Windows 7 help please

[paulpitchford]

I recently did a total format and reinstall using windows 7.

It all works beautifully but for some reason it will only work when the DVD is in the drive and won't start from my hard disk.

Anybody know of there's a way of fixing this or do I need to reinstall again and try not to click a wrong button somewhere?

I've trawled the net for an answer but can't find anything so thought I'd try the blonde experts.

Cheers

You got boot only from CD drive set in the BIOS?

What's a BIOS?

I've only got a masters degree in computing so I'm not too good with these things.

The bit when you first turn it on and it says "press X to enter setup" usually delete or F8. But if it worked before and you didn't change it it seems rather odd.

What error do you get when the DVD isn't in the drive?

"BOOTMGR is missing"

hit ctrl/alt/del to enter setup

Tried changing the priority thing to HDD and I still get the same message.

A google search will walk you through fixing this. The boot loader has not been installed / removed from you HDD. Have you tried dual booting it with something else? Strange how the Windows 7 installer see's it though and BIOS doesn't. First time in my carrer I've seen that.

[EvilPie]

If you haven't been into BIOS in the first place and changed anything then I would presume that the boot sequence is probably already set to 1. DVD, 2. HDD. If the CD wasn't in the drive, then it would just boot from the 2nd boot device which in this case is your HDD. The fact it only boots in when the CD is in the drive make is even more stange.

When the CD spins up, does "Press any key to continue to installation..." appear on your screen at anytime? If it does, I presume you don't press a key because doing so would take you into the Windows 7 setup. If you leave it as I would assume, from here, it just loads the MBR from the next drive in the boot sequence. This is exactly what the BIOS should be doing if the CD isn't in the drive. Further more, if it does come up with the prompt mentioned above, BIOS must be detecting the OS MBR because if there is no OS installed it doesn't bring up this prompt. Somethings not quite right here I think. I can't put my finger on it though.

Is the CD genuine or a copy? Maybe you have some hybrid copy that has a bootable image installed on it too? Maybe not? This is quite strange. I've been working with PC's for 15 years and I've never heard of such a problem. If you get into Windows, how are the drive letters assigned? If the partitions are setup correctly then I would suggest doing a google search for "Windows 7 MBR Fix" and following the instructions.

I would also recommend backing any data up first though as this will alter the master boot record of the primary partition on the HDD. If you mess it up, you'd either have to reinstall the OS on this drive or move it to another pc and fix the MBR there.

Sorry my post is a bit all over the place but it really is a puzzling situation you have there.

HTH!

Paul.

Hmmm.

Right then. What you say about the boot sequence was correct. CD, HDD, floppy.

I get a message saying 'press any key to boot from CD/DVD' but that disappears and everything starts up fine. There's no message about installation.

The CD is genuine. Windows 7 Ultimate. I'm using the 64bit version.

There's 2 separate hard drives (C: and E:) but no partitions. E is only used for storage of stuff so no windows things are on that.

I'm happy to try a reinstall if necessary but thought it might be interesting to find out what the problem was.

Backing up is no problem. There's nothing important on there anyway as it's pretty new.

[paulpitchford]

I think your problem is that the Bootloader on the HDD is currupt/missing.

BIOS doesn't seem to be seeing it but the loader on the CD does which is very strange. I'd suggest trying this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fixing-bootmgr-is-missing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/

[EvilPie]

I think your problem is that the Bootloader on the HDD is currupt/missing.

BIOS doesn't seem to be seeing it but the loader on the CD does which is very strange. I'd suggest trying this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fixing-bootmgr-is-missing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/

Didn't work

Got to go out now.

Will have another go tomorrow.

Probs going to resort to a full install.

Happy days....

[paulpitchford]

I think your problem is that the Bootloader on the HDD is currupt/missing.

BIOS doesn't seem to be seeing it but the loader on the CD does which is very strange. I'd suggest trying this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fixing-bootmgr-is-missing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/

Didn't work

Got to go out now.

Will have another go tomorrow.

Probs going to resort to a full install.

Happy days....

Me too as it happens... beer o'clock! When you reinstall tomorrow, make sure you delete all the partitions from the C drive before proceeding with the install. Even the "System Reserved" Partition. Don't forget to backup anything important first!

GL
Paul.

[paulpitchford]

One last thought would be to restore the boot sector in the WinRE (Windows Recovery Enviroment - Like before booting off of the Windows CD). Get to a command prompt at type:

bootsect /nt60 C:\

Where c:\ is the drive letter that Windows 7 is installed to.