2 SSDs running 1 Windows

kinger-1873

kinger-1873

kinger-1873

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3 Feb 2012
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So I bought this computer which apparently had 2 SSDs, 1 a 60gb and 1 a 180gb. Decided I was just going to give the 2nd away, on removing and booting my pc back up I got a boot message saying there was no boot drive... After messing around I think what has happened on installing win 7 there has been one partition created over 2 drives. Can anyone help as to how and solve this without a full re-install?

Thanks!
 
Hi, stick your original win disk/usb stick etc in and boot from it, click next after 1st screen(select uk keyboard etc) and then choose to repair, automatic repair, if you are lucky it will fix it and boot into windows (remember and remove disk/usb) if not you will need to try the Command prompt(with administrator rights) to replace the boot manager.
When in command prompt type:

Bootrec /RebuildBcd

and press enter, if the bootrec tool runs successfully you should see an installation path of a Windows directory, to add the entry to the BCD store type Y for yes and a confirmation message indicates the entry was added successfully. If bootrec cant find any windows directory then you must remove the BCD store and then re-create it and that's where google is your friend. Do this at your own risk but it worked for me in similar circumstances. Good luck. :D
 
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Hi, sorry for he late reply. On entering Y it doesn't add successfully comes up with something else about an invalid command line? Tried "Y then enter" "Yes then enter" keep getting the same message? Am I doing something wrong?
 
In the recovery environment, try typing

dir c:\

and see if "<DIR> Windows" is listed. if so then you can run

bcdboot c:\windows

which should fix a couple things. However, this assumes that windows is located in the first partition on the disk, and that the partition is marked as "active" (bootable). if it isn't things get a bit more complex.

you'll need to restart to test if it worked or not.
 
When I did it I typed Y for yes and it was successful so I don't know why its not working for you, slightly different circumstances maybe. :(
 
Okay will give that a go just now, cheers!

Aye it's a weird one having it over 2 drives, It recognizes both in the bios but not on windows.

Was wondering if a system image would work, unplug so its just the 1 drive the restore from the image?
 
Okay. Run diskpart by typing

diskpart

then type:

lis dis
lis vol
exit

and paste the results back here.

lis dis is short for list disk(s). the other is list volume(s). a volume is just a disk partition which has a file system and a drive letter.

if you have volumes c:, d: and e:, you can run dir against all of them

dir c:\
dir d:\
dir e:\

to find where Windows lives.
 
9qehxe.jpg


Sorry for the quality my phones packed in, had to use the web cam!
 
OK I think your Windows install is in drive D:

dir d:\

should find it. After that try

bcdboot d:\windows /s c:

then reboot.
 
Got through all that, said it was successful. Restarted then restarted without the 2nd drive and same thing boot device error? That should have worked.. Really confused with it now..
 
kinger-1873 said:
Got through all that, said it was successful. Restarted then restarted without the 2nd drive and same thing boot device error? That should have worked.. Really confused with it now..
Click to expand...

You need to take the smaller SSD out.

Get back to diskpart.

lis dis
lis vol

Assuming the volumes did not change from the last screenshot, you can then type

sel vol c:
active
det par
exit

take some screenshots so I can see the output of that *with the smaller drive removed* :p
 
OK so the 100mb partition containing the boot files was on the smaller SSD, which explains why it wouldn't boot without it. That's not a problem tho.

Your Windows install is now on drive C: according to diskpart (the 167gig partition).

You've made it active so the BIOS will look for boot code on that partition, if it exists.

now you need to run

bcdboot c:\windows

you might also need to run

bootsect /nt60 c:

because I can't remember if bcdboot does that for you :p

then reboot, and I'm confident windows will load :)
 
Sorry to disappoint :p

Still getting the select proper boot device message, both commands seemed to run through completely fine though.

Never thought this would be such a hassle lol

Don't know why that didnt work though?
 
Well that disk should be bootable now. All you need to do is mark the partition as active (done), put the bootloader code in the MBR & partition table (done), build the bcd (done) and copy bootmgr to the partition (done).

When you reboot your PC can you press a key (like DEL, or F10 or F12) to access the boot device menu?

It might be trying to boot from your 2TB disk in preference to your SSD. Since your 2TB disk probably doesn't have any boot code on it that would fail.
 
No only got the 1 hard drive in my priorities.

Even tried booting it with the 2tb and disk drive unplugged to be sure, still the same.

Sorry for being so difficult, it seemed an okay problem to begin with haha
 
Well some things have changed now though..

Now on entering system recovery options it is recognizing my os as win 7, but it is saying location is "D:"?

Have I went wrong entering it or has something changed for my drives?
 
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