Fast boot up when 2nd HDD is disconnected.

[haqeem18]

Hello again,
Recently I installed a SSD and was happy with the speed.Boot takes about 14 seconds.I have another 2 HDD.one is Hitachi 1TB 7200 and another one is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB HDD.So yesterday,i tried disconnect my Hitachi HDD and boot up my PC.My boot up time is way more faster about 8 seconds and even the windows flag haven't finished.Is it normal?

 

[gregrocker]

If you disconnect the Seagate does anything similar happen, with or without Hitachi also plugged in?

Is it possible the Hitachi has old boot code on it from having an OS install at one time? If so it might be worth moving the data off to wipe the boot sector with Diskpart Clean Command

 

[haqeem18]

If you disconnect the Seagate does anything similar happen, with or without Hitachi also plugged in?

Is it possible the Hitachi has old boot code on it from having an OS install at one time? If so it might be worth moving the data off to wipe the boot sector with Diskpart Clean Command

If i disconnect/connect the Seagate,boot up time is the same but with the Hitachi disconnected,boot up improves alot.I have a OEM Win 7 Home Premium on my Hitachi drive and I have used about 660GB.My Seagate drive is only 50 GB used.

Is it safe to wipe the boot sector on my Hitachi drive because I stil want to boot my old OS.

 

[gregrocker]

You'll need to wait until you're ready to get rid of the old OS, then back up it's files first to wipe the Hitachi.

Do you have a Windows Dual Boot menu or are you choosing OS to boot via the BIOS boot order and boot menu key?

With all drives plugged in please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map and listings, using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

 

[haqeem18]

You'll need to wait until you're ready to get rid of the old OS, then back up it's files first to wipe the Hitachi.

Do you have a Windows Dual Boot menu or are you choosing OS to boot via the BIOS boot order and boot menu key?

With all drives plugged in please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map and listings, using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

Okay.For now im not ready to get rid of the old OS but i will gona wipe it later.I boot the OS via the BIOS boot menu.

Here the screenshot of Disk Management:

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[gregrocker]

You have Win8 on Disk0 which is booted via the BIOS, correct? I'm wondering why it has no System flag on its boot partition like Win7 does, signifying it boots itself.

The problem with Disk2 is that you ignored a warning that it was converting to Dynamic disk which is only meant to span partitions across multiple HD's. You must convert it back to Basic, first deleting the extra partitions which caused it to convert to Dynamic. You can only have Four Primary Partitions on a HD. But you can convert one to Logical to add as adjacent many Logicals as you want.

To convert Disk 2 to Basic use free Partition Wizard. The last version which offered this feature for free is partition wizard 4.2 free.zip - Windows Live.

Download, unzip and install to Win7, start program, follow this video for How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard. First delete the two smallest data partitions to allow conversion. Did you not notice these are all lettered F?

 

[haqeem18]

You have Win8 on Disk0 which is booted via the BIOS, correct? I'm wondering why it has no System flag on its boot partition like Win7 does, signifying it boots itself.

The problem with Disk2 is that you ignored a warning that it was converting to Dynamic disk which is only meant to span partitions across multiple HD's. You must convert it back to Basic, first deleting the extra partitions which caused it to convert to Dynamic. You can only have Four Primary Partitions on a HD. But you can convert one to Logical to add as adjacent many Logicals as you want.

To convert Disk 2 to Basic use free Partition Wizard. The last version which offered this feature for free is partition wizard 4.2 free.zip - Windows Live.

Download, unzip and install to Win7, start program, follow this video for How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard. First delete the two smallest data partitions to allow conversion. Did you not notice these are all lettered F?

Yes I have windows 8 on Disk 0.I've notice that the 3 letter F but i thought it was normal so i just leave it like that.I'll tell you later after download the File.

 

[haqeem18]

Will doing this delete all my file and can't boot again from the HDD?

 

[gregrocker]

If you run the conversion correctly as shown in this video then it is non-destructive and has never caused data loss in countless times we've helped do it here: How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard?

What's amazing is that the HD even boots since a Dynamic Disk isn't meant to be used for anything except to span a single partition across multiple HD's. So you already ruined your install, and we are trying to help you recover it.

If you'd like to be absolutely sure then back up your data first.

 

[haqeem18]

So I have successfully convert the disk to basic.Boot up is still slow with the drive connected.Do i have to wipe the boot sector too? sorry for noob here.

 

[gregrocker]

If you're finished with the OS on Disk2 or have already deleted it, then yes wiping the HD the boot code with Diskpart Clean Command can sometimes resolve it interfering with another disks' boot. It's also a good practice since you dont need it to be bootable any longer and the only way to fully remove the boot code is wiping it.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

something I did in the past was just wiping the MBR (master boot record), which is one of the steps of booting. Disks with a clean MBR won't boot, but are easy to fix if you have an installation disk/thumbdrive in case you want to boot them again. I don't know if in your case will be equivalent to havin the drive disconnected (or fully wiped), but it's something you can try before nuking everything with the Clean Everything as gregrocker suggested.

This thread contains links to help you delete the MBR, this tutorial tells you how to restore the MBR to make the disk bootable again.

 

[gregrocker]

Diskpart Clean Command wipes the boot sector which clears all boot code which can interfere. There will then be no MBR until reinstall.

 

[haqeem18]

Sorry for a very late reply.I'll try to do it after backing up all my data