Computer would not boot disconnecting storage drives

gilloz · 06 Jul 2016

OK, I was preparing my computer to do a clean install of Windows 7. A few weeks ago I inquired if it would be safer to disconnect my storage drives prior to doing a clean install of Windows 7. I went ahead and disconnected my storage drives except my computer would not boot up. I got a message telling me I had a boot up failure and to install my system disc and hit Enter. I did that, but nothing happened. I re-connected the storage drives only this time I did not get a message plus my computer did not boot up. I just had a blinking cursor at the upper Left corner of the screen. After a couple of hours of troubleshooting I entered the Setup BIOS and selected Load Defaults. Well, everything was back to normal and the computer booted up. I don't want to go through this again, so I am asking, how can I get my computer to boot up with only the C: Drive and without the storage drives connected? I am just leery about doing a clean install and having my storage drives affected one way or another, considering all my backups and settings are stored in these drives. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Megahertz07 · 06 Jul 2016

It could be for many reasons.
I guess the boot loader isn't on your drive C: but on one of your Data HDD.
You probably has a Legacy system with Master boot record (MBR).
When it boots, the information of MBR transfer the booting system to a Boot Loader. On a MBR system you can only have one main Boot Loader. This Boot Loader can have more than one OS on it's parameters, that is, the boot sequence can be transfered to more than one secondary boot loader.
You also have Ubuntu on your system. If it has been installed after Windows and not on the same drive, the MBR on C: is transferring to Grub main boot loader on the drive where Ubuntu is installed. Grub then loads Ubuntu or transfer to Windows boot loader on C:.
If you take out this drive, MBR on C: won't find Grub and you can't boot.
To fix this, remove all drives except the one with Windows and with Windows Installation DVD make a boot repair. It will modify the MBR on C: to transfer boot sequence to windows. Ubuntu won't boot any more.

Then you have two options. Load Ubuntu from Windows boot loader (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1399...ws-7-boot-menu) or install MBR on the Ubuntu drive that will transfer the boot sequence to Grub on that drive, a Grub boot repair (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair). Before loading Grub boot repair, remove all HDD except the one that has Ubuntu. Then you will have two separated OS, each one with its own drive and MBR and you choose witch one to boot on BIOS.

bigmck · 06 Jul 2016

Post a screen copy of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image and we can tell where your problem is. Be sure and spread the columns so we can read all of the print.

gilloz · 07 Jul 2016

Thanks guys for your responses. First off, I no longer have Ubuntu on my system. I've tried changing my Signature in the past, but it stays the same. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Also, I noticed that my 1st boot device was my C: drive as oppose to my CD/DVD drive. Changed that now.
I've never tried sending a Print Screen copy before, so I will send one as soon as I figure out how you do that. I will get on this later today. I have other priorities keeping me busy, sorry about that. I appreciate your responses. Thanks

bigmck · 07 Jul 2016

gilloz said:

Thanks guys for your responses. First off, I no longer have Ubuntu on my system. I've tried changing my Signature in the past, but it stays the same. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Also, I noticed that my 1st boot device was my C: drive as oppose to my CD/DVD drive. Changed that now.
I've never tried sending a Print Screen copy before, so I will send one as soon as I figure out how you do that. I will get on this later today. I have other priorities keeping me busy, sorry about that. I appreciate your responses. Thanks

Look in Message 3 and click on the blue type. There is your answer.

gilloz · 07 Jul 2016

gilloz · 07 Jul 2016

Couldn't figure out how to add a message with the attachment. Anyway, my problem appears to be good now. It was my error in that I did not have the boot priority setting correctly. After switching to the CD/DVD as priority No. 1, I am able to accomplish what I set out to do in doing a clean install of Windows 7, even though I haven't done it yet, but will follow up on this tomorrow. I wanted to verify that I could get to the step of formatting my C: drive without disturbing my storage drives and I can see how to do that now. I continued in trying to attach the Disk Management file just to see if I could do it. I have to admit it took a bit of time, but it appears I got it some what. Thanks guys for your help.

bigmck · 07 Jul 2016

You have other problems in your Disk Management that needs to be corrected. == Your E: Drive is marked as Active and System. The System and Active should be on your C:.== It might boot now, but one day it might not. You need to repair it correctly. ==
From the first message I am assuming you have a Windows 7 Disk. Unplug your E: drive. Insert the Win disk while you PC is running and do a Repair Install from this tutorial, Repair Install This should put the Active and System files on your C:. Check to make sure it is on your C: after the Repair Install. Unplug your E: drive, shut down and see if it boots OK. If it does then you need to mark E: inactive (take the Active off of E: Plug in E: again and follow the tutorial. Partition - Mark as Inactive Let us know how it goes.

Megahertz07 · 08 Jul 2016

Gilloz, remember to disconnect all drives (Storage) before going to format and do a clean install.

gilloz · 08 Jul 2016

Hi guys, it took this long just to get my computer to boot up. It appears that my Drive E which is a storage drive has to be connected in order for my computer to boot up. I had Drive D, the other storage drive disconnected and it did not affect the boot sequence. It appears that there is something on the E drive that affects my boot up. Like you said Bigmck, there will be times when it won't boot up. I am thinking back when I was dual booting with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I was using Grub2 and I don't remember which drive I had that installed. I tried booting up with only my C

rive and my D: Drive disconnected and it did boot up once, but I can't seem to repeat that. I ran the repair disc for my Windows 7 and it found about 14 items that they recommended me to send to Microsoft. Items only had numbers. The Error code was 0x490. Now, for sure I want to do a clean install, but I can't do it with the storage drive E uninstalled or it won't boot. Anyone have any ideas?