Change active primary drive help please!

[brucemc777]

Ever do anything stooopid? I seem to have a run going.

In switching over from XP to 7 I found myself also buying almost all new components, except hard drives. Due to a number of events that no one would believe humanly possible, I managed to establish my "C:" and "D:" drives on hard drive 1, whereas hard drive 0 is a bunch of free space. The computer boots up to W7 on "C:" on HD 1.

I want to switch cables on the SATA drives and then designate the new HD0 (which was HD1) as the primary active partition, but as we all know, I can't just switch cables as then the computer does not know to boot off HD0.

What the heck do I do to accomplish this?

 

[gregrocker]

Please post a screenshot of your full Disk Management map using the Snipping Tool in Start>Programs menu, attaching it using paper clip in reply box.

Your description is not at all clear, but here are some options based on what I can interpret:

If you have System Active Windows 7 partition on Disk1 right now and you want it on Disk0, then Win7 already owns the boot and can be wherever it wants to be. Just swap the cables and make sure Disk0 is HD set to boot first in BIOS (after DVD).

If Disk0 somehow got marked Active then you need to unplug it, plug its cable into the other drive, boot into Window 7 installer Repair console and run Startup Repair 3 times.

We can say for sure after seeing the Disk Mgmt map

 

[zigzag3143]

Ever do anything stooopid? I seem to have a run going.

In switching over from XP to 7 I found myself also buying almost all new components, except hard drives. Due to a number of events that no one would believe humanly possible, I managed to establish my "C:" and "D:" drives on hard drive 1, whereas hard drive 0 is a bunch of free space. The computer boots up to W7 on "C:" on HD 1.

I want to switch cables on the SATA drives and then designate the new HD0 (which was HD1) as the primary active partition, but as we all know, I can't just switch cables as then the computer does not know to boot off HD0.

What the heck do I do to accomplish this?

Bruce Hi and welcome to the club

I cant tell you how many I have done. Im not sure because I am not expert with it, but I think you can use something like bcdedit to edit the boot. instructions for it here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html?ltr=B I am sure that one of our resident guru users (you know who you are) will be by but take a look at the instructions in case

Kenn J++

 

[Saltgrass]

Can you not reinstall Win 7 on the other hard drive.

If you have stuff you do not want to loose, you can probably image the partition and transfer that to the new drive. I am not sure where you would need to put the image, unless you have an external drive.

But, as was stated, your exact situation is a little confusing.

 

[brucemc777]

I dug myself in a lot deeper-

Sometimes in Windows Disk Manager the drive with C:, D:, & E: would show up as Drive 0, and other times it would show up as Drive 1. Really.

And then I extremely messed up by deleting a partition that turned up to be the wrong partition and now I need to find some dang utility I can boot up with before I do more damage, so I can try to recover files on one of the deleted partitions, as though 6 or so months ago I did a back-up, thatas all the family pictures.

I had resolved to copying those pictures over to the hard drive with all the spacem then formatting away the entire other hard drive, then simply reinstalling the OS, but somewhere along the way I really stepped in it.

Any suggestions for a bootable utility to restore partitions and files thereon???

 

[gregrocker]

Too bad you couldn't have posted your Disk Management as requested as we could have easily helped you around these self-imposed disasters.

I'm not sure why you would ask for help and then go deleting partitions without even responding.

There is no need to reinstall WIndows 7 if you are satisfied with its performance.

Just look at Win7 in Disk Management and see if it says System Active. If so, it is okay to swap to Disk0 either by switching cables then changing boot order in BIOS, or leaving alone.

Post a new topic asking for Urgent Data recovery (family Pictures). There are good free apps but they need to be searched, and those who already know how to use them.

 

[Saltgrass]

The drive does not change from Drive 0 to Drive 1 unless you change the cables, or the drive order in the bios or boot using only one drive which changes the drive order in the bios for you. If you have a dual boot with two drives, drive letters will change, but not the Drive 0 or 1.

Only connect one drive at a time untill you figure out what you want. I would connect the empty drive, install Win 7 on it and then reconnect the other drive so you can get the data off it. This assumes I even have the slightest idea of your current situation.

