Windows 7: No boot after unplugging setup drive

Hey all. Sorry if this question has really obvious solution but I've been bashing my head against this for a few hours this afternoon and am getting nowhere.

I have downloaded the Windows 7 RC1 ISO and "burnt" it onto a 16GB OCZ Throttle eSATA / USB drive (exactly as in the SevenForums tutorial). I can boot from this drive and install Windows with no problem.

But... I believe the 200MB system partition is somehow being placed on the flash drive, because once I disconnect it and attempt to boot, I get the standard "DISK BOOT FAILURE..." message.

I've followed the suggestions on the "How to avoid 200MB hidden system partition" page (i.e., pre-create the desired partitions on the installation drive rather than installing to unallocated space), but I'm still getting the problem.

The "Windows might create additional partitions..." dialog box popped up once, on my first installation attempt - and I did foolishly click "OK" to it. It hasn't appeared since for me to click "Cancel" to, however much I try deleting and remaking partitions



Has anything changed in RC1 regarding the system partition? Is it more persistent in creating it than it was with the Beta? If anyone could give me some tips I would be very grateful indeed Thanks!

The 100MB partition is for Repair purposes and should automatically be a part of the installation hard disk (even though it's an alltogether seperate partition).

You may want to check to see what disk the partition has been assigned to, run Computer Management from the start menu search box. See the screenshot and you'll notice that each disk is broken up into partitions (see highlight for Disk 0).

As for changing this option i'll look more closely into it for you

I think the size is down to 85 now, other than that nothing has changed.

If you remember this discussion you will see that the hidden partition contains the boot files(and used for bitlocker) and the recovery files are on boot drive (drive that contains windows).

Just a theory while I wait around on the current install attempt

At the hard drive selection point of Windows 7 setup, I am noticing that the flash drive is marked as having a "System" partition on it. This strikes me as a bit odd... is this normal behaviour for burning the RC1 ISO to a flash drive?

Unfortunately I cannot remember which thread I read it in, but someone mentioned that if setup sees an existing System partition, it will put the boot information and all the rest inside it (which means it won't do the "Windows might create additional partitions..." prompt). Hence why BOOTMGR is ending up on the flash drive, not the main hard drive.

Anyhow... I'll post a screenshot of the partition list once this setup finishes Thanks for the replies so far.

EDIT: Okay, here it is. As you can see, there's no sign at all of the "System Reserved" partition. Just to be ultra-clear:
* Disk 0 is the Windows 7 setup flash drive, connected by eSATA. If I unplug it and try to reboot, the old "DISK BOOT FAILURE" message appears.
* Disk 1 is the main hard disk, split into a 30Gb chunk for Windows to live in, and the rest for general files and whatnot.

If you read the thread i linked i explained my theory that the boot files are put on the first "active" partition it finds, so yes in your case that is the flash drive. Possible fix would be to mark the boot drive active, burn the dvd, disconnect flash drive, and boot from dvd and do a startup repair.

I... should've thought of that before Thanks a ton YupYup, that seems to have done the trick! A startup repair later and everything seems to be as I want it

It would be nice to have some more control within Setup of exactly which drive ends up holding the boot manager (to completely avoid the need for a physical DVD), but this does the job fine

True they could be more clear on that, but a install dvd is good for emergency's.