Formatting second hard drive

[funk7997]

Hello there.
Wasn't sure where to post this, so if it's in the wrong area, sorry. I bought a Dell Precision 380 Workstation Desktop about a year ago that had two WD 160GB hard drives, one of which had Win XP installed and the other was blank but formatted to NTFS. I installed Windows 7 Home Premium x64 on the second hard drive so I could dual-boot 7 and XP. Now I've decided to just get rid of XP. I backed up the data on the second hard drive with Ashampoo Burning Studio 10 and went to the Disk Management Utility and told it to format the hard drive. It's drive letter was D. How ever it just said "Windows cannot format the system partition on this disk." Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Funk7997

 

[bbearren]

My guess is that your BCD is on that disk. Have you tried to format that disk by booting to the Windows 7 DVD?

 

[karlsnooks]

Funk,
HOW TO POST A SNAPSHOT OF DISK MANAGEMENT DISPLAY
Run disk management:
WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER
WIN=key with Microsoft logo on top.


Maximize the output of Disk Management:
ALT-Spacebar key combo | X key (selects Maximize) |
Drag the field separators (such as between Status and Capacity) to show entire field.


Make a snapshot:
WIN | type SNIPPING | ENTER | New
Drag the cursor around the area you want to snip.
File | Save as | select save location and name | Save


Post the snapshot:
Post a File or Screenshot in Seven Forums

=========================================

Please post the snapshot.
thanks, karl

 

[funk7997]

Okay so I did what bbearren said to do and apparently that was the system disk so now my BIOS refuses to boot to the other hard drive. Any idea how to fix that? Thanks
P.S. Sorry karlsnooks. I had already done this by the time I realized you had posted.

 

[karlsnooks]

funk,
System Repair.

Do you have either a Win 7 DVD or a System Repair Disc (this is made by Win 7 from within Win 7 and is NOT something from the supplier of your computer)?

 

[funk7997]

I have my Windows 7 install disc. But would just swapping the SATA cables work?

EDIT: Swapping the SATA cables didn't work. Just resulted in a failure to boot.

 

[karlsnooks]

I have my Windows 7 install disc. But would just swapping the SATA cables work?

Do you have a Win 7 DVD? I do not know what an install disc is.

No, just swapping the cables will not work.

I will tell you that when we find out whether you have a Win 7 DVD from Microsoft, that one of the steps will be to disconnect the drive which does not have Win 7 installed. After your problem is fixed, then you will be able to reconnect and format the non-win 7 drive.

 

[gregrocker]

Unplug the XP HD, plug its data cable into Win7 HD, make sure it remains set to boot first in BIOS setup.

Now mark Active the Win7 partition: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two). If it won't mark Active it might be a Logical partition (which is why we needed to see the Disk Mgmt screenshot first). Boot into free Partition Wizard bootable CD, post back a camera snap of drive map with listings, or just convert to Primary the Logical Win7 partition so it can be then marked Active.

Now from the DVD run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and holds the System Active boot flags in Disk Management.

You can now plug back in the XP HD if it is not formatted to access it's data from Win7 explorer, or boot it if needed by tapping the Dell F12 one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot to choose XP HD to boot.

 

[karlsnooks]

funk,
Please follow Greg's detailed procedure.
Let us know if you have any questions.
karl

 

[funk7997]

It would have helped to have the Disk Management screenshot requested so we can see what the config is.

Absent that, unplug the XP HD, plug its data cable into Win7 HD, make sure it remains set to boot first in BIOS setup.

Now mark the Win7 HD Active: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Now from the DVD run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and holds the System Active boot flags in Disk Management.

You can now plug back in the XP HD to access it's data from Win7 explorer, or boot it if needed by tapping the Acer F12 one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot.

I did try this but Dell's BIOS only gives the options to boot from "Onboard or USB Hard Drive" or "Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive" so I can't tell it to boot to a certain hard drive. If I just one of them plugged in, It says no boot device available. What if I just reinstalled XP?

 

[karlsnooks]

Funk,
Do you have a Win 7 DVD?
If yes, insert into the DVD, power the computer down.

Power the computer up and choose the option to boot to the CD-ROM drive.

The links which Greg provided will give you the steps to follow.

If you would rather boot from a System Repair Disc, then:
Go to another computer with the 64bit version of Win 7 installed.
then make a system repair disc:

​

CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

​

 

[funk7997]

Okay. I'm running system repair from my Windows 7 Home Premium DVD. Also, here's everything I can remember of the Disk Management. The XP HD was listed as a System Partition and plugged into SATA port 0. The 7 HD was plugged into SATA port 2 and was listed as a Primary partition.

 

[bbearren]

Now mark the Win7 HD Active: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Now from the DVD run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and holds the System Active boot flags in Disk Management.

You can now plug back in the XP HD to access it's data from Win7 explorer, or boot it if needed by tapping the Acer F12 one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot.

I did try this but Dell's BIOS only gives the options to boot from "Onboard or USB Hard Drive" or "Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive" so I can't tell it to boot to a certain hard drive. If I just one of them plugged in, It says no boot device available. What if I just reinstalled XP?

