Windows 7 boot problem

[Treefity]

Here's the situation:

I had XP installed on a single hard drive. I bought a second hard drive and installed Windows 7 on it. After formatting the old XP drive, I could not boot. I tried bootrec and the built in startup repair, neither worked. I ended up having to install windows 7 again on my old drive. Now when the OS choice pops up, my original 7 install is considered "recovered". How do I make it so I can format my extra drive and still boot?

I can't just wipe them both and start over because I would lose all my music, documents, etc.

Thank you.

 

[Alen43]

Use larger HDD for all your data you have. And OS-es install on one hdd with seperate partition. So when you have to delete one of OS-es just format specific partition and install on same partition. But then you have to configure boot each time you install new os, because boot options have changed. Check this link for dual booting Win XP and 7

 

[gregrocker]

You originally needed to mark Win7 drive active first, then unplug the XP drive, either plug it's cable into Win7 or set Win7 first to boot in BIOS, boot into the Win7 DVD Repair console and run Startup Repair 3 times. It will rewrite the MBR to Win7 after first trying to repair it. Then you could have plugged back in the XP to format.

Please post a screenshot of your full Disk Management map using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attaching file in reply box with paper clip.

The Win7 you wish to save needs to be marked active, then unplug the other HD, make sure the Win7 you wish to boot is set first HD to boot in BIOS (after DVD), then boot into the Win7 DVD and run Startup Repair 3 times.

Post back the screenie so we can verify this and advise you fuller.

 

[Saltgrass]

You need to understand, when you had the XP drive in with the Win 7 drive, the Bootmgr and Boot folder were on the XP drive. When you removed it, you removed the boot ability for your system.

If you would have left just the Windows 7 drive plugged in and removed the XP drive, you could have run the startup repair through 2 cycles and been booting again. A cycle is running the startup repair, then trying to boot the OS, then running the startup repair again, then booting to the OS.

I do not know your current situation, but you need to stop changing things in between responses because that makes all prior responses invalid.

Tell us where you are exactly and provide a snipit of the Disk Management if you can. (diskmgmt.msc)

When you are done recovering the Win 7 install, you can plug in the XP drive and use it like a secondary drive.