Windows 7: Fouled up third drive installation

I recently experienced a malfunction with my C: drive and decided to upgrade it to a faster 1 Tb drive while keeping the original drive as storage. Fitted the new drive and managed to copy the contents of original drive across. Now have 3 drives C: (C), D:, and C (F). When the pc starts I appear to have 2 operating systems Windows 7 (Recovered) x 2. The PC starts by asking me to choose between the two, white letters on black background and once I hit Return then asks me to choose Options again still with the white letters on a black background.

Can anyone tell me how to sort this out?

I have enclosed screen grabs of the set up and some of the error messages I get when I initialls start.

You can't simply "copy the contents of the original drive across" and expect things to work well if you are referring to a C partition.

I assume you did some sort of ordinary copy process from old drive to new drive, such as drag and drop or copy and paste. Is that correct?

And that you did NOT use an imaging application or a cloning application?

Thanks for the swift reply ignatzatsonic

Tried using Acronis and it seems to have worked as the new drive C: (F) seems to be a mirror of the original C: drive. Most of the data on the drives are large photographic images and I have physically checked these and they seem ok but the system is now very unstable. Photo editing programs such as Photoshop and Photo Mechanic etc are now unstable also whereas previously they were ok. I can still edit work using the original drive and using offline backups but it is taking me a lot longer to get throught editing.

Clarify this:

In your first post, you used the phrase "copy the contents of original drive across".

Was this by using Acronis?

If so, did you attempt a "clone" or did you make an "image" and then try to "restore" that image?

I'm just trying to understand the detail of what you did. Clearly, you should NOT end up with drives labeled "C: (F)" as you have.

Regardless, cloning or imaging are not fool-proof. Depending on how intolerable your situation is, you may want to cut your losses and do a clean install onto the new drive.

I used Acronis and I think I attempted a clone. However, when the system starts it presents me with a black screen with two entries "Windows 7 Professional (Recovered)". As I have backups would I be better simply formatting the new drive C: (F)? and doing a clean install on the new drive? It looks like the problem is the original C: drive which crashed a few weeks agao and started this whole mess off.

Yes, in my opinion.

Begin the clean install with only 1 drive connected---the one that will receive Windows 7.

After you have Windows working well as a single C drive, then reconnect your other drive and do what you want with it.

Can I just clarify.

I would disconnect, physically, my existing C: drive by taking out the power plug inside the pc case, switching back on then insert CD to start?

Sorry to be be pedantic but not very savvy with PC's but great with cameras

No problem.

Your first post implies that you have 2 hard drives: an old one and a new larger one that you want to install Windows on.

The old drive should NOT be connected. It should have 2 cables connected to it. Disconnect them.

The new drive should be connected since it is the one that will get the new Windows installation.

Of course, your DVD drive needs to be connected as well.

After you have Windows installed and running well on the new drive, you can then reconnect the old drive and reformat it or whatever you need to do.

If you had 2 drives connected and tried to do a clean install onto the new drive, there is some chance that some Windows files would be placed on the old drive---you don't want that. Therefore disconnect the old drive so that CAN'T happen.

During the installation to the new hard drive, deliberately delete all existing partitions at the partitioning screen. Look for "drive options, advanced".

Of course, confirm that you have backups of all data before you do any of this.

You will also need your 25 character Product Key to activate Windows. Do you have this?

Thanks ignatzatsonic, will try that now.

Back to where I was even though I disconnected all drives except the new one. Used the "drive options, advanced" and it installed ok. Checked the new drive before re connecting the old drives and it worked fine. was able to go online etc.

Enclosed is the new set up with System reserve (F as a new entry. Local disk (G is the new drive I was trying to install.



SCreen grab.docx