Sorry I left you hanging, but I was away. Follow gregrocker's advice; unplug the XP disk's SATA cable from the disk and plug it into the Windows 7 disk. Since that will be the only disk connected by SATA, it will be the onboard boot disk as far as the BIOS is concerned. To use Method Two to Mark as Active, boot to your Windows 7 DVD as the tutorial says and follow those steps. Once you have the Windows 7 partition marked as Active you can run the Startup Repair. Run it 3 times, as gregrocker has instructed.

And again, I'm sorry I left you hanging like this; it was not my intention.

 

[karlsnooks]

Okay. I'm running system repair from my Windows 7 Home Premium DVD. Also, here's everything I can remember of the Disk Management. The XP HD was listed as a System Partition and plugged into SATA port 0. The 7 HD was plugged into SATA port 2 and was listed as a Primary partition.

As BBearen has recommended:
Please follow Greg's advice.

Be sure to read the links Greg gave you.

Thanks,
karl

 

[funk7997]

Thanks for the advice, but I'm still not getting anywhere. The main problem is my BIOS. It doesn't ask if you want to boot from specific devices. It just gives the option to boot from a hard drive or disc drive. But if you select hard drive it just says "failure to boot" or "Boot device could not be found". I'll try to take some digital photos of the the process to further explain this in a moment.

 

[gregrocker]

Obviously the Win7 HD is failing to boot because it has no System boot files loaded yet. Complete the steps I gave you to mark Active and write the System boot files to Win7 partition. You must boot the Win7 DVD - not the HD as you are attempting - to do this.

These steps have worked for countless Dells. Since it was System then XP will be the HD set first to boot which is why I had you swap its cable to Win7 HD.

Boot the DVD, Mark Win7 Active then run Startup Repair repeatedly with reboots until Win7 starts and holds the System Active flags.

Then plug back in the XP HD, if it is not formatted look for it in the F12 Boot menu - you should be able to click on HD listing if there is only one to expand it to show both. If not and you need to boot XP HD then install EasyBCD 2.02 to Win7 to add XP on the Add OS tab.

Your BIOS will indeed show your choice of HD's to boot or you wouldn't have been able to boot the XP HD which was set to boot first until now. You must be looking with the XP HD unplugged. Just get the Win7 HD booting and you can deal with the XP one afterward.

 

[funk7997]

I'm doing the Startup Repairs now and on the first time it said that Startup repair could not fix this problem automatically. is that okay?

 

[karlsnooks]

Funk,
Your system specs show Acer Aspire, yet you say DELL.

Which is it?

You can try following:
1. Disconnnect the XP drive.
2. Boot up from the System Repair Disc you made.
3. Go to a command prompt.
4. Run DiskPart and mark the partition containing Win 7 to active.


That was the overview.
GO TO A COMMAND PROMPT USING A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC

1) Insert System Repair Disc into optical reader.
2) Shutdown computer.
3) Boot up computer from the System Repair Disc
4) A SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog appears.
5) NEXT button
6) select Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows
7) NEXT | Choose Command Prompt

Run desired commands and type EXIT when finished.
Remove the System Repair Disc.
Shutdown computer.
Power on computer.

NOTE:
If your computer doesn’t boot from the optical drive, then
Immediately after pushing your Power ON button,
start tapping the F2 key to get to the BIOS to change the boot order

On some computers, Immediately after pushing the Power ON button,
start tapping the F12 key and choose CD/DVD to change the boot order
only for this time.

=========================================

Now what you need to do is to run DiskPart.
Simply type, once you are at the command prompt:
DISKPART
and hit the ENTER key

Type:
LIST DISK and hit the ENTER key
Most probably, Disk 0 is your hard disk since you disconnected the XP disk.

SELECT DISK 0 and hit ENTER

DETAIL DISK and hit ENTER
this will confirm that you have the correct disk AND
will list the volumes on you your disk.

LIST PARTITION
Not necessarily, but probabably the volume you want is PARTITION 1

SELECT PARTITION 1 or which ever one is your former Win 7 partition
DETAIL PARTITION
this will help to confirm your choice

ACTIVE
that marked the win 7 partition as active.

EXIT to exit from DiskPart
EXIT to exit from the command shell

Remove DVD and REBOOT.

If lucky that's all you will need to do, if not then let us know.

 

[karlsnooks]

funk,
I see that you are further along. Excellent!

Now Reboot.
Run System Repair again!

Reboot.
Run System Repair again.

Very important that you run system repair THREE times

 

[gregrocker]

I'm doing the Startup Repairs now and on the first time it said that Startup repair could not fix this problem automatically. is that okay?

Did you mark Win7 partition Active as repeatedly advised? Double check in Diskpart or using Partition Wizard CD that it is Active now.

Ignore what Startup Repair reports as it needs 3 separate attempts with reboots to judge.

It would help us to see your partitioning using the booted Partition Wizard CD, which can also mark Active and then if you click on the HD # to highlight it, from the Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, Apply. This may preclude the need to run the Repairs.

In the rare case that your Dell doesn't offer a choice of HD's to boot when two bootable HD's are plugged in, make sure Win7 HD is plugged into SATA1. But re-reading the first few posts it appears you may have formatted the XP HD?