Formatting second hard drive

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  1. Posts : 10,200
    MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
       #11

    Funk,
    Do you have a Win 7 DVD?
    If yes, insert into the DVD, power the computer down.

    Power the computer up and choose the option to boot to the CD-ROM drive.

    The links which Greg provided will give you the steps to follow.

    If you would rather boot from a System Repair Disc, then:
    Go to another computer with the 64bit version of Win 7 installed.
    then make a system repair disc:
    CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

    START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 29
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Okay. I'm running system repair from my Windows 7 Home Premium DVD. Also, here's everything I can remember of the Disk Management. The XP HD was listed as a System Partition and plugged into SATA port 0. The 7 HD was plugged into SATA port 2 and was listed as a Primary partition.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 120
    7 Ultimate x64/7 Home Premium x64
       #13

    funk7997 said:
    gregrocker said:
    Now mark the Win7 HD Active: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

    Now from the DVD run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and holds the System Active boot flags in Disk Management.

    You can now plug back in the XP HD to access it's data from Win7 explorer, or boot it if needed by tapping the Acer F12 one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot.
    I did try this but Dell's BIOS only gives the options to boot from "Onboard or USB Hard Drive" or "Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive" so I can't tell it to boot to a certain hard drive. If I just one of them plugged in, It says no boot device available. What if I just reinstalled XP?
    Sorry I left you hanging, but I was away. Follow gregrocker's advice; unplug the XP disk's SATA cable from the disk and plug it into the Windows 7 disk. Since that will be the only disk connected by SATA, it will be the onboard boot disk as far as the BIOS is concerned. To use Method Two to Mark as Active, boot to your Windows 7 DVD as the tutorial says and follow those steps. Once you have the Windows 7 partition marked as Active you can run the Startup Repair. Run it 3 times, as gregrocker has instructed.

    And again, I'm sorry I left you hanging like this; it was not my intention.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 10,200
    MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
       #14

    funk7997 said:
    Okay. I'm running system repair from my Windows 7 Home Premium DVD. Also, here's everything I can remember of the Disk Management. The XP HD was listed as a System Partition and plugged into SATA port 0. The 7 HD was plugged into SATA port 2 and was listed as a Primary partition.
    As BBearen has recommended:
    Please follow Greg's advice.

    Be sure to read the links Greg gave you.

    Thanks,
    karl
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 29
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #15

    Thanks for the advice, but I'm still not getting anywhere. The main problem is my BIOS. It doesn't ask if you want to boot from specific devices. It just gives the option to boot from a hard drive or disc drive. But if you select hard drive it just says "failure to boot" or "Boot device could not be found". I'll try to take some digital photos of the the process to further explain this in a moment.
      My Computer

  6.    #16

    Obviously the Win7 HD is failing to boot because it has no System boot files loaded yet. Complete the steps I gave you to mark Active and write the System boot files to Win7 partition. You must boot the Win7 DVD - not the HD as you are attempting - to do this.

    These steps have worked for countless Dells. Since it was System then XP will be the HD set first to boot which is why I had you swap its cable to Win7 HD.

    Boot the DVD, Mark Win7 Active then run Startup Repair repeatedly with reboots until Win7 starts and holds the System Active flags.

    Then plug back in the XP HD, if it is not formatted look for it in the F12 Boot menu - you should be able to click on HD listing if there is only one to expand it to show both. If not and you need to boot XP HD then install EasyBCD 2.02 to Win7 to add XP on the Add OS tab.

    Your BIOS will indeed show your choice of HD's to boot or you wouldn't have been able to boot the XP HD which was set to boot first until now. You must be looking with the XP HD unplugged. Just get the Win7 HD booting and you can deal with the XP one afterward.
    Last edited by gregrocker; 22 Apr 2012 at 23:12.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 29
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #17

    I'm doing the Startup Repairs now and on the first time it said that Startup repair could not fix this problem automatically. is that okay?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 10,200
    MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
       #18

    Funk,
    Your system specs show Acer Aspire, yet you say DELL.

    Which is it?

    You can try following:
    1. Disconnnect the XP drive.
    2. Boot up from the System Repair Disc you made.
    3. Go to a command prompt.
    4. Run DiskPart and mark the partition containing Win 7 to active.


    That was the overview.
    GO TO A COMMAND PROMPT USING A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

    1) Insert System Repair Disc into optical reader.
    2) Shutdown computer.
    3) Boot up computer from the System Repair Disc
    4) A SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog appears.
    5) NEXT button
    6) select Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows
    7) NEXT | Choose Command Prompt

    Run desired commands and type EXIT when finished.
    Remove the System Repair Disc.
    Shutdown computer.
    Power on computer.

    NOTE:
    If your computer doesn’t boot from the optical drive, then
    Immediately after pushing your Power ON button,
    start tapping the F2 key to get to the BIOS to change the boot order

    On some computers, Immediately after pushing the Power ON button,
    start tapping the F12 key and choose CD/DVD to change the boot order
    only for this time.

    =========================================

    Now what you need to do is to run DiskPart.
    Simply type, once you are at the command prompt:
    DISKPART
    and hit the ENTER key

    Type:
    LIST DISK and hit the ENTER key
    Most probably, Disk 0 is your hard disk since you disconnected the XP disk.

    SELECT DISK 0 and hit ENTER

    DETAIL DISK and hit ENTER
    this will confirm that you have the correct disk AND
    will list the volumes on you your disk.

    LIST PARTITION
    Not necessarily, but probabably the volume you want is PARTITION 1

    SELECT PARTITION 1 or which ever one is your former Win 7 partition
    DETAIL PARTITION
    this will help to confirm your choice

    ACTIVE
    that marked the win 7 partition as active.

    EXIT to exit from DiskPart
    EXIT to exit from the command shell

    Remove DVD and REBOOT.

    If lucky that's all you will need to do, if not then let us know.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 10,200
    MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
       #19

    funk,
    I see that you are further along. Excellent!

    Now Reboot.
    Run System Repair again!

    Reboot.
    Run System Repair again.

    Very important that you run system repair THREE times
      My Computer

  10.    #20

    funk7997 said:
    I'm doing the Startup Repairs now and on the first time it said that Startup repair could not fix this problem automatically. is that okay?
    Did you mark Win7 partition Active as repeatedly advised? Double check in Diskpart or using Partition Wizard CD that it is Active now.

    Ignore what Startup Repair reports as it needs 3 separate attempts with reboots to judge.

    It would help us to see your partitioning using the booted Partition Wizard CD, which can also mark Active and then if you click on the HD # to highlight it, from the Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, Apply. This may preclude the need to run the Repairs.

    In the rare case that your Dell doesn't offer a choice of HD's to boot when two bootable HD's are plugged in, make sure Win7 HD is plugged into SATA1. But re-reading the first few posts it appears you may have formatted the XP HD?
      My Computer


 
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