unable to boot a fresh install without the USB installer in

[iobilly]

I have a samsung NP530, it has a 16GB caching drive, which unfortunately I could not remove. anyway, I installed windows 7 onto the newly installed SSD, but if I remove the USB installer (which I had used Rufus to make), it will refuse to boot, saying BOOTMGR cannot be found. Only when the USB key is in it will boot. I tried to format the 16GB caching drive as drive R and the SSD as drive C, but sitll the same. Even worse when I run startup repair it will say windows is in drive D... 

 

Help, im so confused regarding this already...

 

Thanks

[Tripredacus]

It sounds like your install put the BCD onto the USB key. I'm not sure if using an answer file would be enough to stop it from happening. Do you have a USB DVD drive you could install from instead?

 

Also, are you still going to want to use the SSD for caching? I bet your SATA mode is set to RAID in the BIOS (might be related)

[iobilly]

yes the bcd was installed in the usb key. 

 

no I wont need the caching anymore. but its a PIA to remove the Half mini pci card.. I was hoping there was a way around it.. 

 

there is no option in the BIOS for that unfortunately..

[Ponch]

There are a few posts like this one (XP unfortunately), I don't know if this can lead you to a solution.

I don't know Rufus. There must be a way to install without that problem (I mean it might be faster to reinstall from scratch than to search for a solution).

[jaclaz]

There are seemingly TWO different issues here.

#1 is the place where the BOOTMGR and \boot\BCD reside.

#2 is drive letter assigned to the system volume.

 

#1 is easy to fix.

Boot the Windows 7 with the USB stick connected.

Check if you have a file BOOTMGR in root of the internal disk volume (you may need ot set the Explorer to show hidden and system files)

Copy the file BOOTMGR from the root of the USB stick volume to the root of the internal disk volume.

 

Check if you have in root of the internal disk volume a folder \boot\ and in it a file \BCD

If not:

Create the \boot\ folder on that volume.

Open Registry editor and check if you have a BCD000001 hive mounted.

Select it and export it (as hive, NOT as .reg) to <driveletter of the volume on internal disk>:\boot\BCD. 

Open disk management (or use diskpart) and make sure that the volume on internal disk is Active.

 

Try rebooting without the USB connected.

 

What happens?

 

Then we may talk on how to fix (if possible) the issue #2.

 

jaclaz

[cdob]

Only when the USB key is in it will boot. I tried to format the 16GB caching drive as drive R and the SSD as drive C, but sitll the same

 

copy boot files to c: or r:

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/gg577238.aspx

 

 

Either

bcdboot c:\windows /s r:

Or

bcdboot c:\windows /s c: