BleepingComputer.com: Win7 Installed on two discs

I installed Win 7 and most of it went on my C drive, however the boot sector installed on my E drive. I purposley made a 60 gig partition for the operating system to keep it segregated in case I have to reinstall. Also, I have Windows files all over my other drives that I am afraid to or can't delete. I feel like I'm living in a garbage dump. I put in a new hard drive and tried to restore a disc image to it to try and get everything in one place but it will only restore to the original locations. I really don't want to reinstall everything. Any ideas? I quess next time I unhook all but one drive when doing an install.

Is E your primary drive?

C is the primary. It seems like the boot sector is on E and all the rest of Windows and my programs are on C. It seems to work OK. Just seems odd and I could see potential problems down the road.

Rich

I quess no one has run into this.

Type the following into the Start Menu, and hit Enter:

diskmgmt.msc

Maximize this Disk Management window, then take a screenshot using this tutorial. Upload it to the internet (any file/image hosting site will do, I use Imageshack). Then post it here in your topic.

This makes it easier to see what's going on in the partitions and drives on your system.

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Hope I did this right. The tutorial said to resize to 600 pixels but couldn't read it at that size.

I tried using Recovery and and now I have a folder called Boot on Drive P (Disk 0). I have to set that as my boot drive in the Bios. I was able to delete all the Windows files that were placed on my other hard drives but can't touch the boot file on P or I can't boot. The operating system is on Drive C (Disk 1).

Thanks

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URL did not upload.

Id pull all those drives out and keep the drive in that you want for your main windows drive and reinstall Windows. Then plug all those drives in.

Those tags can be pain. It should look like this: [code][img]web address of picture[/img][/code] where "web address of picture" is something like www.website.com/blah/blah/blah.jpg [img]http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/7671/screenshotve.png

Aww..geez, that is a mess, isn't it? Don't worry, though. It can be fixed.

Do you have a Windows 7 installation disk? If not, DO NOT continue with my further instruction!!

With the computer turned off, remove all but the Disk 2 that has the C: drive on it (it should be the only one connected). You must be absolutely sure which one is connected!! You called the C: drive "Disk 1" when it is labeled as "Disk 2" in Disk Management. Make sure you confirm which one is connected, or my fix won't work.

Now, as you turn on the computer, go into the BIOS (usually F2, Esc, or Del) and change the boot order to boot off the optical drive before the hard drive. Insert your Windows 7 disk and "Save and exit" from the BIOS. If you are prompted to press a key to boot off a CD/DVD, press any key (the spacebar is always popular). Once the disk loads, on the screen that has "Install Now" chose Repair your computer. The recovery tools will scan for Windows installations and likely tell you that an operating system can be recovered. Allow it to reboot. Boot off the DVD once again (using the same procedures as before), this time selecting the recovered operating system > click Next > Startup Repair

If there are any problems with the Windows bootloader (there isn't one on that drive), the recovery tools will fix it. Reboot, this time changing the boot order to have your hard drive back at the top of the list. See if it boots properly. If not, boot off your Windows 7 DVD again, and do another Startup Repair. Sometimes it can take more than one Startup Repair to fix it.

You should be able to boot like normal now. If not, and multiple Startup Repairs don't fix it, let me know, and we'll go from there.

But I'm pretty confident you should be able to boot.

My mistake - C is on Disk 2. Steps seem a little different than you described but I did get to "Start up Repair". Ran it half a dozen times with no luck. I have two 1 gig disks out of 5 total. C is on one of the 1 gigs so I tried both. No luck. Would the recovery disk work any different than the Win 7 disk?

Hmm...I do have another idea. No, the recovery tools are the same regardless of if you use a System Repair disk, manufacturer's recovery disk, or a straight retail copy installation disk from Microsoft.

Before we go any further, I'm assuming you have your C: drive imaged/backed up? I want to be sure you can put things back if my fix doesn't work.

Yep, I have a fresh "Image" and also user accounts and all other files backed uped (SP?). I tried doing an upgrade install with just Disk 2 connected but get a mesage that I need Drive P connected. I'm asumming that's because I have an upgrade version of Win 7 and it needs to run after finding the boot sector which is on P. I sure don't want to reinstall everything - it takes me a week to get all my programs and preferences back were I want them and my fear is I'll wind up were I started since I've been through this once allready.

Give me a little time to work on my solution. I have a general idea of what to do, but I need time to pound out the details. I've also got a test tomorrow that I haven't studied for yet...so it might be a couple days before I get back to you. Don't worry, though. I am confident this can be fixed without a reinstall.

Thanks much. One thing I have noticed is in the repair window it does not list an operating system and says to install drivers for hard disks. I can access the hard disk and all the files on it but don't have a clue what to load. Tried going to System 32 - Drivers but got lost. What's strange is the operating system is there it just doesn't show up in the "operating system to repair" window

Hmm...I know what you're saying. It doesn't find an operating system when it scans for one. You see, your "System" is on the P: drive. But the boot files are on your C: drive. I'm trying to figure out how to move the "System" to the correct drive.

I'll do some research and get back to you later...