Solved "Windows not installed on the drive from which it boots"

[antares]

Hi, I'm trying to fully encrypt with Truecrypt the main OS drive but it halts with the following message:
"Windows does not appear to be installed on the drive from which it boots"
So this is my setup:
- I have two physical drives, an SSD drive where Windows 7x64 is installed listed as "C" drive (Disk 0), and a 2nd internal HDD, listed as "E" drive (Disk 1).
- When I go to Disk Management in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management I find what seems to be the culprit preventing Truecrypt from continuing encryption. The C drive is listed as "Boot" drive but not "System" drive, instead drive E is listed as "System" as seen in the screenshot:

I also noticed that "bootmgr" is located in the E drive and not in the C drive.
So how can I make the boot drive C also be the System drive?
Thanks

 

[antares]

Well, I solved the issue by disconnecting the 2nd drive, doing a startup repair, and then reconnecting the E drive back. The bootmgr file still shows in the E drive's root directory, Can I safely delete it? Thanks.

 

[Britton30]

It should be fine if you're sure the system boots from the C drive. First mark the E drive Inactive. Only the OS system drive should have the Active flag.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html

 

[antares]

Thanks Britton!

 

[Britton30]

You're welcome.

 

[gregrocker]

Antares, did you try booting from C HD without the other one plugged in? This is how to test it.

If C is not now marked System Active boot then it still does not have the System boot files onboard as it must to boot itself.

The way to assure this happens when running Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times
is to first Mark Partition C Active before unplugging the other HD.

Then after it boots on its own, plug back in the other HDD making sure Win7 HD remains set first HD to boot in BIOS setup, mark the other HD Inactive per Gary's instruction.

 

[antares]

Antares, did you try booting from C HD without the other one plugged in? This is how to test it.

If C is not now marked System Active boot then it still does not have the System boot files onboard as it must to boot itself.

The way to assure this happens when running Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times
is to first Mark Partition C Active before unplugging the other HD.

Then after it boots on its own, plug back in the other HDD making sure Win7 HD remains set first HD to boot in BIOS setup, mark the other HD Inactive per Gary's instruction.

Hi Greg, thanks for your reply. Originally both the C and E drives were marked ACTIVE, the C drive was also BOOT but not SYSTEM, and the E drive was also SYSTEM. The C drive lacked the bootmgr file in the root, but it was present in E's root. I finally solved the issue as I described above, i.e., unplug the E drive, then startup repair C, then plug E back again.
But the real issue here is that all this should not have happened in the first place, as Acronis True Image Home 2014 cloning process should've automatically detected these settings and make the clone bootable.

 

[gregrocker]

As long as you tested that the C HD would boot by itself and it is now labeled System Active then it is fine. It would be reassuring to see another screenshot of Disk mgmt.

The "Boot" flag only means the presently booted OS.

 

[JacobMCB]

I was going to say, startup repair almost always fixes these issues.

 

[gregrocker]

Startup Repair when run up to three Separate times will repair, rewrite or write the boot files to the Active partition, but only as long as the correct partition intended to host the boot files and boot the OS is first marked Active, and is the only one marked Active. Mark Partition Active .

We use this method here because it is the only one which tests and then repairs all boot parameters, including rewriting System Recovery Options to the F8 Advanced Boot Options which using Commands or BCD edits will not do.

The partition labeled System is where the boot files reside and presently booting the System. Boot is only the label showing which OS is currently booted. In Partition Wizard the meaning for these two flags is switched.

 

[antares]

It would be reassuring to see another screenshot of Disk mgmt.

Here goes the screenshot after Windows Startup Repair...so am I OK now? Can I delete the bootmgr file from the E drive? Thanks

 

[gregrocker]

As Gary said in Post #3 you need to mark Disk1 Inactive. The Active flag is planted only to point to a partition that is intended to boot the OS. Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

 

[antares]

As Gary said in Post #3 you need to mark Disk1 Inactive. The Active flag is planted only to point to a partition that is intended to boot the OS. Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Ok, got it! Here's the screenshot, is it fine now? Can I safely delete the bootmgr file from the E drive? Also, even though the E drive was marked as ACTIVE, the PC still booted correclty from drive C, so what kind of conflict can occur had I left the E drive as ACTIVE?

