Windows 7: Win7 Pro won't boot normally again

I've been running XP for years (on SATA1), installed Windows 7 about a week ago on, say SATA3 hard drive. It was originally installed on mobile HD. Once Windows 7 was installed, I changed the boot order to boot from SATA3. Everything was great.

Now it is time to move Windows 7 to my primary boot disk, SATA1, so cloned disk with Acronis True Image 2010. I changed the boot order to boot from SATA1 & the boot process pauses for 30 seconds with an option to boot from Windows 7 or Windows 7. If I select the top Windows 7 or wait for it to timeout boots fine. I would like the sys to boot directly into SATA1, with the cloned Windows 7. I've cloned XP system disks in the past and changing the boot order boots into the drive I want.



I've been into msconfig, boot tab. It shows the top entry as Windows 7 C:\windows, current OS; default OS & as the 2nd line as Windows 7 (\Windows), which does not boot.

I could probably change the timeout to 0 seconds, but want to keep the option of getting in this menu in the future.

Any ideas on how to just tell the bios to boot a drive and have it boot non-stop?

Thanks,

Norm

Norm Hi and welcome

I am pretty sure you can just use bcdedit to modify the boot order. Instruction for it here BCDEDIT - How to Use

Take a look and let us know if you need help

Kenn J++

Do you wish to have a dual boot of some kind?

If not, set your desired OS HD to boot first in BIOS, unplug the other HD, boot into the installer and run Startup Repair 3 times as it will need to try several fixes before probably rewriting the MBR.

Then you can plug the other HD back in and format.

Any stray listings in boot menu can then be deleted in msconfig>boot or using EasyBCD.

I saw 2 entries, so deleted the 2nd one with bcdedit. Reboot booted directly into Windows 7 on sata1.

Now, I see Windows 7 is no longer activated. It was properly activated on the other drive, surprised it needs to get re-activated on this new drive. I was able to re-activate with my original codes.

gregrocker, I may need to boot XP again, so will clone my old image to a hd I can insert in the mobile hard drive rack (SATA3). I'll do more testing to be sure I can do that.