bootmgr is missing - tried everything, need help!

Hello

I have a strange issue with my w7 64 ultimate system. All was working well earlier today, shut the system down for a bit, went to switch back on I am getting bootmgr is missing error and the system wont boot. This has happened once before, a simple windows startup repair fixed it in 2 minutes. However this time I have tried every solution I can find on the net to no avail. My setup is a 500gb hdd drive with windows on and a 120gb sata drive. However the 100mb system reserved part is on the sata drive. In the bios I hav always had to point to boot from the sata drive otherwise windows wont boot. If I tried booting from the windows drive I would get the bootmgr is missing error. That has always been the case.

I have tried running startup repair but it says it cant automatically fix errors and I get a problem Signature 07 error code missing boot manager. I have tried every possible command prompt solution I could find on the net but nothing works including deleting the whole boot record and creating a new one.

I have downloaded magic partition wizard but I am not 100% sure what I should do on their to try fix my problem. When I went on their first time, my 100mb partition on the sata drive was showing as unallocated space which I am guessing isnt right. Should I have the windows drive (only 1 partition)marked as active or the 100mb space on the sata drive? Any help would be greatly appreciated, if you need anymore information just ask!

Ok will try this tonight after work.

With the ssd, should I leave the 100mb as unallocated space and set the main partition as active. Or should I create a partition on the 100mb space and set that as active?

Ok so just unplugged the hdd drive, set the 100mb partition on the ssd as active (had to create this partition as it was down as unallocated space), checked no other partitions were active. Ran the startup repair but still get the failed repair with problem sIgnature 07 missing boot manager. Tried running 3 or 4 times but same thing. When I try to boot from the ssd now I am getting ntldr is missing error rather than bootmgr??

Just stuck in this endless startup repair loop. Either missing boot manager or if I connect the windows drive I occasionally get the noOsinstalled / partition table repair failed. Can anyone help?

Yes the hdd drive with my windows os install on. As I mentioned that is on one drive and the 100mb system files are on another. I disconnected the windows drive to try run start up repair on the drive with the system reserved area but it didnt work even when I had it set to the active partition. Should the windows drive be marked as an active partition when its connected? It only has the 1 partition

Can you post back a picture of Partition Wizard showing the full drive map and listings? Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums - Windows 7 Forums

If you don't have Win7 on the SSD then that is just ridiculous and you should focus now on doing a perfect Clean Install Windows 7 to the SSD with the other drive unplugged. Delete all partitions during the booted install. You dont' have to activate it with the key from the other Win7 for 30 days but when you see the performance difference you will want to do so.

If there is some strange reason you'd want Win7 on the HD and not SSD, then confirm that C is Partition Marked Active and run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times. You said you ran Startup Repair but didn't mention running it three times which is often what's required.

If this fails we need to see the PW drive map and listings picture to see what's blocking it.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your ongoing help. I have read that it is not unusual and pretty common for the system reserved partition and the windows OS to be on separate drives. I believe this is due to how Windows recognises the drives and the SATA ports they are connected to. I think the SSD drive is connected to sata port 1 so Windows installed the system reserve partition to that but I installed the actual OS to the other drive as I wanted to use the SSD just for games. This setup has worked fine for months.

Like I said previously, my working setup was I had to set the bios to boot from the SSD even though the OS isn't on there in order for it to boot. If I set it to boot from the Windows OS drive it would not boot (said bootmgr is missing). I assume this is because the boot files are on the 100mb partition on the SSD. Hope that makes sense? I will post a screenshot of partition wizard shortly.

Are you under the impression that your games will be faster by putting them on the SSD even thought the OS is inexplicably on the HD? This is utterly and foolishly wrong. If you don't install the OS on the SSD you are wasting it completely.

I would not boot Win7 from another physical drive. If you insist on such foolishness, Mark C Partition Active,
power down to unplug all other drives, then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and C holds System flag.

If this isn't working then post back the screenshot, which we should see anyway since such unsound decisions are being made.