Solved Win7 No Longer Boots After Removing Spare Drive, Why?

Hello guys,

I have two WD black 1 TB drives in a raid 0 array, this is what I have Win7 installed on, I also have a 1 TB Seagate drive that I was using to backup windows to, but now I'm backing up to a NAS, the Seagate drive is just setting in my system not doing much so I want to remove it and put it in to another system.

The problem is, if I remove the Seagate drive windows no longer boots I get the following error "Reboot and select a proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key", I have checked my boot priority in my bios and my CD drive is first then the raid array. I have also checked to make sure that the Seagate drive was not a part of the raid array, it was not just the two WD drives. If I reattach the Seagate drive windows boots without any problem, it does not appear that there is any data saved on the Seagate drive. If I go in to the windows disk manager the C: drive has 1863GB so two 1 TB drives and my I: drive the Seagate has 931GB and is showing 14GB used. The C: status is as follows (Healthy, Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) my I: drive status is as follows (Healthy, System, Active, Primary Partition)

I'm not sure what to try next.

Hi Mate,

In your disk management screen, your I drive (the Seagate) shows it as being the System drive - this is why your PC will not boot when you remove the drive. I'm not sure how to proceed from here, but I will request some help on your behalf.

Regards,
Golden

Thanks so much Golden, any help at this point would be great

Golden is right. Your "I" drive contains the bootmgr. If you remove it, you have to fix the bootmgr on C. You may have to run this 3 times.

Thanks so much for the fast reply guys, so I'm guessing this is not a simple fix?

Anything is simple if you know how to do it. Next time you install Windows 7 or Windows 8, unplug all disks that are not needed for the installation. Unfortunately the installer grabs disks randomly to install the bootmgr.

Thanks Wolfgang - Presto follow the tutorial and you will be good.

No Problem.

Thanks so much guys, I will give that a shot, keep ya all posted.

Ok if I type: I get the following message:

The operation completed successfully.

Click to expand...

When I type: I get the following message:

Element not found.

Click to expand...

I get the same message when I type:
Ps in the tut. it outlines to go to C: then in to the boot directory, but there is no boot dir. on C: there is a boot dir on E: my dvd drive.

Since Greg, our resident expert on this, is not around, I took the liberty to copy one of his postings. If that does not work, we'll have to wait for him.

If Windows 7 Repair finds an installation to repair, it should be able to start it. Try running Startup Repair at least three full times with reboots.

Next, boot back into Windows 7 Repair console, open a Command Line and type:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe/fixboot

Now try to restart. If it won't start, boot back into Repair console and run Startup Repair again 3 separate times with reboots.

Next, open DVD command line to type:

Bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force

Try to start Windows 7. If it won't start, again run Startup Repair 3 separate times.

This means you have tried ever thing known to get it started.

Click to expand...

Back up your files first.

In this case mark Win7 Partition Active: Partition - Mark as Active
Then mark Backup drive Inactive: Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Power down to unplug the data drive so it doesn't interfere, then boot into BIOS setup to make sure Win7 HD is set first HD to boot. Now boot into System Recovery Options on Win7 DVD or System Repair Disk to run up to 3 separate Startup Repairs until Win7 starts on its own.

I'd later wipe the data drive to clear the boot sector: Clean with Diskpart Command

Thank you so much Greg, and to everyone else who help I can not began to thank you all enugh for your help.

Setting the main drive to active and running the system repair disk 2 times fixed the problem.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You're most welcome. We're glad to help.

Good stuff!