Moving MBR to Windows 7 drive

You can convert the Logical Win7 partition to Primary using free Partition Wizard bootable CD. Rightclick Win7 partition>Modify>Convert to Primary.

You can then rightclick Win7 partition>Modify>Set to Active.

Boot Win7 DVD or Repair CD to run Startup Repair 3 separate times to write the System MBR to Win7 partition now that it is marked Active. Be sure XP is unplugged all the while.

Be advised if Win7 is on an extended Logical partition with other sub-partitions, you may need to move the data off of the other subpartitions and delete them in order to get Win7 partition to convert to Primary.

You can copy out the data using this method: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Once you convert and boot Win7 on its own, power down to plug back in XP HD to wipe the HD or just the XP partition using PW CD.

I can boot into both WinXP and Win7 with no problem - but I can't boot into Win7 if the WinXP drive is not connected (which is essentially what I want to do).

Thanks for all the quick responses. I will try out some of them tonight.

PackerFanatic said:

I can boot into both WinXP and Win7 with no problem - but I can't boot into Win7 if the WinXP drive is not connected (which is essentially what I want to do).

The reason is because Win7 is on a Logical Drive, which cannot be marked Active to accept the System boot files until converted to Primary.

The only reason Win7 installed there is because XP was plugged in so the Win7 installer configured a Dual Boot placing the boot files on the XP partition.

Once you convert the Win7 partition to Primary using steps I gave earlier, you can mark it Active and run the Repairs which will write the System MBR to Win7. Make Sure XP HD is unplugged.

Once Win7 starts, you can power down to plug XP HD back in and boot it via one-time BIOS Boot Menu key so the HD's remain independent and can come and go as you please.

First off, you guys (and/or gals :)) are flippin' awesome. That Partition Wizard tool is exactly what I was looking for. I was able to mark the Win7 drive as primary and active and I am now able to boot to the Win7 drive with no problem! Woohoo!

One last little snafu - whenever I plug in the WinXP drive (now empty), nothing happens. It goes past BIOS and then sits on a black screen with a white cursor. Thinking it was because there are two primary drives, I marked that drive as logical. Now when I boot with both, it says no boot device is available. I am wondering if this is because I have the WinXP drive in SATA port 0 and the other one in SATA port 2 (in BIOS, I don't have the option to boot to one or the other, just "SATA HDD") In fact, I am going to try that right now :)

Thanks again for all your help everyone - I am glad I didn't just give up and reformat after all :)

Freakin' booyah - that was exactly the problem. Swapped the ports and badda-bing, I got both drives and everything all setup the way I want! You're all fantastic, thanks so much for your help. I definitely won't hesitate to come back if I have further issues!

Wipe the old XP HD using Diskpart "Clean All" command to overwrite the boot sector code: Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command