Accessing windows installation after MBR was deleted

value · 03 Aug 2012

Hello,

I got another SSD for my system, win7x64 professional, plugged it in as master and made a fresh new install on it and therefore a new mbr was created during installation.

Now I need to access the working OS I have installed on the older SSD and used as a main drive before.

How to make the current bootloader know that there is another windows 7 installation on a different drive that I would like to be able choose to boot in at startup?

Thank you very much for your time.

Maguscreed · 03 Aug 2012

hmm... I actually believe if you run a startup repair it might find the other copy for you and add it to the bootmgr.

Not 100% on that but it shouldn't hurt anything either.
Startup Repair

Most the other methods I know involve using BCDedit and are pretty hard if you aren't familiar with using it.

value · 03 Aug 2012

Thank you so much.

Will the startup repair not interfere with 2nd, theoretically running but not accessible installation?

I found a tutorial on BCDedit here at sevenforums BCDEDIT - How to Use.

I've used

Used bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"

bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=F:

bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr

bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

to create another entry, worked so far, just that I get an error trying to access it. Will continue try with the repair disc.

//edit: The repair disc did it, can access both installations now. Problem solved.

gregrocker · 03 Aug 2012

Just plug in the other SSD and choose it to boot in the one-time BIOS Boot Menu. Keep the preferred OS set first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

If this is too clumsy you can install EasyBCD to the primary OS to add the other on the Add OS Entry tab. EasyBCD (free Download at bottom of page - no name or email required)

dtxx · 03 Aug 2012

Fixmbr