 

[brucemc777]

Yep, that "changing the cable" thing was in there, along with being ticked off at W7 64 bit so I thought I would reinstall WXP Pro. I ran WXP's installation routine and instead of installing over the W7 installation, I selected to format the C: drive and install it like I have done countless times already over the last week, and it installed to the second hard drive instead of the first, which at the time was the first, or something like that. I would like to get drunk now, as the stress levels are rather high, but I suspect that will only make matters worse (though I am not too sure if they really can be). So now, though it will risk the data recovery, I am reinstalling W7 where I believe it originally was, will install Acronis Disk Director, and see if anything in the charred remains is recoverable.

You might read about me in the morning paper, depending on how I handle the next couple hours...

 

[gregrocker]

Why will you not follow any advice given here?

I have never seen anything quite like this.

We are trying to help you, and your reponses completely ignore any advice given.

Instead, in the time several have offered suggestions you have flushed your family pictures and reinstalled both OS's willy-nilly with no conceivable logic.

 

[brucemc777]

If anyone dares say "At least you still got your health"...

I love all the advice given here, really. My idiot problem is I am an anxiety case and already did the damage before anyone had a chance to reply. Now, I can explain the "logic", but that would be superfluous at this point. I know I should have slowed down, but without question W7 64 bit Ultimate reported different configurations of the exact same setup in several instances. I suspect it was my error in wrongly assessing the drives by size that laid waste to the pictures, and though bloodied in that last battle, the war is not over.

 

[gregrocker]

What would you like to accomplish?

We are (still) here to help.

 

[brucemc777]

Before I give up I would like to exhaust any good recovery programs that can be suggested. Acronis Disk Director 10 partition recovery didn't find a thing - looks like I really blew it this time.

If nothing else, once I can afford one I will get an extra hard drive and get running a regular program to run back-ups. If anyone has had experience with some form of file recovery program that will work through destroyed partitions better than Acronis will, I would appreciate the suggestions. Too many things going on at once and I didn't have the brains to slow down.

 

[gregrocker]

As I suggested hours ago, put a new topic on General page asking for URGENT HELP: NEED DATA RECOVERY (FAMILY PHOTOS) which will get hundreds of views and attract people who know exactly how to do this.

 

[Teerex]

I dug myself in a lot deeper-

Sometimes in Windows Disk Manager the drive with C:, D:, & E: would show up as Drive 0, and other times it would show up as Drive 1. Really.

It turns out he was right.

 

[bond]

i have 2 disks.
2 partitions in the 1st.. (secondary hd old PATA)
and several in the second, which is my main herd drive with xp and 7 system partitions.

other day while i was playing around with Norton Partition Magic Portable in XP, i found this option to "make active". to test it, i selected a partition in the (old PATA disk) and rebooted. Partition magic also informed that drive tables were having errors in that disk and recommended that it fixed it automatically. i said "ok". now i cant find the 2nd drive of my old disk. its there as unkown partition in xp disk management. but invisible and in accessible in "my computer".

P.S
its the one with all porn in it. need help. i hope you understand.

 

[gregrocker]

The issue is that you marked a partition Active stealing the boot from your OS HD, which is harder to repair if it is not the first HD.

Plug the Win7 HD into the first SATA port, set as first HD to boot in BIOS setup after DVD drive, leave the PATA unplugged.

Boot into the Win7 DVD/Repair CD to mark Win7 partition Active: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Close Command Box, select Repair My Computer on second screen of booted DVD/Repair CD, run Startup Repair 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts.

Now install EasyBCD to Win7, on Add OS tab add the XP OS, accept any boot files offered, it autocompletes, Save, reboot to Dual Boot Menu.

You can now power down to plug back in the PATA data drive. If it interferes with the boot again, boot into DVD/Repair CD follow steps in first tutorial to mark any Active partition Inactive.

Steps to mark Active/Inactive can be done with a graphical picture using free Partition Wizard bootable CD. If you use PW CD then after marking 7 partition Active click on it's HD to highlight it, from DIsk tab select Rebuild MBR which might preclude need to do the <>3 repairs.