Installation SSD

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  1.    #11

    Make sure SSD remains set to boot first in BIOS setup since it holds the System boot files now according to the screenshot.

    You definitely want all three of those - especially paging file - on the SSD to take advantage of the faster speeds. If you just turned them off on HD to flush them from it, that's fine. But you want them on the SSD.
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  2. Posts : 28
    Windows 7 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Kylezo said:
    Oops, we are replying to each other at the same time and changing stuff - haha! I'm getting ready to unplug HDD and run repair off DVD. Hopefully that works. Thank you!

    Reading through the link - slowly but surely learning new stuff. I suspect having 2 partitions marked as active is causing some of my issues? Anyways, I'm carrying on now. Unplugging the HDD, as usual, renders the system un-bootable - but selecting the HDD from the boot menu runs the OS from the SSD. I'm still not sure how to run it from the HDD anymore...

    Here we are: editing, changing, and replying...haha.

    Would it be wise for me to mark the old OS partition as "inactive" before going ahead with fixes?
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  3.    #13

    That's fine. It's not going to matter as long as HD is unplugged during repairs and SSD remains set first to boot from here on out.

    It's very common to need to repair reimaged Win7 like this, even mark it Active to write System boot files to it if they didn't make it onboard. But it's strange it was exactly correct when it finally started and then went south.

    But it should repair unless something crippled it. Why did you turn off those important System functions?
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  4. Posts : 28
    Windows 7 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #14

    gregrocker said:
    That's fine. It's not going to matter as long as HD is unplugged during repairs and SSD remains set first to boot from here on out.

    It's very common to have to repair reimaged Win7 like this, even mark it Active to write System boot files to it if they didn't image over. But it's strange it was exactly correct when it finally started and then went south.

    But it should repair unless something crippled it. Why did you turn off those important System functions?
    I turned off pagefile for space and flushing reasons, like you stated, but I'm not planning on turning indexing back on - when was the last time I used search? Never, except in start menu, and even then it's pretty much only to bring up a command prompt...and SSDs are quite fast enough that I don't think indexing is going to do much for me. As far as superfetch goes...every optimization guide I read advised that it's not necessary for an SSD. I'll turn it back on I suppose, if you think I should. Also, I found this in one of your links:

    2) To mark the selected partition as "Inactive" click to see this snip below.

    If there is more than 1 partition marked "Active" that will cause WinRE to not be able to complete the repairs properly as the active flag is the designation of where the new boot files are to be created / repaired, if so the other partitions will have to be marked as "Inactive" for the repairs to be completed.

    To see how to mark the selected partition as "Inactive" click this snip below.
    So, I'm going to assume this really did have something to do with causing my issues. It seems to be all about moving the boot files over.... I don't understand why cloning didn't just create MORE boot files, but maybe that's my noobishness showing, and it doesn't work that way? It's not really a 1:1 raw clone in that case, and that's what I thought I did with DriveImage XML.
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  5.    #15

    The only way a second Active partition on another HD (you can only have one per HD) can interfere is to derail the System Boot files to its partition during an install or repair if it is in a preceding position. It is the Active flag which tells the installer or Repair function where to write or repair the System Boot files. If there is more than one Active flag it will write them to the first Active partition.

    In your case I do not know how you lost on the HD the System flag which should have remained intact. You can have two or more independently booted OS's with their own System boot files when you have multiple HD's. You should have wound up with one each on SSD and HD. Instead the System flag disappeared from HD, which is OK if you don't plan to boot it again as you could have using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key if it still had its System flag.

    SuperPrefetch is a genius feature of the Win7 OS and should never be turned off. Paging file is required and should be set to System Managed. Indexing is your choice but it's unnecessary to deny yourself the ability to type anything in Start Search box to find it quickly. These are best practices based on thousands of installs we've helped with here, take em or leave em.
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  6. Posts : 28
    Windows 7 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #16

    Run #1 of startup repair from the DVD - "No problems detected". Starting run #2 now.
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  7.    #17

    See if Win7 starts in between repairs. Make sure nothing else is plugged in.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 28
    Windows 7 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #18

    Well, with run #2 it seems to have booted properly.

    I had SSD > DVD > BIOS in boot priority, and was just restarting unattended since it would always skip over the improperly managed SSD to the DVD. I think I'm fixed now, HDD is not plugged in and running from SSD. How should I double check that I'm good to go? want some screenshots? hah.

    My guess is that following the Frankenstein instructions that I linked to in my first post moved some boot files and was what hosed my HDD to begin with - it took me into WinRE, so I'm quite sure that is where the damage was done, and I'm sure that it is also why I only had to run WinRE 1 or 2 more times.

    I still have to format/merge my HDD partitions but I think I'm out of the woods now - thank you!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 28
    Windows 7 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #19

    Spoke too soon again.

    Took the DVD out, and select proper boot device error pops up. Now, even with the HDD unplugged, I can only boot with the DVD IN the system. That makes absolutely no sense to me. SSD > DVD boot order results in "press any key to boot from CD/DVD" which kicks me into SSD OS when it times out. taking DVD out also removes that prompt and renders the system unbootable. I bet if I plugged in the HDD it would work fine.... sigh

    edit: I literally just popped the DVD in during the boot device error, then press a key: it says press a key to boot from DVD, then I wait and it boots from the SSD. Seriously, WTF? I am pretty sure my boot files aren't on the DVD. Why is my SSD unbootable? Also, I ran startup repair again and it said no problems again. Clearly, there are problems, WinRE...clearly.
      My Computer

  10.    #20

    I would not use Easeus, as even the boot disk on any partition manager besides Partition Wizard bootable CD or Disk Mgmt can fail with total data loss. We've never had a PW CD failure in thousands of operations helped with here since before Win7 release.

    You want to delete G partition, rightclick on D to drag its left border all the way left as shown here: Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.
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