Windows boots from the wrong drive

[Mosirin]

So someone, during installation of Windows 7, it desided that the bootmrg(or bootmgr) should be on my 2TB WD drive instead of my WD 300GB 10k OS drive. Which means that i cannot boot Windows when the 2TB is not connected or even setting the 300GB as bootdisk.

 

Now i have not noticed this at all for quite some time but i just tried to backup my Windows disk. Since Windows thinks this is a system drive(says so in disk management) and needs to boot from this drive, when i want to backup Windows i can only backup both drives at the same time. Which i can't since there is 1.6TB of data on the disk.

 

Prefferably i would empty out the 2TB drive, format both drives and remove all partitions, disconnect all drives except for the OS Drive and install a clean Windows on the OS Drive. But i don't have enough space available to empty the drive.

 

Now i have found through google that you can use Windows repair but you have to leave both drives connected or it wont see anything to repair. But i find that rather tricky, since i cannot lose that data.

 

Quote from FeX_IronC on My Win7 boots from a different drive the OS in on... wtf?

Not sure if I understand your problem 100%, but if it is caused from the bootloader being on a different drive then your system partition (which happened to me when I installed Windows 7...never really understood why though) the solution below from MS forum helped me. The main point is (!!) that you have to mark your system drive as active, otherwise the repair function will not work properly...hope this helps

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PROBLEM: Windows 7 (vista) Won’t Boot If A Give Hard Drive Is Removed, Even If You Don’t Think It Is The Boot Drive



The problem occurs when one of two things triggers it during Windows Installation:

- A drive previously used as a “System” (boot) drive is connected in the PC

- A drive that is not the target drive for Win7 is installed in a lower SATA port than the target drive



In these situations, Win7 install asks the user where to install Win7 and puts system files there, but does not make that drive the system drive, and instead writes the \boot\bcd boot files to the wrong drive. Thus, a split system is created where a few trivial bootloader files are on one drive, and all the other boot files and system files are on another. A failure, format, re-partitioning, or removal of either of these drives will make the system unbootable.


This is undesirable, and should NOT be the default of the Win7 installer. The default should be to install the BCD on the same partition as the target install partition for Win7, to make that the system partition, and use that for boot. Users with multi-boot needs could choose to deviate from this as an option.

My problem was trigger 1 above. I had an old system drive installed, and my new SSD (flash hard drive) installed when I installed Win7. When asked me where to put Win7, I said on Drive0, which was my new SSD. That worked. I then copied some of my old document files over from the older drive, and removed it. The system would not boot. It could not find a MBR (Master boot Record, or boot.ini), but I guess that file is now called the BCD in Win7. If I plug back in my old hard drive, everything works. So my new, rocket-fast, SSD driven system is beholden to my 6-year old, 40Gig former hard drive in order to boot.


If I ran the Win7 installer disk’s repair tools. In that process, there is a step that asks you which installation of Windows you want to fix – but my box containing choices was always empty, my windows OS was not found, even though it was totally present on disk0, C:?windows! At the next step, I chose “Startup repair”, the tool was not able to fix my BCD…because it could not find it. It is a bad tool, in my opinion, because it was able to correctly diagnose the problem (no BCD) but not able to actually fix it. It would be easy for MSFT to add in a “BCD Not Found…Create one? Tell me where to find Windows.” wizard.


Booting with both disks into Windows 7, a look at the Disk Management utility showed me that both drives were recognized, my SSD was Disk 0 and C drive, old disk was Disk1 and D drive. But D drive was marked as System, NOT C drive, and as you may know, you are not able to change that from within Windows. So that was the source of the whole problem. The Win7 installer made some assumptions – bad assumptions – about which disk to make the system disk.



What I did to fix it:

Since I could boot to Win7, as long as both hard drives were present, I did so.

In Disk Management, I made one change, making the C drive “Active”, and shut down

At this stage, you will want to verify that your preferred boot disk is in the first port, and gets recognized as disk0

I then booted from the Win 7 Installer disk, and chose repair. The first time, before offering options, it caught the fact that the new active partition didn’t have a BCD, and tried to fix that, requesting a reboot.

The second time, it booted, I chose repair, and chose “Startup repair”. Now, it found the Windows installation that had always been there, and created a new set of booting instructions to use Windows – finally writing this essential BCD information on the same drive as Windows files!!

