Solved Win7 MBR Issues After New Deleted Dual Boot

[Zoidbort]

I am in need of your expertise =)

Here is the scenario:

I have 3 SATA2 platter drives and have my Win7 Pro installed on my Samsung Spinpoint 740GB drive.
My wife gave me an OCZ 120GB Vertex2 SSD for Christmas so I decided to dual boot Win7 on that drive to make sure it worked OK etc prior to wiping my Spinpoint C: drive.
The OCZ became my X: drive and I would get the option to boot from either drive at start up.

Last night, after about a month of running off the OCZ without an issue I decided to wipe my C: drive via Acronis and utilize the SSD solely.
Now I figured Win7 would see that there was no OS on the C: drive anymore and tag my X: drive as C: and boot up, wrong! =(

Upon format of the Spinpoint C: upon boot up via Acronis I get this once rebooting:

MBR Error 1 Insert Floppy (I hit enter and then I get)
MBR Error 2 Insert Floppy (I hit enter and this repeats)

So I took my Win7 DVD and booted up via that and chose Repair start up and that had major issues as it still saw my Spinpoint as C: and my SSD as X:
I removed the Spinpoint and it chose to make my 2TB storage drive as C: LOL!?
So I then removed the power to my entire array of platter SATA drives so that just my SSD and DVD drive were connected.

Upon boot up via the DVD my SSD is now C: BUT when I try to repair it I do not get the drive listed in the window as an OS drive to choose
(Like here):

and the DVD ends up creating a 33mb partition called X: and installs the Win7 repair files on that partition instead.

So when I try to boot up after trying bootsec /FixMBR & /FixBoot (which initially tells me it is successful prior to reboot) I get::
"Reboot & Select proper boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device and press a key"
Any ideas on how to get the SSD to boot up without having to wipe it and reinstall?

Cheers in advance everyone!

 

[Golden]

Hi,

I would restart the installation (keeping that old disk unplugged until installation to the SSD is ciompleted). This tutorial might be of help to you:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html?filter[2]=Hardware and Drivers

Regards,
Golden

 

[Zoidbort]

Aw man that sucks...I didn't think there would be an issue as I have done this exact process on a dual boot with XP and 7 without a hitch.
I will lose everything on my SSD then

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Zoidbort, welcome to Seven Forums!



Make sure the data cable of all the all Hard Disk Drives are disconnected from the motherboard, leaving only the Solid State Drive connected to the #1 SATA port on the mobo and set that SSD as the second boot device after the CD/DVD drive in the BIOS; make sure the SSD is marked as Active using Option Two #3 in this tutorial, if it is not, make it so using Option Two #1 and then run the 3 separate startup repairs outlined in the tutorial to see if a new set of boot files will be created to the SSD.

Don't be concerned what drive letter the repair utility sees the SSD as it matters not.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

DISKPART : At PC Startup


If you can't get this to work you can copy out the data you need to save and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

How to Copy & Paste in Recovery Console on Windows 7 or Vista

 

[Zoidbort]

Cool, thanks Bare foot
The only thing I have not done listed above is connecting the drive to SATA #1
I will try once I get home from work and keep you posted
You guys have offered more input and advice than the actual MS forums...they seemed clueless lol.
Cheers!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Remember to mark the Windows partition as active on the SSD if it is not, or the startup repairs will fail and do post back to keep us informed.

 

[Zoidbort]

Well the SSD is one partition of 120GB or 114GB formatted
Should it not automatically be set as active if it is the only drive connected with an OS already installed?
If not how do I activate it within the repair menu?
I do not recall seeing that option.
Cheers once again

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

It may not be active already and needs to be made so or the startup repair will fail; active is the flag that tells WinRE where to create the boot files.


I described the process of how to check and how to mark it active if necessary in my first post to this same thread above, please have a look there.

 

[gregrocker]

The best method with separate HD's is to unplug the existing OS during install to the new HD, then boot either HD/SSD via BIOS - either the BIOS setup boot order menu or the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key given on first boot screen.

