Windows 7: Will not boot if more than one hard drive plugged in.

I had to do some serious reinstall things. Processor died, had to put in a newer...used one. I checked my ... BIOS/Setup thing, and there was not IDE or Sata choosing for boot order. I have it set up as 1. dvd rom 2. hard drive 3 and 4 are disabled.



Everything worked FINE before I put in the processor, and a new vidcard. All of a sudden, it just "lost" windows, or it wouldn't boot up anyway and had to reinstall. Luckily, found places on here to get help with that because it couldn't make a system..thing, but everything is installed now.

The way it is set up is Windows 7 is C: and system reserved is D: (I wasn't sure, but the tutorial said that may be helpful so I did it)

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Hardware:
mobo: Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
proc: AMD dual core 64 bit 3.01G
8G RAM

hard drive with windows is Western Digital 250G

what I need to hook up, at the least is a WD 1T and the other 500G would be nice, but not necessary. I am by no means a tech, but I can follow instructions pretty well.

I also just noticed that in my device manager it has a bunch of the yellow exclamation points, including one for the mass storage controller, could this have something to do with it?

Thank you in advance for any help.

Hello LoserInc. Welcome to the forum.

First: When you replaced the processor, did you perform a CLRTC procedure?
This may not be absolutely necessary if you replaced the original with the exact same processor, but it is crucial if you installed a different processor. See your manual for instructions or ask here.

2: are you certain that the (newer) processor is supported by your motherboard and BIOS version?

3: Yellow BAMS! in device manager means that drivers have not been installed for the devices. The first drivers you must install are for the motherboard. But in any event you must remove all the BAMS! by installing drivers.

4: do not give SYSTEM RESERVED a drive letter.

5: To avoid problems, only connect the one hard drive you are installing Windows on to during installation. Only connect additional drive after Windows is installed.
If you installed Windows with both hard drives installed then the important boot files may be on the second hard drive. You will need to correct this before proceeding.

If you have a motherboard CD you can use that, but it is much better on a clean install to download the most current drivers from the manufacturer's website.

NOTE: If you used a newer processor and did not perform CLRTC then I would strongly suggest reinstalling Windows again after doing so.

Thanks for such a quick reply, and the welcome

1 Yes, I did do the CLRTC

2 The proc seems to work fine. It's the same exact kind that was in there before

3 I looked on the mfg site for drivers to get rid of the BAMS!, and I got a zip file of files. No installer, not sure where the heck to put these.

4. oops, I didn't mean to give it a letter, it just.... got one. How do I get rid of it?

5. I only had the one HD installed when I installed Windows. Was told to only do that, because that's why I couldn't get it to install in the first place, because I had 4 HD's plugged in. (I don't understand why this is an issue though) Should I wipe the current drive and just do a complete reinstall with no partitions or System Reserved?

The 'System Reserved' is a pain in the neck. Move your bootmgr to C, then you can forget about the system reserved. You then can delete it or just leave it there - it is so small. Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

Do the extra drives show up in your BIOS under the SATA settings?

Internally connected drives must show up at the BIOS level before we even talk about Windows. If they do not show up in the BIOS settings then you need to check for proper connection on the data and power cables.

I agree with TVeblen in that your problem is a lack of drivers. Once you install drivers those yellow bams will most likely go away and you will be able to install the other hard drives. I suspect you have no sata drivers to recognize them now. Also, unzip the zip files you downloaded and there will probably be a setup icon in there that will install the drivers for you. Just be sure you have the correct drivers for your motherboard.

Ok, I just did a wipe and reinstall of Windows 7, as I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the extra partitions, it was just easier for me to do that way.

Still cannot run windows if more than one hard drive is connected. It just wants to install windows. (it's already installed and working perfectly)

The drives both show up in the BIOS and are listed on the SATA list. I did notice however, and not sure if this is my problem. My Master is the dvd rom, and slave is "auto" it won't let me actually pick one of the SATA drives to set as primary slave. I have the manual for the mobo, but it unfortunately, doesn't have a ton of useful info.


*********************edit**************************

I got it working. I set the boot order to HD first, and CD second. it booted right up. I then shut down, plugged in my other HD, started it up, and it went right into windows.

Thanks again for everyone's help. This forum is quite awesome.

Right click computer, select manage, in the left column select disk management, see if the drives are listed there. If they are, right click and select change drive letter or path, in the next screen select add, then give it whatever drive letter windows suggests or select any one you want from the drop down box. If Windows wants to initialize and format them, don't do it if you have data on them you want to keep.

I didn't even know about that screen..... Oh well, live and learn! At least I'm up and running again, so I'm happy. At least I have learned something this time, to stop me from same issues next time, so as much of a pain in the butt as it has been, I am a bit smarter for it.

Will have a lot of installing to do. Sometimes I wonder...why do I need so much content *sigh*

Good job, well done. Don't worry about it, that's how we all learned.