Solved Win Install Split Between Two Drives

[Lyserg]

Ok, so here's my problem that I've been working on for almost ten hours now, hopefully someone can solve it for me in ten minutes (won't hurt my feelings a darn bit).

I have two internal hard drives and one external:
Drive 0: 330gb - Windows 7 installed here on an extended part.
Drive 1: 750gb - Intended to be NTFS Storage Drive, but also wound up containing the 100mb System part. somehow.
Drive X: 500gb USB containing a backup and system image of the two internal drives.

What I'm trying to do (and expected it to be a heck of a lot simpler) is to install the Windows and the System partitions (including bootloader) onto Drive 1 and remove Drive 0.

Problem is, I cannot make an image of just Drive 0 because it doesn't contain the System partition, and because Drive 0 is in an extended partition (God only knows why) I cannot mark it as active and therefore cannot use Windows Repair to make Drive 0 a standalone. At this point, I cannot boot Windows without Drive 1. I say that because I'd planned to repair Drive 0, make a new image, and then install that image onto Drive 1. Because my current image contains both drives and thus cannot be installed onto just one drive.

Any ideas welcome. I have a boot disk of both Win7 and GParted.

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

I'm off to bed shortly as it's getting very late over here, so I'll make this my last post of the day.

Please upload a screenshot of your fully expanded disk management layout.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

Others will be along I hope to help you out.

 

[Lyserg]

Unfortunately I don't have access to Windows at the present moment as I'm in the process of reimaging both drives. I thought I could have Windows repair create a system partition by removing the other drive, that's when I realized the problem of the extended partition. Since the current Windows install is not in a Primary partition, it cannot be set as active, and thus cannot become a stand alone as is. The drive layout listed in my OP is complete tho, nothing extra.

 

[SIW2]

The entire 330gb is an extended partition?

 

[Lyserg]

That's correct. Theres only one partition on the drive, so I have no clue why its extended.

 

[SIW2]

Either :

1.Convert it to Primary with Free Partition Wizard boot disc.

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition ...

Rt click the partition (logical drive in fact )

select Modify>convert to Primary, click Apply

Mark it active, run startup repair from win7 repair cd/ install dvd 2 or 3 times.

That will make Drive 0 standalone - make sure it is first in bios boot order.

Or :

2.Use something more flexible than windows sys img.

Macrium free is popular - fast, too. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Make an image of only the windows partition on Drive 0 then restore it to somewhere on Drive 1.

You will need space on Drive 1 to restore it to, obviously.

Doesn't matter if it was logical when you imaged it - macrium will give you the choice to restore as primary or logical ( assuming you have enough partition slots - else it will be restored as logical , of course)

Macrium will automatically sort out the bcd entry during restore process

 

[Lyserg]

Worked like a charm. I had no idea you could change a partition from logical to primary (mainly because I've just been using GParted). Thank you much.

 

[SIW2]

Glad you got it sorted out.