backup drive with W7 boot file is not recongized after installing SSD

Husky79 · 18 Oct 2012

Here is the story, I used to run 2 WD Caviar Black 1TB each, I decided to get a 128gb Intel SSD, put the other 2 WD drives over to SATA port 2 and 3 with SSD on port 1. I did not format the WD drives since they both have data on it, port 2 WD still has W7 installation on it.

When I started up after installing SSD, I went to BIOS to ensure everything is in working order, I noticed only 2 drives are detected, the SSD and WD on port 3. Tried several things like check connection, power connection, switched SATA cables, switched ports. Still no difference.

I went ahead and installed W7 on SSD, disk manager does not detect WD on port 2.

Is it because that WD on port 2 still has windows installation files? How can I fix this? I have critical data on there that I need to access to.

Thanks

whs · 18 Oct 2012

This is odd. Put the WDs back onto the original ports and put the SSD on any port. It should have nothing to do with the files that are on the WDs.

Husky79 · 18 Oct 2012

so are you saying that i should put the WD drive with W7 installation back to orginal spot, port 1, and the 2nd WD drive back to port 2 and put SSD to port 3, and set BIOS to boot from the SSD. Then it should be able to see the orginal WD drive?

whs · 18 Oct 2012

I think it is worth a try. The situation is so odd that I think we can only get more insight with trial and error.

There is no reason for the SSD to be on any particular port. It is only recommended to put it on the 1st port (port0) when you install Windows7 without disconnecting the other disks during the installation. Reason is because the Win7 installer has the habit to install the System partition (the one that has the bootmgr) on the disk with the lowest port - unless you have a predefined active, primary partition on the SSD.