Windows 7 won't boot after removing secondary drive

[me_sha]

Hello, I wasn't able to find my exact problem thats why I am here.

As the title says I am not able to boot when I remove my secondary drive.
Which is actually my third drive and appears to be fully optional.

Disk 0 is the one I want to remove.

As I read through similar posts I realized I made the mistake to install windows 7 with all drives connected.

I don't get whats on the drive that is necessary to boot, maybe someone could shed some light on that for me.
And of course I would really like to hear about a solution that doesn't require to reinstall Windows 7 - if it's even possible.

thanks in advance

p.s. forgot the question - how to boot without 3rd drive?

 

[Hawkeye22]

The boot loader is on that drive. It tells the computer where to find the OS to start booting. You don't need to reinstall. You can use one of two methods.

1. Do a repair install.
You may want to disconnect all but the windows drive when you do this.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

2. Download a copy of EasyBCD I beleive it can also create a boot record.

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

*NOTE* I'm not sure why disk managemnt isn't showing properly.

 

[_kaos_]

What exactly happens when you try to boot the system after the secondary hdd is removed?
Do you get any bios error or does the Window logo appears but Windows fails to load?

 

[me_sha]

No Bios Error. Infact After OS Selection Screen (got Ubuntu as second OS as Windows 7 also on Disk 2) Windows tries to boot. But without success and then tries to repair/restore also without success.

So yeah it the latter one "the Window logo appears but Windows fails to load".

And after I reconnected Disk 0 it boots just fine.

 

[mbreslin1954]

Once you boot up with the Windows install disk, get to a command prompt, change the drive to the DVD drive, go to the BOOT subdirectory, and run this command:

BOOTSECT /NT60 C: (or what ever drive letter you want to install the boot information onto)

That moves the bootloader onto the "C" drive.

 

[me_sha]

Currently I got no DVD Drive, I did install from external USB3 hard drive and im glad that it doesn't have to be connected to boot. Anyways could I also run bootsect in my running windows 7 environment?

 

[mbreslin1954]

I doubt you could run it from within Windows, but you could try it. However, you could boot from your external USB drive, it's no different than booting from a DVD. I suspect it works from the install media because the drive you're transferring the bootloader to, "C", is not the current boot drive and no files on it are locked.

 

[me_sha]

had not much time one my hand to do further testing lately but today, thats why the late update.

I'm back where I was. I'm turning 360° here...
first things first: BOOTSECT within Windows does not work.

Now to what I've tried:

1. Try - Setup: All 3 HD connected
- booted windows install disk
- opened repair dialog
- Asked to auto-repair detected Problems - Declined
- !!! The following dialog did not show my Windows 7 installation
- went on to CMD
- marked the OS partition as active in DISKPART
- BOOTSECT /nt60 <OS Partition>
- tried to boot from <OS Partition>
Result: Failed, no boot manager found.

2. Try - Setup: only OS HD connected
- same procedure as Try 1
Result: same as Try 1

3. Try - Setup: only OS HD connected
- booted windows install disk
- opened repair dialog
- Asked to auto-repair detected Problems - Applied
- !!! The following dialog now shows my Windows 7 installation again.
- applied DISKPART / BOOTSECT procedures as in Try 1
- tried to boot from <OS Partition>
Result: Boot crashed during Windows Logo

4. Try - Setup: only OS HD connected
- Windows Auto Repair 3 Times
- tried to boot from <OS Partition>
Result: Boot crashed during Windows Logo (Blue Screen - disappeared to fast to read)

5. Try - Setup: OS HD and DISK 0 connected
- normalt startup (w/o selecting boot device manually)
Result: Success. Boot to Windows Login Screen.

6. Try - Setup: All 3 HD connected
- normalt startup (w/o selecting boot device manually)
Result: Failed, no boot manager found.

7. Try - Setup: All 3 HD connected
- tried to boot from <OS Partition>
Result: Success. Boot to Windows Login Screen.

And here I am back from where I started with one additional information...
The Windows Repair found 1 root cause why it failed or wasn't able to repair:
"A Patch is preventing the system from starting" Error Code 0x490

I got enough for now and will look into that error later.
I'm thankful for all given and further hints / solutions. Thanks.

so long

 

[_kaos_]

had not much time one my hand to do further testing lately but today, thats why the late update.

I'm back where I was. I'm turning 360° here...
first things first: BOOTSECT within Windows does not work.

Now to what I've tried:

1. Try - Setup: All 3 HD connected
- booted windows install disk
- opened repair dialog
- Asked to auto-repair detected Problems - Declined
- !!! The following dialog did not show my Windows 7 installation
- went on to CMD
- marked the OS partition as active in DISKPART
- BOOTSECT /nt60 <OS Partition>
- tried to boot from <OS Partition>
Result: Failed, no boot manager found.

The pic clearly shows that Win 7 installation is detected!!
Don't use the "Restore your computer...." option
Use the "Use recovery tools...." option!!
See that small white dot there? Click on it and then select the "Windows 7" listed. then click next.
Setup will automatically scan for errors and fix it.

 

[me_sha]

Hello _kaos_ the pictures aren't mine and I only added them to show what dialogs I'm talking about. Thus I clearly stated that the dialog did in fact not show my installation of Windows 7 at that time.

Use the "Use recovery tools...." option!!
See that small white dot there? Click on it and then select the "Windows 7" listed. then click next.
Setup will automatically scan for errors and fix it.

Thats what I did. And it did fix that my installation wasn't showing. See Try 3:

- opened repair dialog
- Asked to auto-repair detected Problems - Applied

I'm sorry if that wasn't recognizable.

 

[_kaos_]

Hello _kaos_ the pictures aren't mine and I only added them to show what dialogs I'm talking about. Thus I clearly stated that the dialog did in fact not show my installation of Windows 7 at that time.

Use the "Use recovery tools...." option!!
See that small white dot there? Click on it and then select the "Windows 7" listed. then click next.
Setup will automatically scan for errors and fix it.

Thats what I did. And it did fix that my installation wasn't showing. See Try 3:

- opened repair dialog
- Asked to auto-repair detected Problems - Applied

I'm sorry if that wasn't recognizable.

Oops! Sorry!
I must have missed that.
I replied to that using my mobile my mobile...

 

[me_sha]

I finally found a Solution...
A simple BIOS option. At the installation of Windows 7 the SATA Controller mode must have been set to IDE because after I set it back from AHCI to IDE mode I was able to boot without the described drive.
I found the solution here. It is the post by StriderRyu.

Tanks for all your posts. Now I only have to resurrect my Ubuntu