Two System Volumes


  1. Posts : 7
    windows 7
       #1

    Two System Volumes


    I've just installed Windows 7. I have 3 hard drives. Windows 7 installed drive (C Drive), Data Drive (F drive) and a media drive (D.

    I accidently changed F drive from a basic to dynamic disc (not sure if this has any bearing on my isssue)

    For some reason the C and F drive are system drives. Even though F drive only contains data Windows has designated it a partial system volume. If I physically remove F drive from my computer Windows 7 does not boot up. When I tried to create a system image for C drive. C and F drive are being backed up as a single image. It seem Windows 7 sees them as one system drive.

    Two System Volumes-two_system_volumes.jpg

    Is there any way I can make C soley the system drive and remove the system volume attribute from F drive?

    I have tried to delete the volume for F as well as format the volume. But i get an error message saying I can not delete/format a system volume. Tried this both with the disk mangement tool as well as diskpart.
      My Computer

  2.    #2

    F alone is holding your System MBR, which needs to be recovered into C.

    To do this, mark C active using your booted Win7 DVD Repair Console command line: Partition - Mark as Active

    Then boot into Repair console, click through to Recovery tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR to C. Startup Repair

    If this fails, unplug F while running Startup Repair x3.

    After Win7 starts, convert F back to basic using this: Change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk: Storage Services; Local File Systems
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 7
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Resolved - The Hard Way


    Tried your suggestions it didn't work. Repairs couldn't find any errors.

    I ended up unplugging all the hard drive except the one I was installing Windows on. Then reinstalled Windows on C. After doing that it finally set C drive as a system volume. If I attempted to include any of the other drive for some bizarre reason it would force the system volume on any available hard drive that was not C drive.

    I also set the Hard Drive boot priority so that it would boot my C drive first in BIOS. Not sure if this had any bearing on the placement of a system partition.

    Anyhow I can finally enjoy playing around with Windows 7.
      My Computer

  4.    #4

    I think converting F to Dynamic Disk wiped out your System MBR on it even though it said otherwise.

    If C was marked Active first, then the MBR should have been recovered into it if you ran Startup Repair enough times - unless Win7 was damaged.

    Did it show an installation to repair when you booted into Repair?
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 7
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #5

    I did get to the repair screen. When I had C and F connected and ran a repair command there were no errors. When I removed F drive and went into the repair console it showed no Windows Install.

    Like I said before when I had pulled the plug on F. And I only had C and D drive (media HD) and I reinstalled Windows 7, it automatically put the System MBR on D. I did'nt even convert D drive to dynamic.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #6

    Hello punisher101, welcome to Seven Forums!



    Just to make sure, did you mark C: as active before you did the 3 separate startup repairs, with re-boots between each repair.


    Partition - Mark as Active
      My Computer

  7.    #7

    punisher101 said:
    I did get to the repair screen. When I had C and F connected and ran a repair command there were no errors. When I removed F drive and went into the repair console it showed no Windows Install.

    Like I said before when I had pulled the plug on F. And I only had C and D drive (media HD) and I reinstalled Windows 7, it automatically put the System MBR on D. I did'nt even convert D drive to dynamic.
    A good reason to unplug all other drives when installing OS.

    Win7 normally looks for the first active HD to place the System MBR.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 7
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Bare Foot Kid said:
    Hello punisher101, welcome to Seven Forums!



    Just to make sure, did you mark C: as active before you did the 3 separate startup repairs, with re-boots between each repair.


    Partition - Mark as Active
    Hello,
    Yes I marked the C: drive as active. I was'nt able to repair the drive because it windows can only repair a drive that it sees to have a Windows 7 install. The only way it could do that was when both C and F where physically connected.

    Thanks for the suggestions gut but I fixed my issue. Doing another clean install was annoying but it ended up working out.

    Thanks :)
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #9

    At least you got it working again; thanks for the update.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 1
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #10

    For future reference there is a simpler way to exclude a un-wanted volume from the system image. Simply go back to Disk Management and select the stubborn volume and mark it as offline. Now create your image and that volume will be gone from the list.

    Obviously if you have something critical installed on this volume and you for some reason format or lose the data on that volume, when you do the restore you could have some problems.

    In my situation I dont care because its just temp files, default download folders, indexes and other items that are not critical. I also dont plan on formatting this volume ever.
      My Computer


 

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