Win 7 - no disk error

[richdave]

I installed a second HDD and installed Win 7 onto it and then t/f all data from the original VISTA HDD over.

Been running just fine for a few months. Decided to remove the old VISTA drive and now I get "no disk" error when I boot

I assume that the boot files reside on the old VISTA drive as I used to get the boot manager screen asking which OS to boot.

What is the easiest way to make the Win 7 disk bootable now?

TIA

 

[Sardonicus]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[Shootist]

The reason that happened is Windows, all versions, installs files on the first drive in the system no matter what drive you install the operating system to.
So when you installed the new drive, and it not being the first drive, and installed Win 7 on it Win 7 copied files to the drive that Vista was on, the first drive in the system. Once you removed that drive all the boot files were gone.

Not sure a repair install will fix this but it's worth a try.

 

[richdave]

It appears that trying a repair install will not resolve this as the drive dies not seem to even be recognised!

Any other ideas?

 

[Sardonicus]

It appears that trying a repair install will not resolve this as the drive dies not seem to even be recognised!

Any other ideas?

The boot order may have changed. Go into the BIOS and make sure that the HDD you're now using is selected. If you select the drive and it still doesn't boot, then change the boot drive to optical (CD/DVD) and try Startup Repair.

 

[theog]

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

 

[richdave]

Thanks theog for the post. Unfortunately it did not help. I have booted many times and tried a repair to no avail.

 

[Shootist]

Thanks theog for the post. Unfortunately it did not help. I have booted many times and tried a repair to no avail.

If you put that vista disk back in your PC it will boot to Win7 or if it is setup as a dual boot you will have that back again also.

All the files to start either Win7 or Vista are on that other drive. Without it the system will not boot. As you have found out.

 

[richdave]

All the files to start either Win7 or Vista are on that other drive. Without it the system will not boot. As you have found out.

yeah I get that... I want to "fix" things so I can remove or reformat the VISTA hdd

Is there a solution?

 

[richdave]

Is there a solution?

well YES actually and an easy one too.

I booted with the VISTA drive in place and selected Win 7 from the boot menu

Then I installed EasyBCD2.02 and used it to resolve my problem.

From the main menu, I clicked on BCD Backup/Repair, then selected change boot drive, Then selceted "C" (the Win 7 drive)

and viola! The HDD was made bootable. After a shut-down and removing the VISTA drive I rebooted and got the boot menu again and selected Win 7 and booted OK

I then used EasyBCD to delete the VISTA entry from the boot menu via the Edit Boot Menu option.

 

[fafhrd]

Here's the manual way it should be done, I think:

Boot from the Windows 7 DVD, SHIFT-F10 from the first menu to bring up a command prompt window
Type DISKPART
from the prompt:
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free
-------- --------------- ------ -----
Disk 0 Online nnnnn GB nnnnn B
DISKPART> select disk 0
Disk 0 is now the selected disk
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size
------------- --------- -------
Partition 1 Primary nnnnn GB
DISKPART> select partition 1
Partition 1 is now the selected partition
DISKPART> active
Partition 1 is now active

Reboot, startup Windows 7 DVD again and at the Windows Recovery console, shift-F10 at the first dialog again.
Now for the Boot Sector:
The Windows installation is on C:\Windows on an active partition. There is no boot information, no master boot record (MBR) and no Boot Configuration Data (BCD.)
From the recovery command line prompt, type:
BCDBOOT c:\windows
Then
BOOTREC /FIXMBR
BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD
reboot by typing SHUTDOWN /r
That should get you going.

 

[Shootist]

Is there a solution?

well YES actually and an easy one too.

I booted with the VISTA drive in place and selected Win 7 from the boot menu

Then I installed EasyBCD2.02 and used it to resolve my problem.

From the main menu, I clicked on BCD Backup/Repair, then selected change boot drive, Then selceted "C" (the Win 7 drive)

and viola! The HDD was made bootable. After a shut-down and removing the VISTA drive I rebooted and got the boot menu again and selected Win 7 and booted OK

I then used EasyBCD to delete the VISTA entry from the boot menu via the Edit Boot Menu option.

Right. Glad you got it fixed. But you needed that Vista drive in the system to do it.

 

[richdave]

But you needed that Vista drive in the system to do it.

Correct - I needed to boot "normally" so that I could get the Win 7 OS running so I could install EasyBCD.

Final tidy up was to use EasyBCD to skip the boot menu altogether - edit boot menu and tick the skip boot menu box and then to set the appropriate HDD as the first boot device in BIOS and then remove the VISTA drive altogether

I figure there may (must?) be another way to do this... what would I have done if the VISTA HDD had died or something...

I'd be interested in knowing IF there is a way to do it with just the Win 7 disk installed

 

[richdave]

Here's the manual way it should be done, I think:

hey thanks fafhrd for the detailed reply. I had already installed EasyBCD when you posted. But I guess you have answered my last question about a manual way to do the repair with only the Win 7 disk available.

I'm guessing your answer will come in handy for someone else though