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No BootManager upon restore: ATI 2009 (9796) + Win 7 x64 RTM

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My Rig:

640GB HDD - OS on first partition - OS Partition size 180GB
Win 7 x64 RTM
ATI 2009 Build 9796

I made a full backup of my OS partition of Win 7 x64 RTM. Prior to restoring my ATI image, I first use Acronis Disk Director to delete, zero out, create new, and format the OS partition. Then I proceed to restore my image.

I also deleted the 100MB partition created by Win 7, which I did not create another 100MB partition, since I figured it was only needed for installation.

After the image was restored, I rebooted and received a boot error that there was no boot manager. To fix this problem, I rebooted with my Windows 7 disc and used it's system repair utility to fix my boot manager, which it sucessfully repaired, and my image then booted properly.

My question is, how do I properly make a full backup that re-installs my boot manger so I dont have to use Win7 system repair?

Thanks for any advice.

 

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Raynedown wrote:
I also deleted the 100MB partition created by Win 7, which I did not create another 100MB partition, since I figured it was only needed for installation.

That's the reason. The 100 MB partition contains the files needed to boot Windows 7; bootmgr and the /boot folder. Apparently the repair disk was able to recognize that these files were missing, and was able to restore them. I was not aware that it could do all of this. Either that happened or you did restore the boot partition when restoring the disk.

I'm curious -- when you restored, did you restore only the main Windows 7 partition or did you restore the entire disk? Is the 100 MB boot partition still present on the disk? Check in Windows Disk Management console or use Disk Director to see. I'm wondering if the Win 7 repair CD was able to repair a system that was completely missing its boot partition, or if you restored it.

K0LO wrote:
That's the reason. The 100 MB partition contains the files needed to boot Windows 7; bootmgr and the /boot folder. Apparently the repair disk was able to recognize that these files were missing, and was able to restore them. I was not aware that it could do all of this. Either that happened or you did restore the boot partition when restoring the disk.

I'm curious -- when you restored, did you restore only the main Windows 7 partition or did you restore the entire disk? Is the 100 MB boot partition still present on the disk? Check in Windows Disk Management console or use Disk Director to see. I'm wondering if the Win 7 repair CD was able to repair a system that was completely missing its boot partition, or if you restored it.

Upon restoring my ATI image, for "Choose Restoration Method" I select "Restore whole disks and partitions".

Also, when prompted to "Select items to restore" I select "NTFS (unlabeled) (C:) pri".

I ran disk director again to see if Windows 7 repair utility changed my partition, and the answer is no. The 100mb partition I deleted has not returned. HOWEVER, in my C:\ directory, I noticed there is a "Boot" folder, and a file named "bootmgr". I'm not sure if those were always there, or if the Win 7 repair utility put them there now that the 100MB partition is gone.

I'm assuming now that the Win  7 repair utility moved my bootmanager info into my OS partition, when I make a new image, I probably will not have run Win 7 repair utility and my image should boot. However, I wont know that untill I make new image and restore it.

That's very interesting -- I didn't know that the Windows repair was smart enough to do all of that. Yes, now that you have the boot files located in the main Windows 7 partition you should be able to make another image and it should restore without issue.

By the way, the Windows 7 installer creates the separate boot partition in order to make it easier to use BitLocker. If you ever want to enable BitLocker on your disk you will need to manually re-create the separate 100 MB boot partition. The files needed to boot Windows have to be on an unencrypted partition in order for the boot to succeed. If you never plan to use BitLocker then the way you have your disk currently set up is just fine.

@KOLO, thanks for the info.

Now that I'm aware Win 7 needs the 100MB partition for BitLocker and booting, I may do a full reinstall later, and next time I restore my image I'll just leave the 100MB partition as is.

I'm assuming if I never deleted the 100MB partition, I would have avoided the bootmanager boot error?

One of the reasons I deleted the 100MB partition, is my concern of viruses/trojans attaching themself to the partition. Do you think its possible for a virus to find its way onto the 100MB partition?

One other question. If I happen to use Bitlocker, and the 100MB partition is deleted, will that affect accessing any encrypted files properly, or does the 100MB partition exist just to help speed bitlocker up.

Thanks again for your help.

Yes, if you would have restored both the boot partition and the Windows 7 partition from your original image then the error should not have occurred.

It may be less likely for a virus/trojan to get onto the boot partition since the partition is hidden. It would be easier for one to get onto the main Windows 7 visible partition.

In a standard Windows 7 installation the PC boots from the 100 MB boot partition. Once the file bootmgr has executed (this is the program that presents a menu that allows selection of the operating system to boot, which you will not see if you only have one operating system installed), control is transferred to the program Winload.exe on the main partition. Winload is the program that you may see if you press F8 while booting; it displays the Windows loading options like Safe Mode, Safe Mode with networking, etc.

If using BitLocker and the boot partition is deleted then the PC would fail to boot. I doubt that a Windows repair DVD could fix this since all of the information on the main Windows partition would be encrypted, so the repair program may not be able to install the bootmgr file and /boot folder to the encrypted partition. But maybe it can - I have not experimented with BitLocker  to try this out. Maybe the repair program is even smarter than I think it is.

You're welcome.

BTW, another new feature of Windows 7 is that the installer automatically installs the repair components to your disk, so you can make repairs without the DVD. Sometimes. (It will depend on how badly hosed-up your disk is). To do this, press F8 when the PC just starts to boot Windows to get to the Winload menu; the one that lets you choose whether to boot Windows normally, start in Safe Mode, etc. The first choice in the menu is "Repair your computer". Choosing this will load the same repair environment that is on the Windows 7 DVD.