Windows 7 + multiple drives

[BladeRy]

Hi

I have 3 Hdds in my PC. On 2 i have installed WinXP, and they are installed separately, so i can boot without the other drive present. My motherboard has a boot manager so i can choose the boot drive.

Now i installed Win7 on the third drive, when the other 2 were disconnected.
It works fine by itself, but when i connect the other 2 drives, and choose the drive to boot from, the Win7 one says it has no OS installed. Other XPs boot correctly.

Any idea how to fix this?

Tnx

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi

I have 3 Hdds in my PC. On 2 i have installed WinXP, and they are installed separately, so i can boot without the other drive present. My motherboard has a boot manager so i can choose the boot drive.

Now i installed Win7 on the third drive, when the other 2 were disconnected.
It works fine by itself, but when i connect the other 2 drives, and choose the drive to boot from, the Win7 one says it has no OS installed. Other XPs boot correctly.

Any idea how to fix this?

Tnx

BR

Yep the problem was that the xp drives weren't attached when you installed win 7. there is something you can do. You need to use a boot editor like BCDEdit which is built into win 7. before you attempt to I suggest you read the tutorial on bcdedit in the tutorial section its here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html?ltr=B

If you have questions after you read it let us know

Ken

 

[wallyinnc]

Hi BladeRy, welcome to the forums
Take a look here: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/5173-windows-7-install-problem-vista-xp-dual-boot.html
I think that is your problem. You may have to repair the win7 install with all drives on.

 

[wallyinnc]

Darn, never faster than Ken...

 

[jfar]

Darn, never faster than Ken... [/QUOTE

He has a saddle on those cats of his.

 

[BladeRy]

BR

Yep the problem was that the xp drives weren't attached when you installed win 7. there is something you can do. You need to use a boot editor like BCDEdit which is built into win 7. before you attempt to I suggest you read the tutorial on bcdedit in the tutorial section its here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html?ltr=B

If you have questions after you read it let us know

Ken

Tnx for the info.

Before I go and possibly ruin something, i was wondering if there was any way that W7 drive could boot with/without other drives present. With only the built in boot selector from the motherboard.
If i make a boot loader for 1 drive, and then remove it, there goes the independent boot drives option. I would be the happiest if Win7 didnt write anything in boot sequence of other 2 drives.

In the "Windows 7 install problem (Vista and XP dual boot)" thread, the solution is mostly for win Xp/7/Vista on different partitions, not different physical drives.

 

[DeaconFrost]

You could always run a repair on the drives that won't boot, with their respective OS disc, and no other drives present.

I was going to suggest doing away with dual-booting, as it's an out-dated, and unneccessary method, but I don't think you'd be happy running any type of VM software on the computer listed in your specs.

 

[BladeRy]

You could always run a repair on the drives that won't boot, with their respective OS disc, and no other drives present.

I was going to suggest doing away with dual-booting, as it's an out-dated, and unneccessary method, but I don't think you'd be happy running any type of VM software on the computer listed in your specs.

Well, for the repair of the other drives, its senseless. Both drives with XP work independently, and i can boot any one of them. I have no boot managers than the motherboard one that lets me choose which drive to boot from. So i see no point in repairing them.

As for Win7, i am trying to figure out a way to let them boot with other drives present. But letting Win7 adding a boot manager to any drive is pretty much out of the question.
I tried W7 v7033 a while ago, and this didnt happen, and i did the exactly same procedure in installing.

 

[DeaconFrost]

If you disconnect the other drives before you do the Windows 7 install, it couldn't possibly write to them. This is how some people used to handle multi-boot setups. Then, when you power on your PC, you have to go into the quick-boot menu and pick which drive to boot from.

 

[BladeRy]

If you disconnect the other drives before you do the Windows 7 install, it couldn't possibly write to them. This is how some people used to handle multi-boot setups. Then, when you power on your PC, you have to go into the quick-boot menu and pick which drive to boot from.

That is how i installed Win7. Now i can only boot Win7 when no other drives are connected.
When i connect them, and try to boot the drive with Win7, it says there is no OS installed. That is the problem. XP drives still boot correctly.

 

[wallyinnc]

BladeRy, have you tried to repair the Win7 installation with all drives on? I have had that and in the boot options I have "previous versions of windows" and "Windows 7". "Previous versions of windows" will bring you to the XP boot manager. "Windows 7" will load Win7
Running the repair on Win7 with the other drives on (obviously not touching them) should repair your boot options

 

[BladeRy]

BladeRy, have you tried to repair the Win7 installation with all drives on? I have had that and in the boot options I have "previous versions of windows" and "Windows 7". "Previous versions of windows" will bring you to the XP boot manager. "Windows 7" will load Win7
Running the repair on Win7 with the other drives on (obviously not touching them) should repair your boot options

I tried repairing the boot with the win7 dvd with all drives connected. It said it needs to restart to finish, and then same thing, no OS found after restart. It still works solo...