Solved Startup repair after SSD upgrade on dual boot system, need help!

[toner]

Hello all, Having a little issue here, though I have a slight workaround to get my system running it's still very annoying and confusing.

I have a dual boot system. I had 2 Samsung 840 120GB SSDs and a separate Win 7 x64 installation on each (one tweak for Pro Tools DAW). I got a brand new Intel 520 180GB cheap and did the drive clone with EaseUS Todo backup which worked GREAT (typing from that Intel SSD install now).



Here is my problem:

When I turn on my computer and the dual boot screen comes up, it asks which windows I want to load and the timer is @ 30 seconds, and whatever option I pick it says to run startup repair and I can't go any further.

When I load my startup repair disc and pick either of the Windows 7 installations, it says it could not detect any problems and to restart.

When I restart, the default selection timer is back at the 3 seconds I originally had before I upgraded the SSD and either Windows Installation loads.

I've been thinking and thinking and maybe this has something to do with it:
When I originally installed my SSDs, I had the cables swapped and wanted SATA0 as Win 7 home use and SATA1 as Win 7 DAW use (OCD thing with the numbering and cabling). Well I accidentally plugged them in wrong. So when I switched to the intel drive I switched my cabling the way I wanted it.

But the more I think about it, the startup repair disc says no errors and when I restart from the startup repair options it works, until I shut down of course, then I need to use the startup disc/restart method again.

Anyways, any Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[lehnerus2000]

EasyBCD

Cloning may have given the same UUID to both W7 drives.
If that happened your PC is probably getting "confused" about which install to start.

I accidentally did this with a Ubuntu partition (on my old setup).
I had Ubuntu partitions on my old and new HDDs.
The Ubuntu partition that responded first was the one that started, not necessarily the one I wanted (i.e. it was totally random which HDD was actually running Ubuntu).

You are supposed to be able to change the UUID, but I have no idea how you do that in W7.

Do you have a access to EasyBCD?
You may be able to fix your issue using it.

There seems to be a free version:
EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies

You may want to wait until one of the "boot experts" looks at this thread.

 

[toner]

Thanks for the reply, I will download it and wait for further instruction since I don't want to mess anything up!

 

[DavidE]

Can you post a screen shot of Disk Management?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

A clone "copies" an entire Disk (HD or SSD), including all partitions.
Or, did your clone copy 2 SSD's to a single SSD???

It's not clear to me how/what you cloned from a dual boot using two SSD's to a new SSD, and retained dual booting...
Do you have the new cloned SSD, and the original two SSD's with the OS's still intact?
So, you now have 3 SSD's connected that have an OS installed...???
I think the DM screen print will help answer this...

Imaging may work better for you, as it "copies" per partition.
Wait for the experts for best advice...

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I had a similar problem when 8 was in beta and I ended up wiping and doing away with the dual 7 & 8 boot.

Now I don't know if it is possible but could the SSD that toner wants be wiped clean and then use Macrium Reflect to drag and drop the partitions (OS's) from the other two drives onto it??

Just a thought.

An after thought WHS might be the fellow who would know about this stuff

 

[gregrocker]

We need to see the screenshot of Disk Mgmt first.

But in general with separate HD's it's best to install each OS with the other HD unplugged, then set preferred HD to boot first, boot the other(s) using the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key. If you don't like this arrangement then install EasyBCD to the primary to add the other OS HD's. This still keeps them independent however so that you can remove one.

You can still arrange them this way by Marking Partition Active any OS or it's System Reserved partition that lacks a System flag, then unplugging all other HD/SSD's to run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until it boots itself and wears the System Active flags. Then plug others back in, boot preferred via the BIOS.

 

[toner]

Disk Management window screenshot attached as requested. Photobucket makes it barely legible, sorry.

 

[gregrocker]

Next time use the tutorial David provided for how we want to see screenshots. It would also help since you posted two if each one showed the config with each OS booted. For example I need to know now if Disk0 boots as C as it should provided you correctly told the cloning image to select Auto drive letter.

Nevertheless, mark Disk0 Win7 Active: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Power down to unplug all HD's. Swap the Disk0 cable to the System drive (now Disk3) which is booting both OS HD's so it will be first in order as it should be. Make sure it remains set to boot first in BIOS setup. See if it boots on its own correctly. If necessary install EasyBCD to delete the other OS boot option.

Then power down to swap in the new OS HD which you marked Active, boot the Win7 installer to Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and the partition is marked System Active.

Now plug back in the other OS HD to DIsk1 and boot it when needed using the BIOS Boot Menu shortcut key. If you don't like this arrangement install EasyBCD to the primary OS HD to add the other one, which will keep them independent anyway.

Now plug back in the other HD's one at a time to see if one interferes with either OS booting. If so move its data off and run Diskpart Clean Command to clear the boot sector of possibly interfering code. Then repartition in Disk Mgmt as Logical which is best for data drives so they cannot interfere at all with OS drives.

 

[toner]

Next time use the tutorial David provided for how we want to see screenshots. It would also help since you posted two if each one showed the config with each OS booted. For example I need to know now if Disk0 boots as C as it should provided you correctly told the cloning image to select Auto drive letter.

Nevertheless, mark Disk0 Win7 Active: Partition - Mark as Active (Method Two)

Power down to unplug all HD's. Swap the Disk0 cable to the System drive (now Disk3) which is booting both OS HD's so it will be first in order as it should be. Make sure it remains set to boot first in BIOS setup. See if it boots on its own correctly. If necessary install EasyBCD to delete the other OS boot option.

Then power down to swap in the new OS HD which you marked Active, boot the Win7 installer to Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and the partition is marked System Active.

Now plug back in the other OS HD to DIsk1 and boot it when needed using the BIOS Boot Menu shortcut key. If you don't like this arrangement install EasyBCD to the primary OS HD to add the other one, which will keep them independent anyway.

Now plug back in the other HD's one at a time to see if one interferes with either OS booting. If so move its data off and run Diskpart Clean Command to clear the boot sector of possibly interfering code. Then repartition in Disk Mgmt as Logical which is best for data drives so they cannot interfere at all with OS drives.

Ok, so I did all the steps EXCEPT the last one "Diskpart Clean Command" and with just the Intel SSD plugged in it would boot. When I plugged in the Samsung SSD neither would boot. So I deleted the entry for the Samsung SSD with EasyBCD, restarted, adjusted my BIOS to make sure boot order was INTEL SSD first (since it wasnt), re-added it with EasyBCD and now everything works.

AND, in all this mess with unplugging I still swapped the cables so my DAW install is still DISK0, BUT I dont have to use the repair disk to boot anymore since cloning to the larger INTEL SSD so you know what I'm good, it works!

Thanks!

 

[gregrocker]

If you'd post back another screenshot of Disk Mgmt we can look it over for you for any potential problems.

Glad it's worked for you so far!