Win 7 relies on old Vista Install

[fireberd]

When I installed Win 7 (64 bit), it was on a new hard drive, but it was an "upgrade" from Vista 64 bit. It now must see the hard drive that has Vista or it will not initialize. If I remove the Vista hard drive (I would like to just use it for Acronis backups) and then run the Win 7 setup, will it fix the program so it does not need the Vista install? or will I have to do a complete new install so it doesn't require the Vista?

 

[Jonathan_King]

If you run a Startup Repair (on the repair disc) with the old hard drive disconnected, it should fix it. If not, mark the partition as active and try again. See my post http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34853-common-installation-problems.html for instructions.

 

[gregrocker]

Follow Jon's advice to select and run Startup Repair on the booted Win7 DVD repair console, clicking through to Recov Tools to select it from list.

You may need to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR to Win7 partition.

If it fails then, you need to mark Win7 active. Ask back here for DISKPART commands.

If you want to be certain there are no other issues involved, post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map using Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attach file using paper clip in reply box.

 

[fireberd]

That didn't work. I created the Startup Repair disc, powered off the PC and disconnected the Vista 64 bit hard drive and then booted with the Startup Repair disc. The repair does not find the hard drive with Win 7 on it. I went ahead and went to the repair window and ran the startup repair but it came back with the same thing and ran the startup repair again and it did the same thing - still couldn't find the hard drive (only one connected) with Win 7.

I reconnected the Vista drive and Win 7 boots normally. There must be some type of pointer on the Vista drive that is actually accessed first in order for Win 7 to boot.

I have SATA drives and with the Vista disconnected the Intel BIOS properly detects the Win 7 drive.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try marking the partition as active. See my post http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/34853-common-installation-problems.html.

Then run Startup Repair again, up to three times, as suggested by Greg.

 

[iseeuu]

That didn't work. I created the Startup Repair disc, powered off the PC and disconnected the Vista 64 bit hard drive and then booted with the Startup Repair disc. The repair does not find the hard drive with Win 7 on it. I went ahead and went to the repair window and ran the startup repair but it came back with the same thing and ran the startup repair again and it did the same thing - still couldn't find the hard drive (only one connected) with Win 7.

I reconnected the Vista drive and Win 7 boots normally. There must be some type of pointer on the Vista drive that is actually accessed first in order for Win 7 to boot.

I have SATA drives and with the Vista disconnected the Intel BIOS properly detects the Win 7 drive.

When you disconnect the Vista drive, try moving the vista SATA connector to the 7 hard drive? Someone posted awhile back that this fixed a prob for them?

Cheers!
Robert

 

[Phone Man]

For what I understand you are Dual booting. Is this correct?? With Vista as the first OS the boot files are on the Vista drive and that is why you are getting the problem. Others on here can give you a detail fix as I wouldn't want to give out bad info.

Jim

 

[gregrocker]

As suggested, you need to mark Win7 active before it will write the MBR to Win7 using Startup Repair X3.

To do this, boot into your Win7 DVD Repair console, select from Recov tools list Command Line, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (replace # with Win7 HD #)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (for Win7 partition)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Now return to Recovery Tools list and run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR to Win7.

If this fails, replug Vista, boot into Win7 to post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attaching file using Paper Clip in Reply box.

 

[fireberd]

It's fixed. I had to make the partition active as noted, ran the startup repair twice and it booted up without problems.

Thanks