Windows 7 - Can't Install, Bootmgr not found

[niero]

I've been working on this on and off for at least a month. I have a quad core, (2nd generation chipset, I believe), 8 GB RAM, with two internal hdd's, and 3 external USB hdd's. I have OpenSUSE Linux 12.1 on one drive, but I can't re-install Windows 7 or Vista on the other internal hdd.
Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

I have unplugged and reseated both drives (which is when the problem initially started). After unplugging the hdd it no longer accepted Windows.
I've tried with another hdd, same thing. Brand new 500GB hdd is now in there, and I have the same problem.

Summary of steps taken:
- used a 320GB hdd, 2 yrs old
- used a brand new 500 GB hdd, same issue. Am currently using new 500 GB hd. Can't remember brand names.
- boot from Win7 disk
- tried to install, got error to the effect of not being able to find or create a system partition
- delete partition, same error
- I format the drive, same error
- Tried EasyBCD with no luck as it has to be run inside Windows
- used Windows rescue disk from Neosmark, found here:
http://systemdiscs.com/?utm_source=neosmart&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=Win7_Recovery
- tried all instructions for that disk, no luck, no changes
- tried unplugging the other internal hdd, leaving only the Windows hdd plugged in. Same issue

I'm running out of ideas. ANY help or tips, or even suggested reading would be helpful.
Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

 

[Albatross]

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/bootmgr-is-missing.htm

 

[niero]

Thanks, Albatross.
I had found that page and done everything except updating the BIOS. Is there a way to do that even if I can't get into an OS?
I have a Gigabyte P965 (if memory serves).

 

[Albatross]

Thanks, Albatross.
I had found that page and done everything except updating the BIOS. Is there a way to do that even if I can't get into an OS?
I have a Gigabyte P965 (if memory serves).

Just download the latest BIOS on a USB stick and boot from it, it should find it by itself(i think)

 

[Bubbaleone]

....I have OpenSUSE Linux 12.1 on one drive, but I can't re-install Windows 7 or Vista on the other internal hdd.
Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit........I'm running out of ideas. ANY help or tips, or even suggested reading would be helpful.
Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

How does "How To Fix BOOTMGR is Missing Errors" have anything to do with not being able to get Windows 7 installed? Or did you just state your problem wrong? Which is it; that you cannot install Windows 7, or you already have installed Windows 7 and now get the "bootmanager is missing" error"?

If you can't get Windows 7 installed then download and burn a copy of MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.1

Boot the CD and select the HDD you want to install 7 on. Delete any previous installation partition. Create a new partition of your desired size, but don't format it or assign a drive letter. DO make sure the partition is marked as "Active". Try the Windows 7 installation again.

 

[niero]

How does "How To Fix BOOTMGR is Missing Errors" have anything to do with not being able to get Windows 7 installed? Or did you just state your problem wrong? Which is it; that you cannot install Windows 7, or you already have installed Windows 7 and now get the "bootmanager is missing" error"?

If you can't get Windows 7 installed then download and burn a copy of MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.1

Boot the CD and select the HDD you want to install 7 on. Delete any previous installation partition. Create a new partition of your desired size, but don't format it or assign a drive letter. DO make sure the partition is marked as "Active". Try the Windows 7 installation again.

Thanks for the link. I will give that a try.

It is both, actually. I can't install Windows 7, and I also have a bootmanager error if it tries to boot the hdd. (Obviously it will have an error since there's no OS.)
However, even when Windows 7 was installed, it gave me this error a few times recently. IIRC, there have been several different boot manager errors.
The latest is "Boot mgr is missing press ctrl +alt+del to restart"

 

[Bubbaleone]

If you had Windows 7 installed on that HDD previously, and you don't have important data on it you're trying to save, then the easiest route is a fresh install if trying to fix the boot manager isn't getting you anywhere.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I would wipe the HD with DBAN first, then try re-installing with that being the only HD in the system.

 

[niero]

If you had Windows 7 installed on that HDD previously, and you don't have important data on it you're trying to save, then the easiest route is a fresh install if trying to fix the boot manager isn't getting you anywhere.

I agree. However, that hasn't worked. Initially, I had Win7 installed, started getting bootmanager errors (can't remember which one). Tried a fresh install, but have not been able to do so, due to the error first mentioned in the first post. For some reason it won't install.

 

[niero]

I would wipe the HD with DBAN first, then try re-installing with that being the only HD in the system.

Would that be much different than formatting? I have formatted many times using the Windows 7 install disk, as well as Gparted. No luck.
This weekend I ran Gparted again, formatted, created an NTFS partition, made sure it was flagged as "boot."
Still received the same error.

This is the only hard drive in the computer. The other one is unplugged.

I also booted from the CD that came with the motherboard. It looked like it did a system recovery, but it ran very quickly, as in it only took a few seconds. So I'm not sure that it actually ran properly.

1. Could this have something to do with the mobo?
2. Is there a way to reset the mobo, or reinstall the mobo software, if I can't get into an OS?

Thanks for all your help so far, everyone. Much appreciated.

 

[niero]

Oh, and I haven't had a chance to run MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.1 yet.
Will that do anything different than Gparted?

 

[Joseph Luppens]

"I have unplugged and reseated both drives (which is when the problem initially started)." This has happened to me before, but what I did wrong back then was change the SATA connector on the motherboard to which the boot drive was connected to. My solution was to isolate the boot drive (no other drives plugged in to the mobo), boot off the Windows 7 disk and do a startup repair. This fixed the BOOTMGR error. So let's try this: isolate the drive you wish to install Win7 onto, but change the SATA connector you plug it into. And if that doesn't work, second step is to change the SATA cable and retry.

 

[niero]

Hi Joseph,
Thanks for your reply.

Okay, so I actually started something like that.
I have the main drive - Windows hd (Win7)
And the secondary drive - Linux hd (Opensuse 12.1)

The Linux drive was unplugged. I unplugged the Win hd, and was going to put the cables from the Linux hd into the Win hd, but they don't fit. There is some weird connector for the secondary, Linux drive. Maybe because it's power efficient or something.

So I plugged the cables back into the Linux drive, booted Win7 install disk, deleted all Linux partitions, formatted, tried to install Windows. No joy. Same error. Can't quite remember, but it was a yellow warning triangle with two lines of text saying Windows cannot be installed on this drive.
(If needsbe I will take pics with a digital camera. Let me know if you need them.)

So I booted the Windows install disk to the cmd prompt, and ran DISKPART, and did Clean All. I read this will completely wipe everything, any partitions, any boot sectors, etc. I will try to reinstall tonight.

If we get no joy, I will use a different SATA cable (there are three plugged into my mobo). I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks!

 

[niero]

Last night after the "clean all" had completely wiped the hdd, I tried to install but received a couple errors. First it gave a "failed to format . . . error 0x80042417" error. According to this page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd208031(v=PROT.10).aspx
that means the drive has not been initialized.
So is there a way to initialize a drive even though there is no OS installed?

After this error, I formatted the drive through the Windows install disk. When I tried to install after formatting, it gave a weird error saying it "needs at least 8836 MB free space" to install. I had 465.8 GB free.
Has anyone heard of that error?

I then checked all the cords on the hdd's and mobo, making sure everything was seated tight. I tried doing the install several more times, each time using a different SATA cable (each one was plugged into a different place on the mobo).

Any ideas? So far internet searches haven't yielded much.

Thank you for any attention you're able to give to this.

 

[niero]

I got it working.
Last night I removed the CMOS battery for several minutes. Reseated the graphics card.

Windows 7 installed. Hopefully it lasts ; )

One question, though. Why did this work? If I understand correctly, removing the CMOS battery resets the BIOS. But why would resetting it fix the ability to install Windows?

Thanks again for everyone who posted to this thread. Your help has been greatly appreciated.

 

[ViRGE]

One question, though. Why did this work? If I understand correctly, removing the CMOS battery resets the BIOS. But why would resetting it fix the ability to install Windows?

The only thing I can think of is that you somehow had an odd BIOS setting that didn't play well with Win7. Though I have no idea what that setting could be.

 

[niero]

I just wanted to say I got this fixed. Sorry for not updating much sooner.
I removed the CMOS battery, put it back in, and it solved the issue.

Thank you, everyone!

 

[SimMike2]

I know you solved your problem, but it can't be said enough times, if you want to install an OS on your computer and have another OS installed on a second drive, disconnect the other drive during the install, in fact, disconnect all other drives. When it is all installed, reconnect the drive and toggle through your boot options during the boot process by, in my case, hitting F12. I didn't do this one time and Windows installed something on a secondary data drive that had huge video files, and when I used the Windows imaging tool it would not work without trying to image the huge data drive also.

Don't even mess with boot loaders. The BIOS method is so much safer and really just as fast.

 

[niero]

Thanks, SimMike2.
Yeah, it was definitely a learning experience. I appreciate the comments.

 

[dawks]

The only thing I can think of is that you somehow had an odd BIOS setting that didn't play well with Win7. Though I have no idea what that setting could be.

Yea it could have been many things. Slight over-clocking, AHCI vs ATA mode, Plug-N-Play disabled, improperly seated video cards

Computers are picky machines, if things aren't exactly the way they expect, there can be problems. I'm surprised at how well systems work these days. Remember managing IRQ's back in the day?

I was also going to suggest the install disc. A small scratch can cause strange install errors. I think I saw an issue once where a guy was able to install Windows, but it would never boot. Reinstalled with a different Windows source CD and it worked fine.