Error message "BOOTMGR is missing" when booting directly into drive

[HamdanAlRasam]

Hi,

I just put together a brand new haswell gaming rig and installed windows 7.
Long story short, I copied the contents of my windows 7 installation disc into an internal SATA drive (1600BEVT-22ZCT0) and installed windows onto another internal SATA drive (ST3160215AS).
My problem is that in order to access the windows installation in ST3160215AS I have to boot into 1600BEVT-22ZCT0 and then select Windows 7.
If I boot directly into ST3160215AS then I get the error message "BOOTMGR is missing".
How can I fix this and boot directly into the drive windows is installed in (ST3160215AS)?

I've tried the commands bootrec /rebuildbcd, bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot but they keep using the MBR stored in 1600BEVT-22ZCT0 without ever creating an MBR on the ST3160215AS drive.
I don't have an optical drive on the rig and the only way I can transfer information to and from the rig is by removing the 1600BEVT-22ZCT0 internal drive and connecting it to my laptop.

Sorry for the long post.
Thanks in advance for helping

 

[endeavour37a]

I can't really help you with this problem but to make life easier getting info from your laptop to your new build a cheap 16GB USB flash drive would be much easier than removing your HDD then reinstalling it.

Perhaps create an image of your win7 install disk on the USB flash drive and try to install it from there to your HDD in your system..

 

[Truckinupga]

BOOTMGR Is a small partition on your hard drive (C) around 350 MB that is simply labelled as "System Reserved" When you transferred your files onto the new drive It must have not have transferred this partition. This partition is created when you install Windows and your system will not boot without it.

 

[HamdanAlRasam]

I got a reply on another forum that this a problem with my mobo being that is a new UEFI model
I thought the installation process was identical but apparently it's radically different
Do you guys have any idea how I can create a UEFI Windows 7 Installation internal/external hard disk drive ?

 

[Truckinupga]

I installed Windows 8 on my wife's new computer we built and it didn't need a special version for UEFI. I am sure Windows 7 is no different. When you install onto the computers hard drive It will also install the appropriate drivers you need along with the BOOTMGR.

 

[HamdanAlRasam]

I installed Windows 8 on my wife's new computer we built and it didn't need a special version for UEFI. I am sure Windows 7 is no different. When you install onto the computers hard drive It will also install the appropriate drivers you need along with the BOOTMGR.

That's the thing I tried installing windows 7 severall times and it just will not install the MBR in the drive I have to boot to the other drive in order to log into the windows installation

 

[Truckinupga]

Have you reformatted the drive you want to install on? It may help. Or maybe unplug drive 2's SATA cable or power connection until install has successfully completed.

 

[HamdanAlRasam]

Everything's good now, I don't know why the MBR wasn't installing in the same drive as the windows installation.
Maybe it was because of the fact that my mobo is a UEFI model; I really don't know.
I tried reformatting the drive multiple times and the windows setup was on the second drive so I couldn't do that.
I even considered setting up a UEFI Windows 7 Installation USB but I don't really have any USBs
At the end I just created a new MBR using EasyBCD and now I can boot directly into my primary drive

All credit goes to Mark at this thread right here:
[SOLVED] Error message "BOOTMGR is missing" ONLY when booting directly into drive
Thanks for the help Truckinupga

 

[Truckinupga]

Your welcome HamdanAlRasam, I'm glad everything worked out for you.