Solved Two Active Partitions - No errors yet, but is this a problem?

[LaurieD227]

You are totally confused, windows files are on C and your data is on the hard drive it will stay there, don`t worry about that.

Before you do anything, just pull Disk 0 and see if windows boots, if it does, you won`t have to do anything but put the SSD on Sata Port 0 and you`ll be fine :banghead:

When fixed right your boot order in the bios should be...

1st DVD drive
2nd SSD
3rd disabled
4th disabled
5th disabled.

Sorry to drive you crazy.

When you say pull the drive, I assume you mean physically remove it, the same way I would if I were swapping it out as I have done in my old laptop. Right?

If I do that, and it still boots, is there a software method to change the SSD to work from SATA Port 0? I know how to change Drive letters, but I assume it isn't that simple.

When I then reinstall the HDD, would I have to assign it to a new SATA port myself, or will the operating system do that?

And yes, as soon as I click Save on this post I will go look for a tutorial that covers this.

 

[gregrocker]

Not normally will System partition move with any other than Startup Repair or a Reinstall.

Another way to avoid having to swap cables or drives is to convert any preceding Primary partition to Logical, which is easy to do with How to set partition as Primary or Logical with Partition Wizard .

If you're not satisfied with Factory Recovery, look over these steps for doing a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7

 

[whs]

I think I know what happened here. When they installed the OS on the SSD, they did not disconnect the HDD. And since the installer has this habit of grabbing the first disk it finds to place the bootmgr, it landed on the HDD.

If you ever reinstall the OS on the SSD, you have to pull the HDD out. Or do what Brian and Greg recommend which is swapping the SSD and HDD in the disk bays.

 

[AddRAM]

Greg recommended switching cables, which a laptop doesn`t use

 

[gregrocker]

What did I just suggest in my last post?

 

[AddRAM]

No, there is no software, if it boots fine by itself, you just put the ssd where the hard drive is, the hard drive is now on sata port 0.

Why are you making this so difficult ? I have explained it over and over again.

This is a laptop, THERE ARE NO CABLES, you just install the hard drive and slide it in to connect it to the connectors, there are no cables.

 

[whs]

Brian, we hear you load and clear, LOL

 

[AddRAM]

Maybe you do, but she doesn`t :roflmao:

 

[gregrocker]

I explained why swapping the drives is also optional, because it might not even make the OS drive DISK0 as we sometimes see, and the problem can be avoided simply by converting any preceding Primary partition to Logical.

So it is is completely optional to move the drive, in spite of Brian's hysteria.

And I'm quite aware a laptop doesn't have drive cables.

 

[whs]

As I said earlier, it is the boot sequence that matters and not the port. But for a possible future reinstall, it is better to have the SSD on port0. Else the same will happen and the bootmgr will land on the HDD - unless you take the HDD out during installation.

 

[gregrocker]

If the preceding data partitions are Logical then you can Repair and Reinstall all you want and it cannot place the System boot files on the Logical partitions.

 

[AddRAM]

It`s not hysteria, what if the other ports are only 3 Gbps and ports 0 and 1 are 6 Gbps ???

Huh Huh, what then Huh. You know as well as I do the OS drive should be on Sata Port 0,1 etc.

And if you know laptops don`t have cables why did you insist twice about swapping cables ? ( rhetorical )

The OP has been given plenty of info on what she should do, now let`s let her decide how she wants to proceed

 

[gregrocker]

I missed that it was a laptop in the beginning, a common mistake. If you don't stop ankle-biting me, Brian, I am going to block you and you will disappear forever.

I've dealt with this very issue here thousands of times.

 

[whs]

Let's give it a rest. I am sure the op will come back if she has questions. She has been very cooperative.

 

[LaurieD227]

No, there is no software, if it boots fine by itself, you just put the ssd where the hard drive is, the hard drive is now on sata port 0.

Why are you making this so difficult ? I have explained it over and over again.

This is a laptop, THERE ARE NO CABLES, you just install the hard drive and slide it in to connect it to the connectors, there are no cables.