This keeps the HD's separate to come and go as you please, with each OS having their own System MBR.

Since this was not done, you now have to unplug all other HD's except the SSD, set SSD as first to boot in BIOS, mark Win7 partition Active as given before, then run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until it writes the System boot files to Win7 partition.

After SSD starts up, plug back in the former OS HD and wipe with diskpart: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

 

[SIW2]

Clean all isn't necessary, Greg. Just make sure the ssd is first in bios boot order ( and/or make sure there are no active partitions on the regular HD )

 

[mjf]

The partition active flag is a setting (0x80) in the MBR (512 bytes at front of disk) which informs the BIOS that there is an active, potentially bootable partition. Setting a partition active in windows will set this MBR flag.
The BIOS will report an MBR error if no flag (byte) in the partition table is set active.
The disk obviously needs to be formatted NTFS and created primary active for the MBR to be created with a partition (one in your case) marked active.

 

[Zoidbort]

OK so in Option 2 #3 I have this:

Partition 0 Extended 111GB 1024 KB
Partition 1 Logical 111GB 2048 KB

I assume I pick the Extended and try to make that active?
A few conflicting ideas from different members here but this is worth a shot
I have backed up my stuff from the SSD to a thumb stick via going in and choosing to locate disk files, so that is a bonus.

 

[gregrocker]

Both are logical partitions which cannot be marked Active.

The next step is to download and burn to CD free Partition Wizard bootable CD. Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

Boot PW CD, post back a camera snap of the drive map and listings if possible.

You will want to rightclick the Win7 partition to Modify>Convert to Primary, OK.

(If Win7 is a sub-partition within the Extended Logical partition, you'll need to delete the other sub-partitions until PW will allow you to Convert Win7 sub-partition.)

Then rightclick Win7 partition again to Modify>Set to Active, OK,

Then on the Disk tab run Rebuild MBR, Apply all steps.

If Win7 doesn't start at reboot, boot into Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts.

 

[Zoidbort]

It is odd that an active OS drive is a logical one, no?
I suppose the active C: OS drive had the MBR info to tell the logical drive what to do?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If you're saying the Windows 7 partition on the SSD is a Logical drive on an Extended partition, you will have to use the Partition Wizard boot disk to convert it to a Primary partition before the Windows boot files will be created there; have a look at Option Four of this tutorial at the link below for an outline of the process.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD


Since you got the data off the SSD you may be better off just wiping the entire SSD and to start over; have a look at this tutorial so you can use the Windows 7 installer to do the wipe (secure erase) then use Step Two #2 (just leave the size= blank) to create a partition to do a clean install to.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation




This has to be the case as Windows will not, is not able to boot from an Extended partition.

It is odd that an active OS drive is a logical one, no?
I suppose the active C: OS drive had the MBR info to tell the logical drive what to do?

 

[Zoidbort]

Ugh...what a hassle having to reinstall all my stuff once again
Should I try making it active 1st you think?
Worth a shot?

 

[gregrocker]

Of course, why not?

I gave you the steps to convert to Primary then mark Active.

We help people do this same thing here regularly.

 

[Zoidbort]

Trying to figure out how to burn that iso with Toast lol
Not a huge fan of Macs haha but it is my laptop I use for Garage Band
Burned it a few times different ways but it will not boot from the CD

 

[Zoidbort]

OK once I get this working....argh what partiton do I set as active?
The Logical I assume?

 

[gregrocker]

Did you read the specific steps I posted?

Both are logical partitions which cannot be marked Active.

The next step is to download and burn to CD free Partition Wizard bootable CD. Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

Boot PW CD, post back a camera snap of the drive map and listings if possible.

You will want to rightclick the Win7 partition to Modify>Convert to Primary, OK.

(If Win7 is a sub-partition within the Extended Logical partition, you'll need to delete the other sub-partitions until PW will allow you to Convert Win7 sub-partition.)

Then rightclick Win7 partition again to Modify>Set to Active, OK,

Then on the Disk tab run Rebuild MBR, Apply all steps.

If Win7 doesn't start at reboot, boot into Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts.