Moving System Partition Files to another HDD

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster.

I have tried to use the search but i couldn't find any solution.

Here is my problem.

I buyed a new laptop (hp 8440p) with an intel 160GB SSD and with an additional 500 GB SATA HDD.
I erased the pre installed Windows 7 and started a clean installation of Windows 7 Ultimate. I installed Windows 7 on the SSD.
After installation was complete and i have customized my windows, i wanted to do backup of the system with the integrated backup tool.

Unforutnately in the "choose a location" box, no hdds were showing up.

This made me curios as the "external SATA" should have popped up. After some research, i found out the SATA HDD is marked as "system" Partition, and therefor it is not eligible as a backup destination.

I don't know why this HDD is marked as system as i have definitely installed Windows 7 on the SSD and not on the SATA, which can be seen in the attached screenshot of diskmanager.

So my question is:

Is there a way to move the "system state" to the SSD so that i can choose the SATA as backup destination ?

Thanks in advance,

Kind regards,
sMk

HI Jonathan,

thank you very much for your response, but i have a question.

Is it necessary to perform the task "mark a partition as active" as the Partition on the SSD is already marked as active ?

Thanks in advance.

//edit

or have you meant the Partition labeled "System" ?

Kind regards,
sMk

Jonathan_King said:

Welcome to SF!

That should be no trouble at all.

The first step is making sure the SSD is the first hard drive to boot in the BIOS boot priority.

Unplug the 500GB HDD and then boot into the repair disc or installation DVD. Follow these directions for marking your Windows partition as active:

Partition - Mark as Active

Reboot, and then run a startup repair from the repair disc or DVD.

Startup Repair

This will write the System MBR to WIn7 partition, which is fine, but the 100mb System REserved partition which was supposedly set up for that purpose will then be useless, so you can recover it's space into Win7 using free Partition Wizard bootable CD if you want.

The 100mb SYs partition is useful if you have a multi-boot situation, Bitlocker, or want the Repair My Computer console placed on the Advanced Boot Tools menu accessed by tapping F8 at bootup. If you want to keep it, you can write the MBR into it by marking it Active before running Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots.

You'll also need to remove the Active flag from your external HD. Use Diskpart INACTIVE command or Partition Wizard CD to Modify>Set to Inactive. This is the reason all other HD's should be unplugged during install, and data drives should be formatted Logical.

Forgive me if I am new at this but I want to move the system info from the disc it is currently on (a 2TB disc!) since the size makes it difficult to do a system backup. The boot info is on an SSD

I have tried the previous advice (disconnect HDD,make partition active, run repair) but doesn't seem to work. However I read that the reboot should be done at least 3 times. I assumed that this would be done automatically (just like in windows OS installation) but am now wondering whether I should have done it manually. I only did it once because of the old adage "if you do the same thing, you get the same result"

Can you advise?

Roy

The startup repair needs to be run at least three times with a reboot between each one.

Please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map with listings showing all columns, using the SNipping Tool in Start Menu. Have all drives attached when you do this. .

As requested



Roy

Physically disconnect the 2tb & 1tb HD's.
Make the Windows 7 HD, disk0 & first HD boot in BIOS.Also connected to the first Sata port on the MOBO.

As your HD set is about the same, have look at my post here:
Follow this base tutorial:
Help me get windows 7 to boot (again)