Cannot boot without distribution disk in DVD drive

[BarnabasSackett]

The sequence of events went like this.

Trying to recover data from a hard drive, I fired up my partition recovery tool.
The partition recovery software yelled that the number of sectors on C: didn't match the reported number. Did I want to fix it? Sure. Bad move. That killed drive C.
Wound up having to re-install Windows. No problem there except. . . .

When rebooting, I need to have the Windows DVD in the drive or I get a message that I don't have a boot drive. As far as I can tell, I'm not booting off the DVD, it just has to be there.

Windows 7 Ultimate X 64
AMD Athlon 64 X2
3 GB RAM

 

[wanchoo]

If the Windows DVD is not needed for booting than booting should take place with any other DVD in CD/DVD Tray. Does it?

 

[BarnabasSackett]

No. I need the Windows disk.

Strange. Very strange.

 

[theog]

Do a Strartup Repair:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

 

[jumanji]

You were trying to recover data from the hard drive. Which drive? and what prompted you to recover?

Well that is the history that you should have presented for anyone to help you in a meaningful way.

Anyway now that we know that your C drive is screwed up, I would suggest as follows.

1. If you are still intent on recovering anything from your C drive try to do it from a live Linux CD. http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html should be of help.

2. Try to clean install after a drive clean up. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

3. If your C drive indeed is going north, check it with the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic/repair tool.

4. Replace the hard disk if there are major problems if indicated by the diagnostic tool and cannot be repaired successfully.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

You were trying to recover data from the hard drive. Which drive? and what prompted you to recover?

Trying to recover from the drive from my son's computer because he did something stupid and lost a partition.

Well that is the history that you should have presented for anyone to help you in a meaningful way.

I hang my head in shame

3. If your C drive indeed is going north . . .

Over here, things go south when they go bad.

I repartitioned and reformatted the drive then I did a complete re-install of Windows and that is when the strange problem occurred.

 

[gregrocker]

Can you post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu? Screen Shots

Normally what's required is to mark the Win7 or it's 100mb System REserved partition (preferred if you have it) Active, then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Time.

However there may be unknowns revealed by the screenshot (e.g. a Logical partition needing conversion to Primary first) so we can get you squared away faster.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

Apparently, I don't have a 100 MB System Reserved partition.

I have C: which I call system. I have E: which I call Data. There's is a gap between the two because I couldn't remember exactly how big C: was originally, so I made it much smaller so I wouldn't overwrite E: before I recovered it. (Yes, I was MIA as well).

 

[gregrocker]

Not sure how you got the System boot files on Z but it needs to be fixed.

Boot the Win7 DVD Repair console to mark C Active, then Z inactive:
Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)
Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Power down to unplug Z drive, or enter BIOS setup to disable it temporarily.

Boot into DVD Repair console to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts on its own and holds the System Active boot flags.

In DIsk Management, extend C into the empty space: Partition or Volume - Extend

 

[BarnabasSackett]

Z: has been in this computer for about three years now. Long before I switched to Win 7. It was a drive from an old computer that I repurposed to be storage for my music collection. Just reformatted it to get rid of all of the old stuff on it.

I will try what you say and report back.

I'm still baffled why I need the Win 7 DVD inserted to get things to boot.

Thanks.

 

[gregrocker]

The boot files are not on the Win7 partition. They were somehow derailed to Z during install or repairs.

This is likely the cause but it could be other unseen factors.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

Now wondering if it would be simpler to start from scratch. Wipe out C: again and re-install Windows. I haven't gotten around to re-installing any of my applications yet, so I wouldn't be losing much in the way of time or effort.

 

[gregrocker]

It's up to you. You can move the boot files to C and extend it using the steps I provided which should solve the issue, or you can unplug Z, boot the installer, use Custom install Drive Options to delete C, create and format a new partition, install.

Clean Install Windows 7
Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM.

 

[jumanji]

May be I am late again.

If you are doing a clean install, make sure that you disconnect the Z drive and also any other external drive/s during the install.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

Disconnected Z. Reinstalled Windows. Reconnected Z. Everything works fine now. Now I have to go about the laborious process of reinstalling all of my applications and utilities and then getting everything back to looking the way it did.

Thanks to all.

Never had problems like this with DR-DOS.

 

[whs]

You were victim of the Windows7 installer. It grabs any disk/partition that is active or it grabs the one that is first in the port sequence.

Since your Z drive was a leftover from a previous OS installation, it was probably still marked as active.

That is why we always recommend to disconnect all drives that are not required for the installation - or transfer the bootmgr right after the installation if the disconnect gymnastics is not possible or inconvenient.

 

[jumanji]

Disconnected Z. Reinstalled Windows. Reconnected Z. Everything works fine now. Now I have to go about the laborious process of reinstalling all of my applications and utilities and then getting everything back to looking the way it did.

Thanks to all.

Never had problems like this with DR-DOS.

All is well that ends well.

After the drivers, updates and activation take an image of your C drive with any of the free imaging sofftware and save it to an external drive. Anytime later if a clean install is required you can simply restore that image and save yourself going through this entire drill again.(At this stage it is also essential that you restore the image and make sure it works so that there is no surprise of a non-working image.)

After you install all the essential software too take an image and save it. ( As a matter of fact, whenever I take an image, I restore it and confirm. Otherwise I can't sleep peacefully. Good practices can save you a lot of botheration and breakdown later.)