I tested it myself a few weeks ago (see #
7)
partition 1: primary with OS. Deleted bootmgr (actually renamed it). Renamed \boot\bcd
partition 2: empty primary ntfs partition. Only file bootmgr on it.
No partition active. Rebooted from Windows 7 system repair disk (it didn't find Windows 7 instance). Then ran startup repair. It did make partition 2 ACTIVE and places bcd file on it.