Windows 7: System Partition on Second Drive -- Cannot Install Application

Hi all, I am having a vexing problem possibly relating to the windows 7 system partition.

I recently bought a new HP Pavilion dv-7 laptop running x64 windows 7 HE installed a 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive. I installed Fallout 3 at the time and it ran beautifully.

Because the notebook had a second drive bay, and I wanted more speed, I purchased a 128 GB Crucial M4 SSD and installed it. Of course, in order to take full advantage of the SSD it was necessary to do a fresh OS install on the new drive. I installed a clean, bloatware-free version Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on the new SSD and ran as a dual boot as I moved files around and got my drivers in order. I then formatted the slower disk drive so as to leave the fresh install of Ultimate as my only OS. In this way, I planned on using the SSD for windows and crucial application data, and to partition for a dual boot with Ubuntu in the near future. The old, larger disk was meant to be used for data such as videos, music, and games.

Somehow in this process, however, the 200MB system partition remained on the original hard disk that had housed the factory install of w7he. I did not notice this complication until I tried to reinstall Fallout 3 on the original disk. I need to install the game in the second drive because it is huge and space is at a premium on the SSD. The installer now gives me an error, telling me that it cannot install on the old HD because "it is a system disk". This is distressing because: 1) The data partition on the drive is NOT the system partition, which of course cannot been seen in explorer and 2) I was perfectly able to install the game on the disk when the factory OS was installed there. Anyways, I could really care less about the game. I am worried that this is going to be an ongoing problem with future installs and who knows what else.



I am not 100% it is the system partition being on the same drive that is throwing a wrench into the works. I also (perhaps stupidly) chose the drive path as the location of my system restore files when I activated system restore.

I was wondering if anybody had some insight as to what might be going on here. I spent a couple hours on the google and nothing seemed to be of any help. Anything is appreciated!

Simple solution - take the HDD out and reinstall Windows 7 on the SSD. Then you get your active 200MB partition on the SSD.

If that is not possible or too cumbersome, deactivate the 200MB partition on the HDD and activate C on the SSD. Use the bootable CD of Partition Wizard (last entry on the webpage). The commands are under the Partition tab > Modify. Then fix your bootmgr on the C partition on the SSD. You can try this or run startup/repair three times with your installation disk.

Can you please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, using SNipping Tool in Start menu.

Sounds like you should have unplugged the old HD before install to the new SSD to avoid interlocking them, dual booting via BIOS until you are ready to wipe or delete the old OS.

We can give you the exact steps to do this once we see your config as there are often unknown complicators.

Hello elreystyles, welcome to Seven Forums!


Have a look through the information in these tutorials linked below.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

System Reserved : Create Using Disk Management

Secure Erase / Wipe : Definition and Methods