Can't boot from Windows7 on 2nd drive unless 1st drive is in - help

BazBell · 25 Feb 2010 at 17:03

I installed Windows 7 on a brand new SECOND hard drive but if I remove the first drive (with Windows 7 trial) and try to boot from just the new one it won't boot unless the original drive is in place giving me the option of two operating systems. Is there a way I can remove the original drive and make it boot from the new drive or am I going to have to re-install Windows again?

In case you're wondering it's because I've just bought an Antec Easy Sata Caddy and I HAVE to have the old drive in the caddy for the system to boot which sort of defeats the object

BazBell · 6 Mar 2010 at 15:14

Hi all and thanks for the help. I just got around to trying the suggestions but it just won't work.

If I try booting with just the new drive it still won't boot and asks for the boot drive. I tried repairing it from the Windows 7 installation disc and I tried the command prompt method from the installation disc as suggested by manic_man (the ehow link) but neither work. Using the command prompt method looked like the MBR was written to the c drive but it still didn't boot. I can only conclude the repair function will only work if there was once an MBR on the hard drive. I guess I'm just going to have to re-install Windows 7 from scratch

BazBell · 6 Mar 2010 at 16:43

Hi tripitaka

Sorry to say Mbrfix failed

I copied the file mbrfix64.exe to the c:\windows\system32 folder, launched command prompt by right clicking and selecting run as administrator then entered the commands:-

mbrfix64 /drive 0 driveinfo (just to make sure I had the right drive) then
mbrfix64 /drive 0 fixmbr /win7 /yes and I still get the same error message below when trying to boot from the new drive

Error message:- Reboot and select proper boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

HDTune still says the drive isn't bootable!

BazBell · 7 Mar 2010 at 15:10

Hi tripitaka

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, the disk wasn't "active". I made it active in Disk Management and restarted from from the new HDD but then got the error "Bootmgr is missing" so I restarted from the Windows DVD and did a repair but there was still a problem. A second restart from the Windows DVD and a second repair and all now appears to be as it should. Hopefully it's saved me about a week of re-installing software