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

BazBell

BazBell

BazBell

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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
 
williamw11 said:
no expert but master boot record must be on the first drive
If you remove first disk a repair install may work. Someone else might be able to provide better advice
Click to expand...

This.

The MBR (the bit which tells windows where the OS is) will be stored on Disk0. By taking it out, you have removed the MBR from your system, so it no longer knows where to boot from.

Following this *may* help you: http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html, though I have never tried to build a whole new MBR.

Either way, do the above with the old disk taken out, so you only have the one with your OS connected. Bearing in mind, if you then put the old one back in without formatting, it will revert to booting from your old MBR, this will be because your BIOS is selecting the drive you remove as the default boot device and only once its totally gone does it default to the other new one (which has no MBR!)

Good luck :)
 
Just pop in you're Win7 disk and repair boot up, I had this problem last night and fixed it in about 5 minutes.
 
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
 
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!
 
Last edited:
It may well help if you boot to windows, then create a 100mb partition at the start of your new drive. The MBR for Win7 is not on the C drive, it's on the 100mb partition at the the start of the drive.
 
BazBell said:
H 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!
Click to expand...

It was a while ago when I did this, but I think you might also have to use mbrfix to mark the partition as active.

e.g.
MbrFix64 /drive 0 /partition 1 setactivepartition
 
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 :D
 
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