Boot Problem

Can anyone help me fix this? I did a Clean install to fix a bunch of problems. Everything went great. All updates installed. I reinstalled all programs and imported saved Documents, pictures,Email contacts,and message folders for the wifes Incredimail. Changed a lot of personal settings. Everything works fine. Then I realized I have to leave the win7 disc in the tray in order to boot. Aparantly the boot files installed on a sata drive that I formatted and did not assign a drive letter to. If I unplug that drive I can't boot at all. If I boot to the disc startup repair fails and sends a message to Microsoft which might help them but does nothing for me. I did assign a drive letter now but I can't copy the files to the C: drive because they are in use. I v'e tried Easy Bcd(no help) and Bootrec.exe(from the command prompt on the repair disc) I did all of the options. ScanOs shows no windows installations but I've reconnected the other Sata drive ,run startup repair and I'm in Win 7 as I type this. Also I can't do a repair install in windows. Setup stops with a message "can't find necessary installation files". I'm thinkig about trying to find a different bootloader to install but I don't really know if that would work. I don't want to do another clean install. I would rather take it on a ship out into the ocean and throw it overboard.

SEVEN X7 said:

Can anyone help me fix this? I did a Clean install to fix a bunch of problems. Everything went great. All updates installed. I reinstalled all programs and imported saved Documents, pictures,Email contacts,and message folders for the wifes Incredimail. Changed a lot of personal settings. Everything works fine. Then I realized I have to leave the win7 disc in the tray in order to boot. Aparantly the boot files installed on a sata drive that I formatted and did not assign a drive letter to. If I unplug that drive I can't boot at all. If I boot to the disc startup repair fails and sends a message to Microsoft which might help them but does nothing for me. I did assign a drive letter now but I can't copy the files to the C: drive because they are in use. I v'e tried Easy Bcd(no help) and Bootrec.exe(from the command prompt on the repair disc) I did all of the options. ScanOs shows no windows installations but I've reconnected the other Sata drive ,run startup repair and I'm in Win 7 as I type this. Also I can't do a repair install in windows. Setup stops with a message "can't find necessary installation files". I'm thinkig about trying to find a different bootloader to install but I don't really know if that would work. I don't want to do another clean install. I would rather take it on a ship out into the ocean and throw it overboard.

There is a tutorial floating somewhere on this forum, on how to move the bootfiles to another disk.

Use the search.

good luck

Could you attach a snipping tool picture of your Disk Management window? Try to label the partitions so we can tell what is what.

You can't boot to the Install DVD and do a startup repair?

Found it. Tried it. Didn't work and startup repair couldn't fix it. Plugged the other Sata drive back in startup repair fixed it and it booted up. My c: drive is set to first boot and the partion is active. don't know why it won't work.

SEVEN X7 said:

Found it. Tried it. Didn't work and startup repair couldn't fix it. Plugged the other Sata drive back in startup repair fixed it and it booted up. My c: drive is set to first boot and the partion is active. don't know why it won't work.

It's because the bootfiles are on the SATA disk.

They are bootmgr, IO.sys and BCD (which is in the hidden boot folder

You must copy those to the C:, and use easybcd to connect the OS to those files.

Like I said there is a tutorial for it.


A general tip when installing W7. Always disconnect all other harddrives to prevent what's just happened to you.

Well I`ll tell ya, that frigin sucks!! But you know what you have to do
Get some sleep 2nite wake up with a clear head and have at it. I have installed
systems sooo many times I have it down pat. Just throw the programs into my
documents and do them when you feel like it.

I feel for ya man but that`s part of the fun of the pc realm.
Don`t look at it as a chore, look at it as something you have mastered:)

Zomby88 said:

Well I`ll tell ya, that frigin sucks!! But you know what you have to do
Get some sleep 2nite wake up with a clear head and have at it. I have installed
systems sooo many times I have it down pat. Just throw the programs into my
documents and do them when you feel like it.

I feel for ya man but that`s part of the fun of the pc realm.
Don`t look at it as a chore, look at it as something you have mastered:)

LMAO

Well there you go , see your already having a good laugh about it.
And this is what I`m doing, tomorrow is gonna be soooo nice!!!

Zomby88 said:

Well there you go , see your already having a good laugh about it.
And this is what I`m doing, tomorrow is gonna be soooo nice!!!

I'm not the one having re-install it..

I've done it so many times I know the 25 digit productcode by heart.

And no, I'm not going to prove it, lol.

Unplug the drive you formatted that contained the boot files.

Boot the WIn7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools list to open a Command Line, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (replace # with new Win7 HD #)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (replace # with Win7 partition #)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Now return to the Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR to Win7 partition. This will work if partition is marked active, but you must run it repeatedly until Win7 starts.