mSata installation, partitions, BOOTMGR missing

Hi all,

finally I received my Intel 310 80 Gb mSata SSD for my W520 Win 7 64.
I followed this very helpful FAQ and other threads on this forum but I got problems.
Since the SSD took a lot of time to arrive, I configured my W520 loading all my software on HDD, keeping the occupied space around 65Gb.
I know a clean installation is better, but I needed to work with PC.
I made a system copy with Rescue&Recovery and also with Acronis True Image 2010, I installed SSD and tried to restore the system on it.
The first attempt with Rescue&Recovery was unsuccesfull, it said that the destination disk is too small.
Then I tried with Acronis True Image (I read all the help, but I don't know it very well, I used it a couple of time for system recovery) and I was able to copy the C: partition on SSD.
I extracted original HDD, restarted W520 but I got the message 'BOOTMGR is missing. Press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart.".
It seems that the boot sector on SSD is missing.
I searched and found a lot of repair procedures, but it seems that I need Windows 7 DVDs to repair the installation.
I have reinstalled original HDD and put it above SSD on boot sequence in BIOS configuration to restart the system.

Referring to the attached images of current partitions situation, this is what I got:
Disk 1 is original HHD.
Disk 2 is SSD.
Disk 3 is an external USB drive used to save Recovery&Rescue and Acronis True Image backups.
I can access to the SSD files and the system works, but I cannot boot from SSD.

I have some question for the experts:

1) Acronis True Image found on HDD and copied on SSD a hidden partition, called SYSTEM_DRV (about 1 Gb).
Now it shows as an accessible partition on both HDD and SSD: it wasn't visible before I messed up the system, what is it?
2) Why Rescue&Recovery said that the SSD is too small? Maybe it copied also the 16 Gb Lenovo recovery partition?
3) Is possible to repair the installation preparing a system repair DVD with Windows 'Backup and restore' found in control panel?
4) Any other suggestion to solve the situation?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Have you tried doing a factory restore unto the SSD then ovewriting Windows7_OS with your Acronis backup?

Also didn't know that Acronis could restore a smaller partition. With other software like Clonezilla you needed to resize the source partition before taking its image.

 

Ok, an update.
I create a repair DVD with Windows Backup.
I booted the system from DVD with both HDD and SSD inside the PC.
Windows detected the missing boot sector problem on SSD, tried to solve automatically the problem, but wasn't able to do so.
I tried other two times without better luck.
So I extracted HDD leaving only the SSD and rebooting from repair DVD.
It worked only at the third attempt, don't ask me why..
Now I can finally boot from SSD and it really seems I solved the problem, even if I don't know how

By the while, it's fast!
I can boot in about 30 seconds, shut down in 15 secs, load Solidworks 2011 in 8, Firefox 4 in a couple of seconds: the gain above the Seagate 7200 rpm supplied by Lenovo is sensible.
Coming from a 2006 Thinkpad Z61m with 6 minutes boot, 1:30 minutes shut down and 1:40 mins to launch Solidworks, this W520+SSD is a beast.

Now Windows doesn't show anymore the SYSTEM_DRV partition, while it is still recognized by Acronis True Image as Lenovo_Recovery, as showed in attached screenshots.
I think it is used by Rescue&Recovery: should I leave it on SSD?

Another question come up in mind.
To reuse the HDD as data storage, is it enough to put it inside HDD bay, keep it after SSD in boot sequence in BIOS configuration, start Windows and format it to avoid any boot problem?
To keep the possibility to restore W520 to original state, is possible to keep the bigger Lenovo_Recovery partition (16 Gb) on HDD?
Will Lenovo Rescue&Recovery detect it even if it is not located on boot drive?

Thank you again.

 

ZeroDivide, I posted update before reading your message.
Since I installed tons of software heavily customized, it should be a nightmare to reinstall everything again.
In any case, thank you a lot for your link, because following it I found these instructions to check SSD alignment.
Acronis True Image 2010 lacks support for SSD.
Being not SSD aware, the alignment after disk copy is not assured: luckily, mine is aligned.