 

[Britton30]

The Active flag on two partitions could cause a reboot loop or the system constantly asking for which OS to boot to. I think it's possible the OS could write to the other active partition and you'd have system files spread across two drives. This is mine, I have my Users folder purposely on a 2nd drive to save my SSD space, but it's not active.

 

[gregrocker]

Ok, got it! Here's the screenshot, is it fine now? Can I safely delete the bootmgr file from the E drive? Also, even though the E drive was marked as ACTIVE, the PC still booted correclty from drive C, so what kind of conflict can occur had I left the E drive as ACTIVE?

Yes, it's fine now.

Because it was marked Active, the C drive successfully received the System boot files when the repairs were run, since you'd unplugged the other HD so it couldn't interfere. It then continued to boot from C when you plugged back in the other HD because it remained set first to boot in BIOS.

By deactivating E it no longer can interfere whether you delete bootmgr or not. If it did interfere then what works is to move the data off to wipe the HD boot code with Diskpart Clean Command, before repartitioning as a Logical data drive which can not be marked Active and therefore can never interfere or have the boot files derailed to it. Partition / Extended : Logical Drives - Windows 7 Forums

An incorrectly-marked Active partition can derail the System boot files to itself when repairs or reinstall are run. Only the OS partition or it's boot partition should be marked Active. If you multi-boot OS's on different HD's via the BIOS, then each HD might have its own System Active partition to make it independently bootable.

 

[antares]

It'd be interesting to know how the E drive became ACTIVE SYSTEM boot in the first place because all I did was a clean install of Windows in the SSD's (under RAID0).

 

[gregrocker]

How are the SSD's configured into a RAID0? Is what we're seeing there at DISK0 actually two SSD's?

From what we know the System boot files will be placed on the first-in-order Active partition, however one reason we strongly recommend unplugging all other HD's during install is there are cases where install will write the System boot files to the first-in-order Primary partition whether it is Active or not.

So unless you swapped the SSD (array?) and HD later I can't say why the install wrote the boot files to a partition that was not in a preceding position., although it may have to do with the port(s) the SSD or its array is plugged into which might make the Disk Mgmt view inverted.

If you have Partition Wizard CD it's view can sometimes be more reliable and has settled other issues where discrepancies existed.

 

[antares]

How are the SSD's configured into a RAID0? Is what we're seeing there at DISK0 actually two SSD's?

Hi Greg, let me explain again:
INITIAL STATE OF MY PC:
- TWO IDENTICAL PHYSICAL SSD's (256MB Samsung 830 Series) configured in RAID0 (acting as single 512MB logical drive C)
- ONE 2TB HDD as 2nd internal storage drive

I clean installed Win7x64 in this initial state and chose the C drive as the OS drive.
For some reason I ignore the HDD became ACTIVE SYSTEM and bootmgr ended up in this HDD instead of the C drive. It could be that I had the HDD physically connected during install (I'm not sure about this), but in any case I indicated the Windows Install process to install Windows in the C drive.

Then I decided to encrypt the whole volume C with Truecrypt, but since Truecrypt does not support RAID (neither does Bitlocker), I decided to change my system to the following state:

FINAL STATE OF MY PC:
- ONE SINGLE PHYSICAL SSD (512MB Samsung 840 Pro)
- ONE 2TB HDD as 2nd internal storage drive (same as initial state)

In order to transfer the RAID0 to the single SSD I did a clone with Acronis TIH2014, but the cloned disk (the single 512MB SSD) was unable to boot (I guess because the original RAID0 was lacking the bootmgr), but a Windows STartup Repair solved the issue.
When Truecrypt came out with the message "Windows not installed on the drive from which it boots" that made me discover that the C drive was lacking the bootmgr (which was present in the HDD), which in turn made me post this thread, whcih solved my issue and now I successfully encrypted the whole volume.

 

[Britton30]

The installer will always attempt to plop the bootmgr on the largest partition it sees during installs. That's why when installing to a SSD is it important to disconnect HDDs since they are generally a lot bigger than the SSD is.

 

[gregrocker]

Hi Greg, let me explain again:

Where was this explained earlier? I repeatedly checked your original post for this RAID info.

Nevertheless the additional info provides the answer: When you ran Startup Repair on the clone which would not boot because it never held the System boot files, it found the boot files on the HD and repaired them so it would start, booted again by the HD.

The original repair needed to be done with C marked Active and the HDD unplugged.

Did the cloning utility ask if you wanted C to be Active? That might explain why it became so.