Can't boot Windows 7 without DVD in drive
Is there a hotfix for this? It's related to this thread: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/64f729b6-d796-4030-82d9-3fe5a44b0180
If you go to www.google.com and search using the phrase "Windows 7 won't boot without dvd" you'll see that others have this problem too.
I have 2 Raptor hard drives in a RAID-0 array.
I have a third internal 1.5 terabyte hard drive.
The 1.5 terabyte (C:\) HD is for my Win7 OS & my programs.
The RAID-0 array (D:\) is for my games. (RAID-0 is for fast loading performance)
I think it recognized one of the RAID-0 drives as the "first hard drive attached to my motherboard" and somehow Windows 7 put the boot loader info on that hard drive, instead of my 1.5 terabyte C: drive with Windows 7. As a result, Windows 7 won't boot unless I have the DVD in the drive.
I tried the option to boot from the DVD, repair my computer, and from the command prompt do a "bootrec /rebuildbcd" but that failed. So the only fix I see is to PHYSICALLY disconnect the 2 RAID-0 drives, and then do a full install of Windows 7 again. What a royal pain-in-the-____. My motherboard is an ASUS P6T. Any hotfix in the works???
Answers
- I finally fixed it. When it first failed, all the research I found said to do the following (which didn't work):
1) Boot from the Windows 7 DVD
2) Click "Next"
3) Click the "Repair your computer" link
4) Choose the "Command Prompt" option in the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS menu
5) Type: "Bootrec /rebuildbcd" (without the quotes) and press ENTER
That supposedly should have fixed the problem, but it never did. After doing this, I always got the following error message
(which seems like a success message) . . .
---------------------------------------------------
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 0
The operation completed successfully.
---------------------------------------------------
Now, it might have said, "the operation completed successfully", but it CLEARLY did NOT work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Identified Windows installations should be 1, not 0.
Then, I found an obscure message that had the answer. It was on a message board, written in TINY little text. Here's what I found:
If the Bootrec.exe tool cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order in which they are presented. Press ENTER after each command.
Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
So I rebooted and did the following steps. This is the exact ENTIRE process I did, in case anyone else needs to follow these steps . . .
1) Boot from the Windows 7 DVD (Yes, patience is a virtue!)
2) Click "Next"
3) Click the "Repair your computer" link
4) Choose the "Command Prompt" option in the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS menu
5) Type the following commands, exactly as written below, in the order in which they are presented, and press ENTER after each command:
Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
Then close the command prompt box and re-boot your computer. Make sure the boot order in your BIOS has the correct drive as your first boot device. That sounds obvious, but computers give various devices very obscure names, and it's easy to choose the wrong number(device).
Hopefully this process works for others, like it worked for me. I no longer need the Windows 7 DVD in the drive to boot into Windows. Wow, that only took me a full 8 hours of trial and error and research to figure out and fix. Microsoft is making such amazing advancements in technology!!! </sarcasm off>
Thanks for the offer of help derosnec. It's much appreciated!- Marked As Answer byheyvern69 Wednesday, November 04, 2009 5:23 AM
All Replies
I tried changing the boot order, and it didn't work. It has to have the IDE DVD drive as the 1st boot device, with the 1.5 terabyte SATA HD as the second boot device, or it won't boot at all. And then it won't boot unless the DVD is in the drive.
This afternoon, I physically disconnected the 2 raid drives, did a clean re-install with only the ONE hard drive (1.5TB), and it still won't start without the DVD in the drive.
Insanely FRUSTRATING. I should have waited before installing 64-bit Windows 7, but I kept reading all these wonderful articles about how stable and well behaved it is. So much for that. It's getting close to the point where I need to re-install vista 64, an OS that actually worked fine on this computer.- I finally fixed it. When it first failed, all the research I found said to do the following (which didn't work):
1) Boot from the Windows 7 DVD
2) Click "Next"
3) Click the "Repair your computer" link
4) Choose the "Command Prompt" option in the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS menu
5) Type: "Bootrec /rebuildbcd" (without the quotes) and press ENTER
That supposedly should have fixed the problem, but it never did. After doing this, I always got the following error message
(which seems like a success message) . . .
---------------------------------------------------
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 0
The operation completed successfully.
---------------------------------------------------
Now, it might have said, "the operation completed successfully", but it CLEARLY did NOT work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Identified Windows installations should be 1, not 0.
Then, I found an obscure message that had the answer. It was on a message board, written in TINY little text. Here's what I found:
If the Bootrec.exe tool cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order in which they are presented. Press ENTER after each command.
Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
So I rebooted and did the following steps. This is the exact ENTIRE process I did, in case anyone else needs to follow these steps . . .
1) Boot from the Windows 7 DVD (Yes, patience is a virtue!)
2) Click "Next"
3) Click the "Repair your computer" link
4) Choose the "Command Prompt" option in the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS menu
5) Type the following commands, exactly as written below, in the order in which they are presented, and press ENTER after each command:
Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
Then close the command prompt box and re-boot your computer. Make sure the boot order in your BIOS has the correct drive as your first boot device. That sounds obvious, but computers give various devices very obscure names, and it's easy to choose the wrong number(device).
Hopefully this process works for others, like it worked for me. I no longer need the Windows 7 DVD in the drive to boot into Windows. Wow, that only took me a full 8 hours of trial and error and research to figure out and fix. Microsoft is making such amazing advancements in technology!!! </sarcasm off>
Thanks for the offer of help derosnec. It's much appreciated!- Marked As Answer byheyvern69 Wednesday, November 04, 2009 5:23 AM
- Hi
I have apparently the same problem that you reported, but your fix did not work. Have a look at this post
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64740 Doh! I forgot to mention that I disconnected ALL the hard drives except the C: drive, and then did that process.
-heyvern69- MUCH easier resolution for this. No need to reinstall anything or disconnect any drives. Just put the boot files where they need to be. Follow the simple instructions here and ensure correct syntax. http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34976-cannot-boot-windows-7-professional-without-dvd.html
Hi
I tried that fix above from sevenforum (not a member there so I can not post there)
I have my additional drives as e and g and get this
***************************************
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.C:\Windows\system32>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: CV-PCDISKPART> sel vol e
Volume 3 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> inact
DiskPart marked the current partition as inactive.
DISKPART> exi
Leaving DiskPart...
C:\Windows\system32>bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
Boot files successfully created.C:\Windows\system32>g:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 ALL /force /mbr
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.C: (\\?\Volume{2221363d-caf5-11de-9a31-806e6f6e6963})
Updated NTFS filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the
volume could not be dismounted during the update:
Access is denied.D: (\\?\Volume{2221363c-caf5-11de-9a31-806e6f6e6963})
Forced dismount complete, open handles to this volume are now invalid.
Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode.
E: (\\?\Volume{2221363b-caf5-11de-9a31-806e6f6e6963})
Forced dismount complete, open handles to this volume are now invalid.
Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode.
\??\PhysicalDrive0
Successfully updated disk bootcode.
\??\PhysicalDrive1
Successfully updated disk bootcode.
Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
C:\Windows\system32>
*********************************************'
uppon which the PC will not even boot with the DVD in the drive anymore.
Booting into the DVD and selecting fix computer no installation are found intially, but going into recovery tools "fixes" it back to the original state :-( Better than nothing, but still- Hmnn??
OK, I got a "working" solution.
Upon that recovery session above drive E is always set as active again. It resides on Disk1 while the C drive resides on Disk2.
So, I have had Disk2 set as the first HDD boot drive in Bios after the DVD since it contains the Windows installation. However, setting the "offending" Disk1 containing the active E drive, which contains no Windows installations, as the bootdrive the PC now boots without the installation disk in the DVD drive! I am sure that I tried this as a solution also before doing all the fixing, but at that time it did not boot. - Hmmm. Not sure why you had a problem. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. I wasn't a member there either, but I became one to simply post a "thank you" (somewhat out of character for me -- I should do it more. Not say thank you, but sign up to a site just to post to do so.) Anyway, if no one here has a better solution I would sign up there to see if the individual who posted that fix has any thoughts on what might be the issue.
One person posted that it didn't work for them, he replied puzzled that it absolutly should have... then they posted that they corrected a syntax error and it worked.
I ran the commands as outlined and 1-2-3 my problem was solved.
Hope you find your answer. Windows 7 is outstanding once you get past that initial hurdle some of us faced/are facing. - After trying all the fixes I was able to find via search engines and still not able to boot Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit with out the DVD in the drive I did this:
1. Remove Win7 DVD from drive
2. Boot with a Win98 boot floppy
3. Run fdisk and change the active partition to partition 2
4. Remove Win98 boot floppy and reboot, this gives the "Can't find BOOTMGR" error message
5. Reboot with Win98 boot floppy again
6. Run fdisk and change active partition back to partition 1
7. Remove Win98 boot floppy and reboot
Doing the above steps fixed the problem and the computer now boots from the hard drive as it should.
