I just purchased a second hard drive and installed Windows 7 to it.
Thing is I wanted to get rid of the XP install on my original HDD.
Before trying to delete it, I simply unplugged the HDD to see if my computer would boot Windows 7
Which it didn't....then I plugged the XP HDD back in, and still nothing
it just hangs at the black screen with the blinking cursor....any help? I'm desperate....
Welcome to SF!
That is very easy to fix. Disconnect the XP drive, and run a startup repair.
I can almost guarantee that will work. If not, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.
will this affect any files i already have? I installed a few days ago and migrated many files already.
Also....any idea WHY this happened? I simply unplugged the XP HDD
No, it will not affect your files at all.
It happened because the boot loader is installed on the XP drive, and without it, Windows doesn't know how to boot.
A startup repair will automatically write a new boot loader to the Windows 7 drive. If it doesn't work, we can manually write a new boot loader using some commands from a command prompt.
If you ever want to connect your XP drive again, as storage, make sure to set the 7 drive to be the first in the boot order, in your BIOS, before you try to boot.
All right, boot up XP or Windows 7 and check out your disk management. Could you please post a screenshot?
Hello hovdog, welcome to Seven Forums!
Plug the XP HDD in and try the repair on Seven again, if that works we can go from there.
i ran the startup repair....and it restarted now it hangs on the press any key to boot from cd or DVD....
should i have taken out the DVD before restarting?
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