Won't boot with 2nd HDD plugged in


  1. littlecampdavid
    Posts : 4
    Windows 7
       New #1

    Won't boot with 2nd HDD plugged in


    I had an old self-build running XP, and wanted to upgrade the system. I bought new mobo, CPU, PSU, graphics card, SSD drive and Windows 7. My plan was to run Windows and all programs on the new SSD drive, and keep the old one for storage.

    I installed Win7 on (as I thought) the new SSD drive (Kingston V-series 64GB) with the old drive (Maxtor SATA 6y080m0 80GB) still connected. However, when I came to reformat the old drive, Windows wouldn't let me. I soon realised that the "system" part of Win7 had been installed on the old drive. So (after many different ideas of changing the drive to inactive, reinstalling Win7 with different settings, etc) I reinstalled Win7 with the old drive completely disconnected. It worked fine. I then plugged in the old drive and reformatted it in Windows. It is now completely clean. I shut down my computer and rebooted with the two drives connected.

    It won't boot.

    Win7 is entirely installed on two partitions of the new SSD drive. That drive is assigned as the first boot drive in the BIOS. The old Maxtor drive is not active, and is completely clean (I've just reformatted it). Windows boots fine when the old drive is disconnected. But when I connect the old drive, Windows doesn't even start booting.

    Can anyone help?
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  3. Bare Foot Kid
    Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       New #2

    Hello littlecampdavid, welcome to Seven Forums!



    As it seems you don't have a lot invested in the new install yet, start over with another clean install.
    First, formatting a HDD does not over-write the data on it, it just marks the data to be over-written as needed, have a look at the tutorial at the link below to do a "clean all" (secure erase) on both the HDD & the SSD, both can be done during installation setup; then install Windows to the SSD .
    Be sure to post back with the outcome.


    SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation
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  4. theog
    Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       New #3

    Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P

    Do you have OS HD plug in to Sata 0 port?
    & Your Data Hd pluged in to Sata 1 port?

    Won't boot with 2nd HDD plugged in-capture.png
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  6. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #4

    Post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map and listings, using SNipping Tool in Start Menu.
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  7. littlecampdavid
    Posts : 4
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Thanks everyone for the quick replies - they were really helpful.

    Switching the SATA connections on the mobo did the trick - this is annoying as I had the boot order set correctly in the BIOS, so it shouldn't have been necessary, but whatever.

    Thanks Bare Foot Kid too - I don't know whether it made any difference to my original problem, but the old HDD hadn't formatted correctly - it quickly came up with lots of corrupted sectors etc. So I did the clean all and reformat as per your instructions and it seems to be working OK now!

    So thanks!
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  8. theog
    Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       New #6

    Well done.
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  10. Bare Foot Kid
    Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       New #7

    Glad you found a solution; thanks for the update.
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