Solved Dual Boot Install Error - Win 7 Partitions Relettered

[tjg79]

Hi,

I was attempting to install a Win 7 Pro x64 and Win XP Pro x64 dual boot with Win 7 already installed per the tutorial.

During the second attempt to install Win XP, I noticed the partition's assigned letters had changed. The system reserve was assigned C: where before it was assigned no letter. The Win 7 partition was assigned D: and the partition I intended to install Win XP was now an E: or F:.

The problem is now I can't start windows 7 due to a hardware issue. I suspect it's the relettered partitions. I get the following message from my system:

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from teh selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows Documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

Is there a solution to this issue? I tried to reboot with my Win 7 CD loaded to see if there was a repair screen, but the system wants to do a clean Win 7 install.

Before the dual boot install attempt, my volume was three 500GB SATA drives in an Intel RST RAID-5. The RAID-5 volume showed three partitions in Windows Disk Mangement; 1. System Reserve, 2 C: Windows 7, and D: which was to be my Win XP install.

When I start the Win XP install I get to the Windows XP Professional Setup page showing the partitions. The system is now configured to:

953876MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on iaStor [MBR]
C: Partition1 (System Reserve) [NTFS] 100MB (74MB free)
F: Partition2 (Windows 7) [NTFS] 476838MB (368073MB free)
E: Partition3 [NTFS]476922MB (476019MB free)
Unpartitioned space 8MB.

495MB Disk on disk [MBR]
D: Partition1 [FAT32] 495MB (0MB free)

I need to change the volume letters back to original configration. I won't have another hard disk until Tuesday when my warranty replacment arrives. I was thinking that I could do a Win 7 Install on that new hard disk and boot to get access to the RAID-5 volume and change the drive letters back in Windows Disk Management.

If there is another solution to this drive letter issue or another way to get access to this RAID-5 volume that won't boot, I'd like to know it.

Thanks for your assistance in advance.

Regards

 

[tjg79]

I attempted the following repair without success:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ool-how-use-windows-recovery-environment.html

Any ideas?

Regards

 

[tjg79]

This issue was resolved with the help of gregrocker on page three of the thread below:

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...nstall-windows-non-bootable-windows-cd-3.html

Thanks again gregrocker.

Regards