lansbury

Building a new computer. Decided to clone the disk in the old one and see if I could get the new one to boot from it. Save having the reinstall everything and hunting for the disks and serial numbers.

Bad idea. Cloned the disk and now I've got the "missing boot manager error" not only on the cloned disk, but on the original as well. Now I can't find my Windows 7 disk to run the repair utility.

fatbrit

You can download the ISOs perfectly legally from digitalriver. A burned ISO will allow you to boot to a recovery console.

Google search term: digitalriver windows 7 iso

lansbury

Thanks, problem I don't have a bootable computer, just my iPad, so can't download. Doing a bit of googling, while I have the Pro version on the computer seems I might be able to use the Home Premium version to get at the recovery console. I've have a copy of that version to hand, so will try in the morning.

fatbrit

Always have a rescue boot thumb drive or optical media ready before you start tinkering. Hiren's is quite useful if you're fiddling with 'doze.

TimFountain

Let me know if you want me to burn you a disk. I'm down the road in Tigard...

- Tim

lansbury

Thanks Tim, appreciate the offer.

lansbury

Well I'm back online and not without some hassle. Decided to build the new computer and get it running rather than mess repairing the old one. So finished last night and fired it up, it ran for a second and stopped.

Bugger decided it was too late to mess with so had a few single malts, and unfortunately that didn't bring on any flash of inspiration. So this morning went back to square one, checked everything and still couldn't resolve it. Built and repaired enough computers to have a fair idea of trouble shooting problems, but this one eludes me.

Thank you Amazon for your great customer service. I decided either the motherboard or processor were faulty, but couldn't decide which. So Amazon are replacing both, two day air, and free return shipping within 30 days for the "faulty" parts. No extra charge unless I don't return the parts within the 30 days. Beats trying to get our local Frys to accept returns.

So plan B the old computer is now back up and running. Appreciate all the offers of help, and will be following fatbrits advice to have a bootable flash drive.