BOOTMGR is missing... HELP!

[Lady Legira]

Trying to install Win 7 on to a Dual Core PC but we keep getting BOOTMGR is missing despite everything we have tried.

The Harddrive we are installing to is blank, got formatted to remove all previous data. There is a IDE drive and a SATA drive, the SATA is the one we are installing to, The IDE has my data on from the previous computer. So we launch the BIOS and goes through the checks and the Boot manager is set to launch from the drive but nothing when we press any key. Except...

BOOTMGR is missing, press CTL, ALT and DEL (which does nothing).

Tried running with a disc with BOOTMGR in, Yup, nothing
Tried disconneting the IDE. Yup, nothing
Tried making the disk drive the master, yup, nothing.
Looked at updating the BIOS, current version running.
Tried swapping disc drives, yup, nothing

Tried pretty much everything we could think and some a few others did. (Friends in a chat who are pretty comp lit.)

Getting to the point where we are thinking of putting the SATA in the working desktop and installing win 7 on it and then trying.

Any other suggestions?

Just to be clear, there is no OS on it and we can't run the disc drive. This is supposed to be my new computer. It was working fine less then a week ago since my hubby was using it but he wanted to remove the data from it and while it was in the new PC he formatted the drive.

[Broomjockey]

Can you get it to the install screen with the Win 7 install disk in the drive? Or does it just give you the error no matter if you're trying to use the disk or not (you only said that you made the disk the main drive, not whether you tried with the disk it). It'd also be useful if you detailed some of the things you've already tried, so we don't cover the same ground.

ETA: Just noticed you said you can't run the disk drive. Have you tried disconnecting every drive except the SATA and the disc drive, setting the disc drive to the boot drive (different than master)? If your drive doesn't work then, you've probably got dead parts on the motherboard, if it's not recognizing there's a disc in the drive.

[Pedersen]

Chances are quite good that your system is impermanently messed up.

Based on what you've said, I'll expect that what's going on in the system looks like this:

WinInstaller: Hey, BIOS? What's the first drive in the system?
BIOS: Oh, that's this IDE drive over here.
WinInstaller: Thanks! *goes and installs bootmgr on the IDE*
WinInstaller: Thanks BIOS. Rebooting now.
BIOS: Thanks WinInstaller. *checks config, boots from SATA*
SATA: Starting up... Wait, I can't find bootmgr. *panic, crash*

If you want this to work, your best bet is to remove the IDE drive from the system, and then run the Windows Installer. After that, you can re-attach your IDE drive or (better yet) put the IDE drive in a USB enclosure, and attach it via USB so that you can get your data.

[Lady Legira]

When you put the disc in it lights up as normal and the BIOS sees it in the boot menu but it doesn't run so I think you might be right. *sigh*

EDIT - we tried removing the IDE Pedersen, no joy.

[Pedersen]

EDIT - we tried removing the IDE Pedersen, no joy.

I saw that, but one thing I did not see (and still have not): Did you try removing the IDE, and leaving it out, while running the Win7 Installer?

If you ran the installer, and then removed the IDE drive, well, that wouldn't fix anything at all. The entire cycle would have to be completed: Remove drive, run installer.

Come to think of it, you might also need to do a delete/recreate the partition, and do a format of the partition.

[Lady Legira]

Can't even run the installer since the disc drive won't run.

[Broomjockey]

Right, time to establish terms, since "disc drive" isn't particularly clear.

The place where you put the DVD for Windows 7 is an optical drive.
Then you've got the IDE drive, and the SATA drive. Am I correct in assuming that these are the only 3 things you have connected to the system? If so, what kind of connection is the optical drive? Because it itself can either be IDE or SATA. If it's IDE, make sure that it's in the first place on the ribbon, that it's plugged in to the main IDE port on your board, then make sure it's set to Master on the drive. Then set it to be the primary boot device in the BIOS. Then, with only it and the SATA drive connected, see if it will boot from the DVD.

If it's a SATA drive, try switching up where it connects to the motherboard.

At any point in this process, you should only have your primary hard drive and your optical drive connected.

My main question is, however, why do you have any IDE connectors on there at all? If this is a new computer, you probably had to try to get that, and it's probably the reason why this is being such a pain in the butt.

[Lady Legira]

Right, time to establish terms, since "disc drive" isn't particularly clear.

The place where you put the DVD for Windows 7 is an optical drive.
Then you've got the IDE drive, and the SATA drive. Am I correct in assuming that these are the only 3 things you have connected to the system? If so, what kind of connection is the optical drive? Because it itself can either be IDE or SATA. If it's IDE, make sure that it's in the first place on the ribbon, that it's plugged in to the main IDE port on your board, then make sure it's set to Master on the drive. Then set it to be the primary boot device in the BIOS. Then, with only it and the SATA drive connected, see if it will boot from the DVD.

If it's a SATA drive, try switching up where it connects to the motherboard.

At any point in this process, you should only have your primary hard drive and your optical drive connected.

My main question is, however, why do you have any IDE connectors on there at all? If this is a new computer, you probably had to try to get that, and it's probably the reason why this is being such a pain in the butt.

Given my husband has been doing all this and does know his stuff (somewhat) about computers. I can answer some of what you asked. The computer itself is two years old which is why it has a IDE port though the SATA was the original drive. The IDE comes from mine which is between 5-7 years old and was set as a slave in that computer due the fact the OS was on the C: The SATA is/was set as Master as that was the only one in that comp.

The Optical is IDE as I remember (I'm not near it as this moment) and currently only that and the SATA are connected, The IDE was disconnected last I saw. The primary boot device is currently the optical drive and I believe it was tried in both ports but I couldn't be sure on that. I know it was tried in a port and the BIOS didn't recognise it as being there (which was expected I think).

Husband doesn't get home until 10.30pm(ish) my time (GMT-0) so I guess some of what you suggested will have to wait until then so he can say if did that or not.

Believe me it's just being a pain in the arse. Just needing a different viewpoint on it to see if we missed anything. *sigh*

[Broomjockey]

Believe me it's just being a pain in the arse. Just needing a different viewpoint on it to see if we missed anything. *sigh*

Unfortunately, since you don't seem clear on terminology (you can't set SATA as Master, that's purely IDE terminology), I don't think anyone online can help. There's simply too much confusion. I suggest taking in to a shop, or just allowing him to continue to fiddle with it.

[Eric the Grey]

Sounds to me as though the machine is trying to boot from the SATA drive, and bypassing the optical drive all together. Thus the error message (there is no boot manager on the SATA drive for an operating system to boot from).

Double check the BIOS and make certain the optical drive is set as the first boot drive. Make certain you are available to press the space bar once you see the message about booting from the DVD.



Eric the Grey

[Lady Legira]

Motherboard is going and we are getting a new one after Christmas. Thanks for trying guys.

In the meantime back to the 15 minute boot up.