Win7 won't boot from the hard drive I want it to

[spicymonkey13]

Upgraded to a 120GB SDD and installed Win7 on it along with all my programs. Bought a secondary, internal 2TB HDD for storage and to replace the old HDD (2 is my max capacity for hard drives at the moment).

Managed to leave the Win7 installation CD in my PC when I added the 2TB HDD. Was prompted to install Windows upon reboot and did so to the HDD (wasn't thinking clearly). After the machine restarted, it did not allow me the option to choose which drive I wanted to boot from (either the SDD with established Win or the new HDD with new Win) but defaulted to the HDD. (Wasn't the case when I had the original HDD hooked up which was running Vista.)

Tried removing the HDD and got "Non-system disk" error; SDD no longer booted despite having all the files intact. After much frustration, I eventually ran some bootrec management from the CMD prompt on the install CD and got the repair function to finally work for me.

Reintroduced the HDD and the machine STILL defaults to it! Tried several configurations of SATA cable arrangement, fiddled with the BIOS (hard drives are not listed separately in the Boot Order section, so I can't set one as the primary), and at last resolved to keep the HDD out for the time being.

I don't have an external enclosure for the HDD, otherwise I would just hook it up while the PC is running and format the sucker.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to either A) make the SDD the primary boot in BIOS or B) wipe the HDD?

 

[pcgaming98]

If you have a Windows CD laying around, you can use that to do a format on the HDD.

Also, is your storage controller setting set to AHCI mode? There you can choose which drive is the boot drive.

 

[spicymonkey13]

If you have a Windows CD laying around, you can use that to do a format on the HDD. .

Yes. Go on....

Also, is your storage controller setting set to AHCI mode? There you can choose which drive is the boot drive.

AHCI is the mode set for both drives. What do I look for in this section so as to establish the primary? (Sorry I can't provide more detail as to my options, am at work and PC is at home)

 

[boosted1g]

You need to go into bios and under the hard drive group you need to select the SSD as the first boot device.
Also try plugging your SSD drive into the first SATA port on your motherboard (some boards start at port 0, some on port 1).

 

[spicymonkey13]

You need to go into bios and under the hard drive group you need to select the SSD as the first boot device.
Also try plugging your SSD drive into the first SATA port on your motherboard (some boards start at port 0, some on port 1).

Maybe it wasn't clear in my initial post, but when establishing boot order, I do not have two separate hard drives to choose from. Just HD, CD/DVD, USB, and network. So if I have HD selected as primary and the HDD plugged in, it defaults to that rather than the SSD.

And I've tried just about every configuration of the cable arrangement on the SATA ports, to no avail.

 

[boosted1g]

You need to go into bios and under the hard drive group you need to select the SSD as the first boot device.
Also try plugging your SSD drive into the first SATA port on your motherboard (some boards start at port 0, some on port 1).

Maybe it wasn't clear in my initial post, but when establishing boot order, I do not have two separate hard drives to choose from. Just HD, CD/DVD, USB, and network. So if I have HD selected as primary and the HDD plugged in, it defaults to that rather than the SSD.

And I've tried just about every configuration of the cable arrangement on the SATA ports, to no avail.

You need to find or download your motherboard manual. There is a setting in your bios that allows you to set the specific hard drive in the hard drive group. Then from the setting you already found you select the hard drive group to be your first boot device.

 

[spicymonkey13]

You need to find or download your motherboard manual. There is a setting in your bios that allows you to set the specific hard drive in the hard drive group. Then from the setting you already found you select the hard drive group to be your first boot device.

Found it, but I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking for.

This manual might be more comprehensive.

 

[pcgaming98]

If you still have your Windows 7 install cd ling around, there are two ways to format your HDD. Note you should keep it as the only storage device plugged in.

Command Prompt:
1) Let your computer boot into the Windows installation cd.
2) When the install prompt comes up, click "Repair my Windows" or something along the lines of that.
3) There ahould be like 3 options: Windows Recovery, Command Prompt, and Restore System Image / System Restore. Choose Command Prompt.
4) A DOS window should open. Here, you want to type in

Format C: /fs:ntfs

Via the install prompt
1) Boot to the install CD the same way you did for the command prompt.
2) Click Next
3) Of course choose Custom Install
4) A window to choose the drive you want to install to should open.
5) Here, you'll tap your HDd once. At the bottom, some options should come up. Format and New should be two of them.
6) First hit Format. It'll clean out the drive.
7) If your HDD becomes unallocated space, click new to create a new fresh partition.

 

[spicymonkey13]

While I think it was a combination of fixes working together, the ultimate solution involved a different configuration of the SATA cables, placing the SSD before the HDD (apparently I hadn't tried every possible iteration!).