boot mgr missing". Drat!! Booted to Win 7 install DVD to startup repair. In the start up repair window, view diagnostic and repair details it says "the partition table does not have a valid system partion". Still in start up repair but at the command line I ran commands to view all volumes, then I ran cmd bootrec /scanos. I see all volumes including the OS volume and the cmd bootrec /scanos returns the correct os volume. However I see my os volume is E:\ instead of c:\. So, my busy work with disk m'g'ment may have made a mess of my clean install. Before I dig this hole any deeper, I humbly ask, now what?

Look at your partitioning more closely using free Paragon Rescue CD.

If your drive letter did in fact somehow change, Paragon can change it back for you: Moving Win7 Partition to Another Drive

If not, mark Windows 7 partition Active and run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots.

Use the drivers given by the Windows 7 installer and quickly updated via optional Windows updates - unless performance dictates changing them. This is not XP.

Hello nodak, welcome to Seven Forums!



There's a lot of useful information in this tutorial at the link below including an out-line of the process of marking a partition as "Active" from diskpart, have a look at Option Two #1 and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

OK, thanx for the replies and advice. I'll reply back mid-day Friday, hopefully with a succcessful boot.

We'll be here, be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Well, I'm stuck with the same situation. Here are some images to better show my current status.
Booting to the Win 7 DVD, then choosing repair, and then choosing startup repair I see this
　
　
　
By way of the repair cmd line I can see my OS volume on the 60 gig SSD, and all other volumes(on two WD disk HDs) I set up after my clean install. Here is the screen image.
　
　

Time to apply Paragon Rescue Kit 10.0 Express (free). Using other resources it is a quick download and burn to cd. Boots quickly, but I'm stalled again. The Paragon r'kit only sees one of my drives, and shows me the three volumes on that drive. Here is the PR'kit screen image.

　

I'll keep working with Paragon's R'kit if you can advise me on how to proceed.
However, I'm ready to do a fresh clean install. My only loss would be an ego hit. I have yet to migate anything to my new build.

Again, thanx in advance for advice.
Pete

Oops, the first image is wrong. Here is what my start repair screen looks like.



Pete

Can you show other drives in Paragon Rescue by using the drop down arrow? How about if you unplug all other HDs to try all repairs?

See if you can force Windows 7 repair to see OS by clicking through that window to Recovery Tools list, select Command Line, type:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot

Now close Command Line and try runnning Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots.

If no OS shows up to repair after this, you should probably wipe the HD to clean reinstall:
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation
Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

I could not get Paragon Rescue to see the SSD drive with my OS volume.
I did have sucess at the CMD line with bootrec.
That is where I lay the credit, because when I ran start up repair again it saw the OS volume. I then ran start up repair 3 times even though it was saying "no repair needed".
On the next post the computer booted into windows.
Thanx for the assist.
Pete

Hello again Pete.



Good to see you found a solution and thanks for the update.