Windows 7, seperate hard drive.

Hi guys, im new here and registered to ask this question in an expert forum

Right i installed Windows 7 onto a new hard drive last night as its much larger and faster I was having major troubles, long story but lets call that C: now, and my old windows 7 installation D:
The new C: i have installed windows to is a SATA Drive and my old D: is an IDE which is obviously set to primary master. Now its taking a while to boot up and i'm guessing thats because my primary master is still connected to my old windows drive. I also have another harddrive, which is E: which is set to primary slave. I cant format my D: (old windows boot) because it says windows couln't complete the format. How do i go about making my current C: (SATA) my primary slave, and what slave do i leave my games drive, E: at? Sorry its a little confusing i know. And also, when i try format my old windows boot, i right click my computer and click format. If i try going to My Computer>Manage>Disk Management and delete volume, and formatting it that way, it says Windows cannot delete the active system partition on this disk. What can be active on it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jamie

there pretty old hard drives, im not even sure they have a Cable select on them lol. If i go into disk management then the D: is marked as active, but i can't see why? Which is stopping me from deleting and formatting it

Jamieking86 said:

there pretty old hard drives, im not even sure they have a Cable select on them lol. If i go into disk management then the D: is marked as active, but i can't see why? Which is stopping me from deleting and formatting it

If they haven't got CS chang them both to "slave". It won't matter as long as they are not both set to primary.

Make sure you make the change in BIOS for the boot sequence.

The D: is "Active", just means it's there, working and available.

Download killdisk and run it. If that doesn't work post back.

I tried disconnecting the old drive, D: and putting my E: (games drive) as primary slave, when booted, the screen wouldn't come on at all, so i put my E: as primary master, screen came on, choose 1st boot device to my new hard drive, then after bios screen, just came up with a black screen with the letters somet like {Bed3/Be]d3}
Wasnt exactly like that, but something like that, and wouldn't boot. So then i tried booting from the windows 7 dvd and click start>repair. Half way through loading files it says "windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer. This error can be cause by unplugging a removable storage devicesuch as an external USB drive while the device is in use or by faulty hardware etc. If the problem persists please contact your hardware manufacturer. So there obviously working together booting up windows, but how do i get around this problem?

does it matter which i put in on primary master and primary slave? D: or E:?

It doesn't really matter as you aren't booting from either of them, that's why cable select is the best option if it's available.

The Sata drive should be seen as the boot drive anyway (check BIOS setting to make sure).

ye but i dont have enough jumpers for cable select lol. According to diagram, need like 4 jumpers or something. But ill have a go at that mate, and get back to you shortly

mate your an effin legend. Did it step by step as you asked, now its formatting my old drive. Then i'm going to take it out as its only a 40GB, old i know, sell it, and put money towards a new big one like i have windows installed on now.

really appreciate your help mate. I could kiss you lol. Thanks a lot