Win 7 tries to boot from the wrong HD / STOP Error 0x00000050

[Megidolaon]

For some reason windows randomly decided not to boot from my C drive where I installed it, but for no reason whatsoever switched to my E drive. Both are 1TB internal HDDs.

This setup worked perfect for a week (I really just got a 2nd SATA cable and plugged in the 2nd HD which was instantly recognized properly by Windows).

In the BIOS I made sure windows booted from the wrong HD and now that it stopped workign I even tried the other (just in case I had made a mistake) but that changes nothing.

But then suddenly windows wouldn't boot anymore and tried to boot from E.
This problem fixed itself after a day, but now I got the aforementioned STOP error and it happened again.
I don't know if the STOP error caused it or if it was just the result of it.

I tried running the automatic repair tool but it did not work, opening the console from it was useless because it kept using X as drive name and I couldn't tell what drive it tried to use.

Is there a way to fix this?
Thanks!

 

[bobafetthotmail]

if that was a blue screen (a BSOD) follow this tutorial. then post the info in a new thread in the BSOD section.

diconnect the other hdd for the moment, to make sure that it's not trying to boot from something else.

 

[Faladu]

I am a little confused at your wording, you only have Windows loaded on the ONE hard drive?

The C: HD of yours, have you checked the cabling ends on it at the motherboard AND the drive, I'd swap that cable out in fact, and get a spare or two if you have none.

I'd try other SATA connectors from the motherboard too, it shouldn't be picky....

It could be failure of the electronics in the C: drive too, I'd attempt to back anything you need on it, ASAP!

 

[TVeblen]

If you can post a screenshot of your Disk Management window we can see in an instant whether this is due to one of the more common causes.
Start > type: computer > click on Computer Management > click on Disk Management > expand the window so all the information is visible.

 

[Megidolaon]

My Windows is installed on the C drive, the E drive only contains data.
Do all SATA connectors on the mainboard work with all SATA devices?
I have 5 connectors total on the mainboard but for whatever reason the SATA DVD drive was plugged into the one right next to the C drive (C came with this new pc, E I kept from an older PC I bought late 2009) despite the connectors being grouped, 2 (bottom) for HDs and 3(top) for DVD drives.

The cable I use for the E drive is a bit on the loose side but still holds, could it be a problem with the cable?
I still have the old PC from 2009 and until last week there was no problem whatsoever. This boot confusion happens once on the old pc as well, but there I could easily fix it by picking the right drive in the BIOS. Besides that I never had a problem with the E drive on the old pc and I was just using it again for 2 weeks while I had sent in the new PC for repair (http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/290070-how-can-i-tell-what-causes-freeze-my-pc.html).

The vendor said they tested everything, apparently they used a hardware check that made billions of tests on the PC, including playing video files which often caused the new PC to freeze up and caused it again just now.
I could, however, not send the E drive in with the new pc because it contains too much personal data and all the stuff I'm working on, etc.

The vendor says they found no problem whatsoever and suggest it could possibly be an issue with a different HD.
Considering that the E drives works just fine on my old PC and I got a lot more stuff installed there than on the new PC, I doubt it is the case, but I am starting to worry if my E drive might have a problem or two that for some reason my old PC (running XP SP3) does not care about but which keeps freezing my new PC.

Now that was a lot of info and I hope it is coherent and understandable, if not tell me and I will try to explain better.

 

[TVeblen]

OK. The E: drive (Disk 1) is marked ACTIVE. Active drives are supposed to contain a bootable operating system. Since the E: drive is just a data drive it should not be marked active. This could be the cause of your startup troubles.

See here for a solution:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html

 

[Faladu]

Ouch, looked at my own rig and System Reserved is Active and SSD main C: space is not.

So no other partition should ever be active?

....and why did OP's system get to not working with same settings?
-What would activate E: on it's own?

...oh yeah OP SATA connectors on the motherboard, use whichever, makes no difference unless you have mix of speeds, then use appropriate faster ones for matching components, if any are applicable.

 

[TVeblen]

No, that is normal Faladu. If you are using a System Reserved partition in your Windows installation then it should be the active partition. Because all the system files are in System Reserved.
There should not be 2 disks or partitions marked active (with some exceptions) or the BIOS/UEFI will not know which partition to hand off to at startup.

We can never be sure what other people are doing or have done with their computers so it is hard to say how these things happen. Sometimes people have more than one hard drive connected when they install Windows, sometime they take a drive that used to have an OS on it and convert it to a data drive without removing that active flag. Could be other ways of doing it too.

 

[Faladu]

In other words, users are holding out on us and often times without their knowledge. :devil:

I was asking specifically about OTHER drives having active partitions, I myself have 4 SATA drives in my case and many external drives, all USB connected, first I recall having active partition be cause of an issue like this, I seek knowledge and sock it away for later, I am halfway through the A+ cert and trying to make sure I try to stay current and find a job eventually....

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Ouch, looked at my own rig and System Reserved is Active and SSD main C: space is not.

That's a trick they made to allow you to turn C: into a logical partition while still being bootable. Which is useful for multibooting

 

[Megidolaon]

Sorry, this got a tad confusing for me.

I have physical C drive with my main C partition containing Widnows 7 and the system partition.
Then my 2nd HD is physical drive E with only a single partition containing some data.

Which os these needs to be active and which must not be active?
I only have one windows and only want to boot one windows.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Remove the active flag from the E disk as said in post 6. Being a data-only disk it does not need it.

Note how the 100 mb system reserved partition (that has no disk letter and is to the left of C) is currently marked as active as well. That partition is the only one that must remain marked active in your current setup.
C, E and anything else should NOT be marked as active.