Help! Cannot start Windows, when a second SATA drive (an SSD) is connected.

[ally0007]

I have run into a problem booting into Windows7 Pro, installed on one of my drives. The PC is an HP Compaq 8200 Elite CMT, which I have just acquired. It came with a 500gb HDD, with no OS installed. I installed Windows7 Pro onto the HDD. All worked fine.

Then I acquired a solid state drive (Samsung MZ-7PC128D) which I want to use exclusively for the OS and my programs, while using the HDD for document/data storage. The SSD seems to have no issues, because I successfully loaded Windows onto it at one point. I also ran it through CrystalDiskInfo, and it seems fine. Then I did a quick format of the SSD, from within Windows 'My Computer' to erase everything.

However, when I connect the SSD to my motherboard, I cannot start Windows. I checked that the BIOS boot sequence is in the correct order.

I always get the following error message:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. Do the following:

Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer
Click 'Repair My Computer'

When I tried to do the above, the Windows Setup says: Cannot repair Windows. Wrong Windows version (even though I am using exactly the same Windows Setup disc that was used to install Windows)!

Can anyone clarify what is going on, and how to fix it?

Any help greatly appreciated...

 

[ss202sl]

What Sata ports are they connected to. When windows starts, it looks for a specific partition on a (rive. lets say the HDD is in the second sata slot. When bios looks at it, it sets the HDD as drive 0 because its the first drive it sees. If you add the ssd to the first sata port, then it becomes drive 0. You can still keep the HDD as the boot drive, but the windows startup file will tell it to go to drive 0(which is now the SSD) and a partition(where the OS is).

It seems like it is looking at the SSD, and not the HDD.

None of this may really matter if you going to put the OS on the SSD. How are you going to get the OS on the SSD?

 

[COLGeek]

When you install Windows to the SSD, you need to disconnect the HDD from your system. If you don't, some system files can get written to both devices which can lead to the sorts of problems you are experiencing. After installing Windows successfully to the SSD, you can reconnect your HDD and begin re-installing your applications to work properly with the new OS installation.

 

[ally0007]

What Sata ports are they connected to. When windows starts, it looks for a specific partition on a (rive. lets say the HDD is in the second sata slot. When bios looks at it, it sets the HDD as drive 0 because its the first drive it sees. If you add the ssd to the first sata port, then it becomes drive 0. You can still keep the HDD as the boot drive, but the windows startup file will tell it to go to drive 0(which is now the SSD) and a partition(where the OS is).

It seems like it is looking at the SSD, and not the HDD.

None of this may really matter if you going to put the OS on the SSD. How are you going to get the OS on the SSD?

Thanks for the reply. I have got the 500gb HDD plugged into the first SATA socket ('SATA0') socket and the SSD plugged into the second socket ('SATA1').

I have just tried completely reinstalling the OS onto the HDD, hoping this would erase any boot loader or whatever that was trying to access the SSD, but the result was the same.

 

[ally0007]

When you install Windows to the SSD, you need to disconnect the HDD from your system. If you don't, some system files can get written to both devices which can lead to the sorts of problems you are experiencing. After installing Windows successfully to the SSD, you can reconnect your HDD and begin re-installing your applications to work properly with the new OS installation.

Thanks for the reply. I would do exactly what you suggested, except that first of all, I want to be able to temporarily use the Windows7 OS installed on my HDD, (while the SSD is plugged in) so that I can do a 'secure clean' operation on the SSD from within Windows and restore the SSD to factory state. Only after that, would I like to change the location of the OS from the HDD to the SSD.

I just tried reinstalling the OS onto the HDD (with the SSD unplugged). I hoped that this would rewrite whatever it was that was pointing to the SSD - but I still get the same error when I try to start Windows while the SSD is connected.

UPDATE!!! I think I have fixed the problem! After reinstalling Win7 to the HDD, I found I could now do a 'Repair Your Computer" via Windows setup disc. After that, I was able to boot into Windows. From there, I was able to do a 'Secure Wipe SSD' using Aomei Partition Manager.

Thanks again for the helpful replies.