I then removed the boot DVD, disconnected the old hard drive, D, and booted with no problems from only my new SSD. The new SSD is now identified as “System” in Windows Disk Management.


Really, though, my solution boiled down to two key steps: marking my preferred drive as Active, and then using the install disks repair tools.

 

So basicly all that is on the 2TB drive that Windows needs, is the bootmrg(or bootmgr). Can i change that to my OS Drive without having the 2TB connected? If i can't i will reinstall Windows with only the OS Drive connected but i'd rather not since this PC serves as my NAS and server, which is a bitch to set up:)

 

Thanks for any input

 

Case: Thermaltake Kandalf
PSU: Enermax Revolution 87+ 850W
Motherboard: Asus P5E3 WS Pro
CPU: Intel Quadcore Q6600
CPU Cooling: Corsair H70
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4GB 1600Mhz
GPU: Nvidia EN210 Silent
HDD: WD Raptor 10K 320GB

HDD: WD 2TB
HDD: WD 6TB
HDD: WD 6TB
HDD: WD 6Tb
Windows: 7 Ultimate

[terrytek]

Check your BIOS. Check the boot order to see which drive it will boot to first.

[Mosirin]

Check your BIOS. Check the boot order to see which drive it will boot to first.

 

2 options:

 

1: I set my OS drive to boot first, it won't boot since it doesnt have bootmrg

2: I set my 2TB drive to boot first, Windows will boot

 

In other words, i have the 2TB selected to boot first since i need it to boot Windows:)

[terrytek]

2 options:

 

1: I set my OS drive to boot first, it won't boot since it doesnt have bootmrg

2: I set my 2TB drive to boot first, Windows will boot

 

In other words, i have the 2TB selected to boot first since i need it to boot Windows:)

I don't think you have a choice. I guess you have to start clean and try to reinstall Windows onto your 300GB dfrive.

[WinNut]

You should unplug the 2TB, reinstall Windows, then reconnect the 2TB drive.

[Mosirin]

You should unplug the 2TB, reinstall Windows, then reconnect the 2TB drive.

 

Like i said i'd rather keep that as a last resort since it really is a bitch to set it all up again.

[dragoon20005]

try this but at your own risk

 

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/b036c639-0e24-4522-af27-085a23197f9b/how-to-move-windows-boot-loader-to-c-partition

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/11294-moving-boot-manager-different-drive.html

[Gnun1x]

What i always do is just delete everything from the harddisks, If you have something important on this method is not going to work.

just delete everything and start with a clean version of windows, it will work fine

[SSOB]

Use this tool:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml

It isn't ideal but it works.

[cloud269]

If you have the spare time simply remove your other drives and run the install with only the drive you want the os on and all the bootmgr and shit will go to it

[Mosirin]

If you have the spare time simply remove your other drives and run the install with only the drive you want the os on and all the bootmgr and shit will go to it

 

Yeah this is how i normally do it but i guesse i forgot to disconnect the drives when i installed Windows:)

 

When i will though i will try SSOB's idea, at that point im ready to reinstall anyways and might aswell try some things.

 

Use this tool:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml

It isn't ideal but it works.

 

Thanks everyone for you input! Tip of the day, disconnect every single drive before you install Windows:) Most do but here you can see what problems can come if you don't.

[DEDRICK]

Remove your 2TB, put in your Windows Install DVD/USB and boot into Windows setup.  From there do Repair my Computer.  It should go through a series of steps to figure out you dont have bootmgr and repair your installation.

 

I had to do this when my Bootmgr corrupted on my main drive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmAbyGFSatg

[Mosirin]

Remove your 2TB, put in your Windows Install DVD/USB and boot into Windows setup.  From there do Repair my Installation.  It should go through a series of steps to figure out you dont have bootmgr and repair your installation.

 

I had to do this when my Bootmgr corrupted on my main drive

 

I have tried this and it cannot fix it, 1 thing i read on forums is that for some reason Windows needs to be able to find the bootmgr, even if its corrupted, to be able to fix it. So i have tried running it without the 2TB but it couldnt fix it. I didnt try it with my 2TB connected since the chance of losing the data is to big.