Connecting a Sata III SSD drive prevents Windows 7 From Booting

[Chris Nicola]

I connected a Sata III 240G SSD drive to my computer as an extra drive and it prevents Windows from booting from the other main "C" boot drive. The bios boot sequence is configured correctly. The system hangs on a black screen with a dash. The bios can see the SSD. I can also boot into other programmes from a CD like Aoemi backup or disk genius etc and they can read and copy partitions from the Sata III. Is there anything I can do to be able to boot into Windows and use this Sata III SSD drive?

Kind regards
Chris

 

[rvcjew]

Was there another disk in the machine that this SSD replaced by chance?

 

[Chris Nicola]

The main bootable drive is usually connected to SATA port 1 on the MoBo. I connected the SSD SATA III to MoBo Sata port 2 but it prevents Windows from Booting. I also tried the other way round but the result was the same.

Kind Regards
Chris

 

[AddRAM]

Unplug the data cable from the ssd.

Boot normaly.

Plug the data cable back in the ssd.

It should then show up and let you format it.

After that reboot and post your results.

 

[rvcjew]

In the advanced menu of the BIOS is the sata set to IDE, AHCI, or RAID? Is there data on the SSD at the moment that you can not delete or is it blank?

EDIT: Brian's idea is probably better. Does that motherboard support hot swapping by default?

 

[Chris Nicola]

Thank you both for your help. The problem seems to be solved now. I am sure Brian's idea of connecting the data cable after Windows booted would have worked. The problem was caused because there was a primary C partition clone/100Mbt System partition on the SSD Drive which confused Windows. I deleted to unallocated space and Windows booted and automatically installed the driver for the SSD and I can see it in Drive management. Thanks again.

Kind regards
Chris

PS. Actually there is something else I wish to do with this drive but maybe its better to make a new thread about that. I want to make a backup clone of the C drive. Boot into it and run Sysprep so I can transfer my system to a new computer and retire the old computer. I know its better to perform a new installation but I could save weeks of work if I succeeded using the sysprep method.

 

[rvcjew]

Glad to hear it, I figured your drive had some BCD left on it from another machine if it was not blank or you had your system set to RAID and just never had a second drive in there before which is why I asked. Doing what Brian said would have let you format it too but it would have probably failed to let you format it without wiping it with diskpart first if it was set as active I think.

EDIT: To clone it I would use Macrium Reflect free.
Macrium Reflect Free