Sorry again. I've never had the luxury of having a laptop with two separate internal drives, so I am not familiar with the hardware. I thought perhaps you couldn't swap the two drives, that perhaps they might be different physical sizes or something. My bad!

I was pretty sure that there were no cables, since I actually *have* swapped hard drives in other laptops more than once. However, when others referred to cables I thought perhaps I was missing something.

BTW, I've found some interesting information elsewhere in this site that may be applicable - will post as soon as I've caught up with the other feedback.

 

[LaurieD227]

I think I know what happened here. When they installed the OS on the SSD, they did not disconnect the HDD. And since the installer has this habit of grabbing the first disk it finds to place the bootmgr, it landed on the HDD.

If you ever reinstall the OS on the SSD, you have to pull the HDD out. Or do what Brian and Greg recommend which is swapping the SSD and HDD in the disk bays.

Yes, I think you are right. I've seen articles and posts that confirm that Windows will write the System files to the earliest Primary Partition it finds.

 

[LaurieD227]

First of all, thank you all for pitching in and being responsive, and for not cursing me out despite any teeth-gnashing I may have inspired

Second, I found some very interesting information about drive numbers versus SATA port numbers and the fact that apparently drive numbers can sometimes change from one boot up to the next. At least this was true in a number of threads on this Forum a few years ago, as written by people who are way smarter than me in this area.

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/178209-dont-know-why.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/178674-diskpart-disk-management-vs-bios.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...-port-numbers-vs-assignemnt-disk-numbers.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...rt-disk-management-vs-bios-2.html#post1519407

The gist is that you can't count on the physical SATA port number to always correspond to the drive number, and that sometimes drive numbers will change for no apparent reason so what used to be Drive 1 is suddenly Drive 0 and vice versa.

They also pointed me to the following KB:
Article ID: 937251 - Last Review: January 16, 2014 - Revision: 7.0

Disk drive numbers may not correspond to the SATA channel numbers when you install Windows on a computer that has multiple SATA or RAID disks


There were some choice quotes in this one:


"Devices are presented in the order in which they are enumerated. Therefore, the disk assignment numbers may change between startups. The enumeration order may change over time between system boots, depending on timing factors such as aging hard disks taking slightly longer to spin up.

You may experience this problem if you configure the operating system during installation or if you perform a recovery process that was provided by the computer manufacturer. This problem may also occur during regular computer startup. Therefore, hard disks may have different disk numbers across multiple system startups.

Additionally, when you install Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, or Windows 7, the installation creates a system partition alongside the Windows partition by default. The system partition is created to accommodate a BitLocker requirement. BitLocker requires that the boot files and Windows files are located on separate partitions. If the preselected default hard disk is not changed, the system partition is created on the disk that is detected as Disk 0.

Microsoft has confirmed that this problem occurs because of design limitations in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem occurs because drives are enumerated in the order in which they are presented to the operating system through Plug and Play. Any apparent consistency in disk numbering is coincidental and/or a side effect of the equipment and drivers used."




Don'cha just love it!

 

[gregrocker]

Did you see this one too? OS disk not disk 0 - Windows 7 Help Forums

This is why it may be easier just to assure your data partitions are Logical.

 

[LaurieD227]

Did you see this one too? OS disk not disk 0 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Hadn't seen that thread, but it eventually references the same MS KB article as the others - and the 2014 date on the article says this hasn't changed

This is why it may be easier just to assure your data partitions are Logical.

Yup - only having 1 Primary partition looks like the only way to permanently address this

Right now all 3 of my HDD data partitions are Primary ones
- I assume I can change the two that don't contain System files to Logical right away
- For the one that has System files on it, do I need to move them first and then change it to Logical? I would assume so, but I have made it clear that I am no expert

 

[gregrocker]

Once you move the Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD,

reboot while setting the Win7 drive first hard drive to boot in BIOS setup.

Once it boots, in Disk Mgmt confirm the System Active flags are on C.

Then you can mark Data partition Inactive if EasyBCD doesn't do that for you: Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

So that you can then set the 3 data partitions Logical with Partition Wizard.