Cannot boot without distribution disk in DVD drive

The sequence of events went like this.

Trying to recover data from a hard drive, I fired up my partition recovery tool.
The partition recovery software yelled that the number of sectors on C: didn't match the reported number. Did I want to fix it? Sure. Bad move. That killed drive C.
Wound up having to re-install Windows. No problem there except. . . .

When rebooting, I need to have the Windows DVD in the drive or I get a message that I don't have a boot drive. As far as I can tell, I'm not booting off the DVD, it just has to be there.

Windows 7 Ultimate X 64
AMD Athlon 64 X2
3 GB RAM

If the Windows DVD is not needed for booting than booting should take place with any other DVD in CD/DVD Tray. Does it?

No. I need the Windows disk.

Strange. Very strange.

Do a Strartup Repair:
Startup Repair
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

You were trying to recover data from the hard drive. Which drive? and what prompted you to recover?

Well that is the history that you should have presented for anyone to help you in a meaningful way.

Anyway now that we know that your C drive is screwed up, I would suggest as follows.

1. If you are still intent on recovering anything from your C drive try to do it from a live Linux CD. Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer should be of help.

2. Try to clean install after a drive clean up. Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

3. If your C drive indeed is going north, check it with the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic/repair tool.

4. Replace the hard disk if there are major problems if indicated by the diagnostic tool and cannot be repaired successfully.

jumanji said:

You were trying to recover data from the hard drive. Which drive? and what prompted you to recover?

Trying to recover from the drive from my son's computer because he did something stupid and lost a partition.

Well that is the history that you should have presented for anyone to help you in a meaningful way.

I hang my head in shame

3. If your C drive indeed is going north . . .

Over here, things go south when they go bad.

I repartitioned and reformatted the drive then I did a complete re-install of Windows and that is when the strange problem occurred.

Can you post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu? Screen Shots

Normally what's required is to mark the Win7 or it's 100mb System REserved partition (preferred if you have it) Active, then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Time.

However there may be unknowns revealed by the screenshot (e.g. a Logical partition needing conversion to Primary first) so we can get you squared away faster.

Apparently, I don't have a 100 MB System Reserved partition.

I have C: which I call system. I have E: which I call Data. There's is a gap between the two because I couldn't remember exactly how big C: was originally, so I made it much smaller so I wouldn't overwrite E: before I recovered it. (Yes, I was MIA as well).

Not sure how you got the System boot files on Z but it needs to be fixed.

Boot the Win7 DVD Repair console to mark C Active, then Z inactive:
Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)
Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Power down to unplug Z drive, or enter BIOS setup to disable it temporarily.

Boot into DVD Repair console to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts on its own and holds the System Active boot flags.

In DIsk Management, extend C into the empty space: Partition or Volume - Extend

Z: has been in this computer for about three years now. Long before I switched to Win 7. It was a drive from an old computer that I repurposed to be storage for my music collection. Just reformatted it to get rid of all of the old stuff on it.

I will try what you say and report back.

I'm still baffled why I need the Win 7 DVD inserted to get things to boot.

Thanks.