Solved Start up failing after removal of second hard drive

[H3KT1C]

Hello,

I recently decided to remove one of my hard drives for use in another PC.

Ever since removal I have not been able to boot back into Windows, I just get a black screen with a flashing _ in the left hand top corner.

I have tried Startup Repair and also manually rebuilding the MBR.

The partition status when I have a look at it with Acronis Disk Director is also marked as Active, System and Boot.

I did notice at the bottom of the startup repair diagnosis and repair log that I have attached to this post that is says "Boot status indicates that the OS booted successfully."

It would be a great if someone could help me with this problem, it's really starting to drive me nuts now.

Ben.

 

[theog]

As you removed your first HD Drive.

   Information

Boot up using the Startup Repair CD or Windows 7 DVD. (not the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disk) If you have a Netbook, you will need a CD/DVD drive.
NOTE: Make sure no USB drives are plugged in.
Do not use a USB Pendrive for Startup Repair.
startup repair disc-create
​

Do a Strartup Repair:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

 

[H3KT1C]

As you removed your first HD Drive.

   Information

Boot up using the Startup Repair CD or Windows 7 DVD. (not the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disk) If you have a Netbook, you will need a CD/DVD drive.
NOTE: Make sure no USB drives are plugged in.
Do not use a USB Pendrive for Startup Repair.
startup repair disc-create
​

Do a Strartup Repair:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

Okay I have tried Startup repair 14 times and still no progress, startup repair doesn't state that anything is wrong.

 

[theog]

1) Use the Rebuild BCD in this tutorial:
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows




2) Fix MBR.

 

[H3KT1C]

1) Use the Rebuild BCD in this tutorial:
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows


View attachment 177519 View attachment 177520

2) Fix MBR.

View attachment 177521

Okay I done that, once I type bootrec /RebuildBcd it displays

Scanning all disks for Windows installations.

Please wait, since this may take a while...

Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 0
The operation completed successfully.

 

[Bill2]

May be a video issue. Can you boot into safe mode? Hit F8 repeatedly at boot, then choose safe mode.

 

[H3KT1C]

May be a video issue. Can you boot into safe mode? Hit F8 repeatedly at boot, then choose safe mode.

This is one thing about my motherboard that I find annoying, when I hit F8 repeatedly during boot it takes me to the motherboards boot menu to select which drive I'd like to boot from.

 

[H3KT1C]

Some how I have managed to resolve this issue, using Acronis Disk Director what I did was deleted the volume then recovered the volume with Acronis Recovery Expert, rebooted and to my surprise it booted up windows no problem at all. The only thing I need to do now is edit the boot menu with EasyBCD 2.1 so I don't have wait 30 seconds or manually select the OS to boot up.

Thank you very much for your help though guys

 

[whs]

I suspect that your active partition with the bootmgr was on that drive. If you want to run a startup repair on your C drive, you must first make it active. You can use the bootable CD of PW for that (last entry on the webpage): Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

Hmm, I guess I was 1 minute too late.

 

[H3KT1C]

I suspect that your active partition with the bootmgr was on that drive. If you want to run a startup repair on your C drive, you must first make it active. You can use the bootable CD of PW for that (last entry on the webpage): Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

Hmm, I guess I was 1 minute too late.

Ah yes I think the bootmgr was on the drive that I removed.
I made sure the partition was marked as active with Acronis Disk Director bootable usb.
At first I did make the partition active using the DISKPART command.

Yes just a minute or two late.

It's very odd that removing the volume then restoring it solved the problem, just glad that's solved it, I really was not looking forward to do a clean install or even a restore from a backup as it was over 24hrs old. Now I know if even removing a HDD I should always do a full backup just in case.

 

[theog]

The only time you must mark the boot partition active, is when you make your own System Reserved partition.

Next time you remove the boot HD Drive, you can
Follow this base tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-me-get-windows-7-boot-again.html#post1518114

 

[whs]

After an installation one should always check where the active partition is. The Win7 installer has the habit of grabbing the first partition on the first frive it can find and place the bootmgr there. That is how mine ended up on a random HDD data partition when I installed on the SSD. Not a big deal though.

 

[H3KT1C]

After an installation one should always check where the active partition is. The Win7 installer has the habit of grabbing the first partition on the first frive it can find and place the bootmgr there. That is how mine ended up on a random HDD data partition when I installed on the SSD. Not a big deal though.

From this I have learnt that one should only install Windows with one HDD to start of with then connect up any extras afterwards so then you don't run into this problem.

 

[theog]

That is why, you should always make the OS HD, disk0 & first HD boot in BIOS.

 

[H3KT1C]

That is why, you should always make the OS HD, disk0 & first HD boot in BIOS.

Hmm, I'm just viewing the Windows Disk Management now and my OS HD is disk1, it is plugged into the first sata port though. I have got it set as my first boot drive in BIOS.

 

[whs]

Yeah, Disk0 and disconnect of the other HDDs are obvious measures. But what do you do if you cannot unplug the HDD cables because they are quasi frozen and access to the mobo is so tight that you cannot get to it. On my HP box I did it the right way, but this Dell box is a disaster..