Solved W7/Linux Mint dual boot upgade

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello John.



Can you tell by looking at the 2 1TB HDDs which one has Winsows 7 on it?

 

[johnwillyums]

I think it's disk 2. It's marked as (c) and has Healthy( System, Boot, Active, crash Dump, Primary Partition.... written on it.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

No I mean when you actually look at the HDDs can you tell (do you know) which one is which?

Can you tell them apart?

 

[severedsolo]

John, if i'm reading your disk management screen right then Disk 1 has linux on it. it's showing as active, which Linux does even though 7 can't read what it is. Weird that it's in NTFS but if it isn't an OS it shouldn't be Active

 

[johnwillyums]

Also, when it wouldn't boot this morning I disconnected the other 2 drives and it booted into Windows. I reconnected with the system running and it can now see them (obviously)
I had already taken Linux Mint of my boot loader as it didn't work. I just got a couple of small symbols at the top of a blank page if I tried to boot into Mint.
I think maybe it was never on the 81GB partition. As I say that just says free space. Does that mean that Linux is gone?

 

[severedsolo]

John, did you see my post above? what happens if you disconnect all but Disk 1?

 

[johnwillyums]

Hmmn. Hard to tell. It is NTFS and when I open it I can see my backup media files and docs. Not sure why it's active. Are you sure linux isn't on that 81GB partition on Disk 0?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

When you actually look at the HDDs can you tell which one has Windows 7 on it?


Forget about what disk management says for now.


Can you tell the HDDs apart physically?

 

[johnwillyums]

Physically I know that the uppermost disk in my case is the Windows disk. The only way I finally got it to boot this morning was by disconnecting the other 2.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Do you have a manual for the mobo that shows the #1 SATA port?

 

[severedsolo]

I'm going to step out for now, as I think I'mprobably confusing you. Fix the HDD problem first, then I'll weigh back in

 

[johnwillyums]

Hang on I have an pdf manual. You mean the actual physical port on the mobo.?

 

[johnwillyums]

Im assuming you have lost the ability to dual boot too?

Yup. That failed last night. As I said above it wouldn't boot so I took it off in easyBCD.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hang on I have an pdf manual. You mean the actual physical port on the mobo.?

Yes connect the Windows 7 HDD to the #1 SATA port of the mobo and set it as the first boot device in the main PC BIOS.

Leave all the other HDDs disconnected for now.

 

[johnwillyums]

Here's a pic of the mobo layout. As I say I believe that the uppermost drive in the case is the W7 one. This morning I disconnected the other 2 and it finally booted.
The Sata cable from that drive is coming form either sata 2 or sata 3.

 

[johnwillyums]

I'm not sure I can do that the BIOS is not really behaving itself.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I just sent you a PM, I have to go out for a while and will be back after bit.

 

[johnwillyums]

I'll try. Hopefully be back shortly.

 

[johnwillyums]

Ok. Thanks for your help

 

[johnwillyums]

Ok. I've now disconnected all my drives and then put the W7 drive in what should be sata port1.
It's not very clear which is 1 and which is 0 as they are on top of each other so it depends how you look at the diagram.
I notice it says disk 0. Does this mean I've got the wrong port?
Anyway, it has booted ok and I've left the other two drives unconnected as you suggest.
I notice that at boot, when the boot screen comes up it now only has Windows 7 (obviously) however if I try to choose this by pressing enter on the keyboard nothing happens. I have to wait. I'm sure pressing enter resulted in instant action previously.
I also now know which is the 500GB drive and the other 1TB drive.

I'll wait for you to get back before experimenting any further. I think it's me bumbling around that has caused this snafu.

Thanks to you both for your input, John