Windows 7 - Cannot boot Windows 7 Professional without DVD!

Hello,

I posted this problem on Microsoft answers yesterday, but have yet to find a working solution, so I am posting it here, in hopes that someone has had the same problem and has found a fix for it...

I purchased Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (as a student) and created an ISO, then burned it onto a DVD. I installed Windows 7 Pro on a system previously running Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit.

I had no problems until this past Sunday. At first, I had a "BOOTMGR is missing" error. Since I had "custom" installed Windows 7 on the same hard drive I had Vista on without formatting the drive, I thought that formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows 7 would solve the problem, but it has not.

My current boot error provides the following information:

File: Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000034
Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file is missing required information.


I've read several posts with solutions for problems similar to this and most have suggested first trying to have the Windows 7 install disc try to identfy boot problems. I have done this and experienced an interesting problem. When it scans the drive for boot errors, none are found, but I noticed it says my Windows installation is on the D: drive, but when I am actually logged into Windows 7, the installation is on the C: drive. In addition, I have also tried a suggestion to use command prompt and fix the BCD (bootrec /RebuildBCD), but it still has not changed anything.

I am really clueless where to proceed from here. I have held off from reinstalling anything onto my system in case any solutions presented require me to reformat or lose any of my applications/settings.

The only other thing I can think of that is potentially causing this error is that my secondary hard drive (B:) is listed as Disk 0 under Disk Management, while the drive with my Windows 7 installation (C:) is listed as Disk 1.

Thanks in advance for any help and please let me know if any additional information would be helpful to anyone willing to find me a solution for this problem!

Have you tried running Startup Repair?

Yes, I've run startup repair before and it says there are no boot errors. As I said in my initial post, I also found it strange that repair says my Windows installation is on my D: because when I actually log in to Windows 7, my installation is on my C: drive.

Hi ,

please post a screenshot of Disk Management window. (Type disk Management in start search - click "create and format hard disk partitions" ) -maximize the window - post a screenie.


How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums

(Posted 2 screenshots, since my DVD writer was all the way on the bottom of the list.)

My Windows installation is on C: in this case (rather than D:, where Windows 7 startup repair finds my installation).

Also, I just realized this after searching around the web about "System" partitions, when I first installed Windows 7, my secondary drive (B:, as shown in the screenshot) was not active, so I went into Disk Management and made it active. Not sure if this in any way cause the problem, but I figured I'd provide this information in case it may have.

Go into Bios, make sure DISK 1 is the first HD in bios boot order. After cdrom is ok - but it must be the first HD .

Boot the dvd . Run Startup repair 3 times.

Will do...be back in a few...

Okay, so I changed the boot order to boot the HDD Group first with the hard drive that has my Windows installation on it, but all 3 times I restarted it took me directly to the error I mentioned in my first post.

Could B: drive being labeled as a "System" partition be causing a problem during the boot? Or is there some other explanation for all this?

Yes, that's exactly it.

Type cmd in start search - when it pops up, rt click and run as Admin , then type: ( Press enter after each command.)

Diskpart

sel vol b

inact

exi

( to leave diskpart)

bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

d:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 ALL /force /mbr



Close cmd prompt.

Restart - without the dvd in the drive.

Thanks again...going to test it out, brb.