Odd Windows 7 installation
 

I recently re-installed Windows 7 on my computer since the last installation I screwed around with IIS alot as well as permissions on alot of folders on my OS SSD Drive. I also had alot of extra crap slowing down the drive as I was not careful while installing new software.

I have 3 HDDs, one 80GB SSD for my OS, 1TB SATA 3 WD drive, and a 2TB SATA 2 WD Drive.
I also might want to mention that I updated my BIOS recently because I added new memory and the new bios for my MOBO allowed for more memory configurations. I have a Rampage III formula.

So on my reinstall I used my SSD for Windows and everything went fine. I didn't really notice anything was wrong until I left a removable device in my USB port and since I had a new BIOS I hadn't changed the boot order so my computer was trying to boot from the USB stick. So naturally I changed the order to SSD, then Optical drive and disabled booting from removable devices.

I then powered on my PC and my computer said it couldn't find the boot records or something like that. A little bit more investigation revealed that my Windows OS was in fact on my SSD but a the part needed for initial booting had been placed onto a system reserved partition on my 1TB WD drive. If i changed my boot order to boot from the 1TB drive then the windows start up went smoothly.

1. Does anyone know what I did to cause windows to put a boot partition on a different drive then the windows installation?

2. Does anyone know how to fix this without reinstall? or is a reinstall my only option to fix this stupid issue.

Thanks

Wish I had a fix for you, but for the future, this kind of thing is why I physically disconnect all drives but the OS drive when I install windows these days.

yup its the only way to get it to stop it from doing that and now if ya disconnect that drive the system might not boot its a pain in the ass

Dam, that sucks. I really hate mucking with the hardware internals of my computer so i normally just leave everything alone since I'm afraid of touching parts and breaking stuff.

If i just unplugged the SATA cables from the drives and leave them hanging should i be fine? Or should I completely disconnect the cables from the MOBO.

You can disconnect them from either end, whichever is more convenient... just make sure they aren't hanging down where they might fall into a rotating fan and you'll be fine.

Hmm, alright i guess Ill do that, glad I didn't set up all my development workspaces on my native OS this time. Rather I put them all into VM's which makes it easier to transition between computers.

You should be able to copy the partition (disk copy, not drag and drop) to a new 100mb partition on the SSD. Then confirm the boot path is correct using EasyBCD. You may have to install a MBR with it, but not sure (never had such a problem). Then, obviously, make the first boot device the SSD. You may need to flag the copied partition as active.
Or disconnecting all the drives and running a repair off an installation disc should do it, as it would see windows, but no boot partition, and make one. Might have to do it a couple times.

ya i am pretty sure you can run a repair 7 and have it fix it sometimes it been awhile since i did it give it a shot cant hurt

I think this might help.
Bootmgr is missing - Fix - Windows 7 Forums

Repair got annoying and it didn't wanna do what I wanted so I just unplugged all drives but the SSD and did a Format and then a reinstall and now everything works well. Time to get rediscover my previous overclock voltages!!

Thanks for all the help :clap: