Fresh install. Good. Attach another SSD in order to dual-boot. Busted.

Hi,

I've done a long-overdue clean install of Windows 7 and everything was fine (except for the 2-day wait for updates to become available). However, now i am trying to install a second SSD for the purposes of dual booting with Linux.

Windows just refuses to boot unless i disconnect that second SSD. There is no problem with detection or me not selecting the right boot device etc. Windows tries but fails to boot.

The bootloader loads and then it tells me that there was a problem starting windows. It gives me that white on black menu with (more or less): Try to repair the startup or boot normally. Both options simply return you to the same point after only a few seconds or if Grub is installed on the other drive it will hand over to Grub after saying "Windows is loading files..." - it will not boot into Windows.. Disconnect the other SSDs and everything works fine.

I used to dual-boot with this computer with these drives.

The only thing i can think of as being different is the BIOS setting was set for HDD before and now it is SSD. This was changed after the fresh Win7 install (i didn't even know it was a thing until i was having problems). It's an ASRock Extreme6 Z77 motherboard. The SSD setting does provide improved performance over the HDD setting so i'm loathed to return to it or reinstall with the SSD setting from the beginning. Note i tried to return the motherboard to Hard Drive setting but it made no difference.



Thanks.

Hi,
I would remove the 7 ssd and then install the 2nd ssd and install linux,
I would also recommend using one of these to dual boot it makes life so much easier :)
Amazon.com: Vantec 2.5-Inch Dual Bay Trayless SATA III - 6G Mobile Rack (MRK-225S6-BK): Computers & Accessories

You might also end up with clock issues so refer to this
"Solved" Clock 6 hours advanced switching back to win-7 - Linux Mint Forums

Lastly updating issues
Windows Update will not update and I've tried multiple fixes

Clean install
windows update

Did you have the Windows drive hooked up when you installed Linux ?

Hi,
All I've found in the past is it's better to keep Linux and windows as far away as possible from each other easy sway does that well that goes double for 7 & 10 :)

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
All I've found in the past is it's better to keep Linux and windows as far away as possible from each other easy sway does that well that goes double for 7 & 10 :)

They are on different SSDs, that should be enough.

What is this "Windows Boot Loader" option in BIOS? I don't remember that before, i think it might have been introduced with the firmware update i did a few months ago. I think that might have something to do with my problems.

Question is, why would Windows see or care about what is on another SSD (with a different file system!). Why would the fact that is connected make any difference at all to Windows? What is Windows looking for?

EDIT: As my installation of Win7 was very old, it's quite possible it was first installed on legacy BIOS and not EUFI settings. It's been cloned twice but never re-installed from fresh since perhaps 3+ years ago. My brain hurts.

Of course you can use it.

It`s not a retail disc if you downloaded it, but there is no difference between an oem disc and a retail disc, only the activation keys are different.

You should download a fresh iso file with Service Pack 1.

I`m on my Windows 10 drive right now, and I don`t have the proper link stored, hopefully someone can post the direct Microsoft link for you to download Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64