"reboot and select proper boot device" weirdness

When I boot my system, I get the error "reboot and select proper boot device". I verified my BIOS settings are good (#1 CD, #2 HD). The only thing I can think of that might have caused this is a have booted a few times from a Live Linux disk (Tails) but I thought live disks were not supposed to modify hard drives, right?

Anyway, I inserted Win7 setup disk, ran Startup Repair, but it find no issues. I discovered by accident that with the setup disk inserted, rebooting the system works fine.

What's this about? Would installing the bootloader to the MBR with EasyBCD fix it?

Thank you!

Here's the contents of the detailed boot entry from BCD:

Code:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=C:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {29881653-4a28-11e1-b5bb-86216f04bb8a}
resumeobject            {29881652-4a28-11e1-b5bb-86216f04bb8a}
displayorder            {29881653-4a28-11e1-b5bb-86216f04bb8a}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 10

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {29881653-4a28-11e1-b5bb-86216f04bb8a}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
loadoptions             DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
inherit                 {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence        {29881654-4a28-11e1-b5bb-86216f04bb8a}
recoveryenabled         Yes
testsigning             Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {29881652-4a28-11e1-b5bb-86216f04bb8a}
nx                      OptIn

Mark the Win7 Partition or it's 100mb System Reserved (preferred) Partition Active then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times. Make sure Win7 HD is set first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

If this fails work through these steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

gregrocker said:

Mark the Win7 Partition or it's 100mb System Reserved (preferred) Partition Active then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times. Make sure Win7 HD is set first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

If this fails work through these steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

My Win7 partition already was marked active, at least according to Disk Management and MiniTools (Active, System, Boot, Primary, PageFile, Crash Dump).

I have run the Startup Repair 3 times in a row, but still, the only way I can boot into my C: Win7 installation is to have the Win7 setup DVD in the drive. I just ignore the "press any key" and let the system boot up. If I take out the DVD, I still get the "Reboot and select" error.

After trying Startup Repair at least 6 times, I tried EasyBCD, following their FAQ: first "BCD Deployment" i.e. Install the Win7 bootloader to the MBR (wonder if I also was to have done, "install BCD" to my system partition...Hmm.. When that didn't have any effect, second was to run "Reset BCD Configuration", and that also did nothing, so next I tried Re-create/repair boot files". That too had no effect.

My drive has been partitioned this way for over a year without any trouble til I booted into Tails Live CD, but reviewing the partition table in diskpart, showed me that the numbering of the partitions seems weird, and I wonder if that's something to do with it.

In the order they exist on the drive physically, the drives are lettered C, E, X, and V (with X being a small extended/logical partition), but their respective partition numbers are: 1, 2, 0, 4, 3 (0 and 4 are both drive X).

Here's an image if that helps. I realize looking at this mess maybe I'll wipe everything and install clean on a re-formatted disk. But still I'd like to get this problem figured out.



Thanks,

gregrocker said:

You may have irreparable corruption in the boot files on C.

If the problem is not solved by . . .
. . .

If you Clean Reinstall be sure to wipe the HD first with Diskpart Clean Command

Thank you, this is invaluable help. I will try your recommendations, and am glad for having CrashPlan, should I decide to "clean" the disk. Two questions: is Minitool Partition Wizard the one you mean? I have that, and am ready to burn a CD if that's the recommened tool. Also, should I make the 3 primary partitions contiguous, by moving the Extended Partition to the last area on the disk?