Moving MBR to Windows 7 drive

PackerFanatic · 30 Nov 2010

Alright, so here is the lowdown...I have two internal hard drives (we will call them 7 and XP, for simplicities sake :) ). I originally had XP installed on one of the drives, while the other was a storage drive. To make my transition to 7 smoother, I installed 7 on the storage drive, basically dual-booting for a little while. Now I would like to format and clean out the XP drive and make that my storage drive - but my system is still viewing the XP drive as the "active, system drive" and won't allow me to format it. Even if I unplug that drive and attempt to boot only to the 7 drive, it won't let me. I have tried startup repair with the 7 DVD at least a dozen times, as well as running the bootsect command to get the MBR onto the 7 drive, but no luck yet (and I have tried both with the XP drive plugged in as well as unplugged).

There has got to be a way for me to get the boot record on the 7 drive and allow it to boot by itself, right? Without me having to reinstall 7? Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

Hopalong X · 30 Nov 2010

Bootmgr is missing - Fix

There are two ways listed using Win 7 disk.
Disconnecting the XP hard drive may be necessary I would think.

Mike

whs · 30 Nov 2010

1. Use this program (the bootable CD version - on the left side of the webpage) to mark your XP partition inactive and mark the Win7 partition as active. You find the settings in the Partition tab > Modify.

2, Create an MBR following this tutorial:
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

3. Boot into Win7 and delete the XP partition. Then you can create whatever you like in the freespace.

gregrocker · 30 Nov 2010

Another method:

Mark Win7 partition Active using Diskpart: Partition - Mark as Active

Unplug the XP HD temporarily so it doesn't interfere. Set Win7 HD as first HD to boot in BIOS setup, after DVD drive.

Boot the Win7 DVD Repair console, accept any offered repair, then boot back in to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts on its own. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Power down to plug back in XP HD, use Diskpart from Command Line to wipe XP HD of all code, or delete the XP partition using Diskpart command to Delete Partition Override. Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Bare Foot Kid · 01 Dec 2010

Hello PackerFanatic, welcome to Seven Forums!

Everyone makes this seem so hard; everything needed to do this is in this one tutorial at the link below, especially from the situation you're in; though if the first attempt with all HDDs connected doesn't work, disconnect the XP HDD and give that a go.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Be sure to post back to keep us informed.

PackerFanatic · 01 Dec 2010

Alright, looking a little closer at my Win7 drive...it looks like it is setup as a logical, extended partition and it won't allow me to mark it as the "active partition". I imagine the only way to make it the primary partition would be to format it as such.

whs · 01 Dec 2010

PackerFanatic said:

Alright, looking a little closer at my Win7 drive...it looks like it is setup as a logical, extended partition and it won't allow me to mark it as the "active partition". I imagine the only way to make it the primary partition would be to format it as such.

Do you also see a 100MB hidden partition?

PackerFanatic · 01 Dec 2010

On the Win7 drive? No.

whs · 01 Dec 2010

Are there other drives where you may have an active boot partition?

mjf · 01 Dec 2010

Are you able to send a screen shot from disk management

Send screen shot