Issue: Neo decided to swap his harddrives so the 80gig was the primary and the bigger drive (partitioned in two for the old XP setup) was the slave. Upon doing so the d:\boot folder was "lost" so to say. The problem, as basic as can be is the follow -- Moving the harddrives around caused the system to lose the "Boot" folder that was on D:\ (the old XP system partition).

Solution:

There were many suggestions however for me my error was more akin to accidently deleting or formatting your system partition. As that is the case, using the tools like "bootrec" or "bootsect" weren't that useful. I kept getting "Element not found" and other nonsense errors, because literally, there was no boot config for these tools to actually write to, lol.

So I happened on the solution remembering something from ages ago in relation to Win98 -- To begin to fix this problem I had to set the new c: drive as "Active" (or "System"). To do this I had to use the "diskpart" command. To be brief -- boot Windows 7 DVD, choose "repair computer" when offered the choice, then click through (for me my W7 install didn't even appear in that list there!) and then click "Command Console".

When you get to the command prompt type in: diskpart

Then type: select disk 0 where 0 = your desired active/system disk
Then type: select partition 1 (for my disk, it only had one partition)
Then type: active

This should set that partition as "Active" and it will be where the system look for the boot info.

After this, however, you should run the following command: bootrec /rebuildbcd (this command scans your HD for window installs -- 7 for me -- and then asks if you want to add it to the boot list)

When prompted, type "Y" and push enter.

After this you may need to reboot (We're not finished) at this point you will get the dreaded "BOOTMGR IS MISSING" message. However if you use the Vista/W7 boot dvd and go back to "repair" (when prompted to restart or not, DONT, select your OS from the list and click "next") When you get to the list of tools select the "Startup Repair" (or whatever it's called).

All this to run. For me it fixed the issue (bootmgr missing, restored). In this manner I was able to to then reboot, remove the install DVD and here I am.

Windows 7 did need a small reboot to finish dealing with the "swapped" harddrives, but it wasn't anything severe.

I'm sorry for the lack of details or any errors (I can't remember the specific name of some of the tools) but I'm tired and wanted to post this asap before I forgot the exact sequence of events I took. I was googling like a mad man and let me tell you, google + computer error + iphone's tiny keyboard = LOL INSANITY HAHA.

Anyway just hoping this will help out anyone else having a similar error. I intend to post something more complete on Kupatrix... It's really amazing how simple the solution is here and I didn't even require outside programs or anything.