Is there a hotfix for this? It's related to this thread: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/64f729b6-d796-4030-82d9-3fe5a44b0180If 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 somehowWindows 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???

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 SATAHD 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 ONEhard 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 DVD2) Click "Next"3) Click the "Repair your computer" link4) Choose the "Command Prompt" option in the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS menu5) Type: "Bootrec /rebuildbcd" (without the quotes) and press ENTERThat supposedly should have fixed the problem, but it never did. After doing this, I always got the following error message(whichseems like a success message) . . .---------------------------------------------------Successfully scanned Windows installations.Total identified Windows installations: 0The 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_Backupren c:\boot\bcd bcd.oldBootrec /rebuildbcdSo I rebooted and did the following steps. This is the exact ENTIRE process I did, in caseanyone 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" link4) Choose the "Command Prompt" option in the SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS menu5) 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_Backupren c:\boot\bcd bcd.oldBootrec /rebuildbcdThen close the command promptbox and re-boot your computer. Make sure the boot order in your BIOS has the correct driveas your first boot device. That sounds obvious,but computers give variousdevices 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!

HiI have apparently the same problem that you reported, but your fix did not work. Have a look at this posthttp://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

HiI 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 6.1.7600Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: CV-PC DISKPART> 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 /mbrTarget 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 firstHDDboot 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 theinstallation diskin 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 Idid this:1. Remove Win7 DVD from drive2. Boot with a Win98 boot floppy3. Run fdisk and change the active partition to partition 24. Remove Win98 boot floppy and reboot, this gives the "Can't find BOOTMGR" error message5.Reboot with Win98 boot floppy again6. Run fdisk and change active partition back to partition 17. Remove Win98 boot floppy and rebootDoing the above steps fixed the problem and the computer now boots from the hard drive as it should.

I hope this helps. I was having the problem where I couldn't boot up after installing Microsoft Windows 7 on my "Primary" SATA Drive while having a primary "PATA" aka IDE drive and a secondary "PATA" drive hooked up. I did the following: I booted upi with all three drives being recognized by the BIOS. When I got into Windows 7 setup via bootup "Launch from CD", I hit next to the language screen. When I got to the agreement screen, I agreed. I got to the upgrade or (custom) advanced screen, I chose advanced. I formated every drive except for the drive that had my operating system, this is because I own the upgrade version. I then rebooted into the bios and chose "none" for the status of the IDE/PATA drives that I had attached. I then booted up into the Windows 7 CD once again. I chose do an advance/Custom install. All my drives showed up, even though they didn't show up in my BIOS, but I couldn't use any of them because it said I didn't have them in the BIOS. So, I chose my SATA drive, it made the PRIMARY and the "System Reserved" drive out of that. It installed correctly. I then went back into the BIOS and made the first "BOOT PRIORITY" to the HDD, it worked like a charm. I booted up into windows and hit ctrl+r and typed in "bootmgmt.msc" and hit enter. In there at the top portion it showed my SATA, aka C:, and it showed my CD/DVD rom drive under that. Well, below that there shows the allocation/unallocated drives. I was able to right click on the "unallocated" drives and make them simple drives with the "QUICK" format box checkmarked. According to the BIOS, the only drive I have active is my SATA drive, my "Windows 7 drive". According to "Windows 7" I have all my drives properly allocated and working properly. My boot sequence uses my HDD first, I have no errors during boot. I really hope this helps everyone, it took me years to figure this out.

I hope this helps. I was having the problem where I couldn't boot up after installing Microsoft Windows 7 on my "Primary" SATA Drive while having a primary "PATA" aka IDE drive and a secondary "PATA" drive hooked up. I did the following: I booted upi with all three drives being recognized by the BIOS. When I got into Windows 7 setup via bootup "Launch from CD", I hit next to the language screen. When I got to the agreement screen, I agreed. I got to the upgrade or (custom) advanced screen, I chose advanced. I formated every drive except for the drive that had my operating system, this is because I own the upgrade version. I then rebooted into the bios and chose "none" for the status of the IDE/PATA drives that I had attached. I then booted up into the Windows 7 CD once again. I chose do an advance/Custom install. All my drives showed up, even though they didn't show up in my BIOS, but I couldn't use any of them because it said I didn't have them in the BIOS. So, I chose my SATA drive, it made the PRIMARY and the "System Reserved" drive out of that. It installed correctly. I then went back into the BIOS and made the first "BOOT PRIORITY" to the HDD, it worked like a charm. I booted up into windows and hit ctrl+r and typed in "bootmgmt.msc" and hit enter. In there at the top portion it showed my SATA, aka C:, and it showed my CD/DVD rom drive under that. Well, below that there shows the allocation/unallocated drives. I was able to right click on the "unallocated" drives and make them simple drives with the "QUICK" format box checkmarked. According to the BIOS, the only drive I have active is my SATA drive, my "Windows 7 drive". According to "Windows 7" I have all my drives properly allocated and working properly. My boot sequence uses my HDD first, I have no errors during boot. I really hope this helps everyone, it took me years to figure this out. In the first line I meant to say: I was having the problem where I couldn't boot up after installing Microsoft Windows 7 on my "Primary" SATA Drive while having a primary "PATA" aka IDE drive and a secondary "PATA" drive hooked up without having my Windows 7 disk in the DVD drive.