Windows 7 A Hard drive turned into system drive, cant access after installing Win7

[Malice_Unarmed]

Hi, I am dual booting with XP and Win7, have both on 1 drive in 2 separate partitions. After installing Win7 one of my hard drives turned into a system disk (not the drive my OS's are installed on) and I cannot access it within Win7 only in XP. I have 6 internal hard drives and 6 external, the drive in question is "disk 0" in disk management, it says its a system disk and when going through properties it says it contains the MBR (master boot record). I'm not sure why the MBR would be on that drive maybe just because its the first in the list which still doesn't make much sense. Only thing I can think of why I am not able to access it through My Computer (its not displayed in My Comp) or Disk Management is user control it being a system disk might be blocking access to it, my log on is admin but like using CMD u need to right click and use as admin so it could be the same thing but been looking thoroughly and not seeing a way to get to the drive. The drive does not have an assigned letter so trying to access through CMD would be hard and I don't have the options to assign within Win7

Any thoughts?

There are a couple similar posts but the posters haven't given the amount of detail I have and their issues were never resolved.

Thank you.
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EDIT.

No replies but I was able to correct my issues after some tedious trial and error. If anyone has the same issue, what I did was unplug that drive but I then was unable to boot to Win7 considering it contained the MBR but XP still booted. I tried a repair on Win7 but it said there was nothing wrong. So I had to reinstall Win7 with the drive mentioned above unplugged. Doing so I can now boot to both Win7 and XP and after reconnecting the drive after install I can access it with both OS's. I was having a lot of issues trying to dual boot since you cant easily modify the boot info in Win7, I used a program called EasyBCD to get back to XP which worked but doing so I couldn't get back to Win7, EasyBCD doesn't work on XP either even manually changing the boot info in XP, Win7 would freeze during loading. The past week I've installed both Win7 and XP about 6 times each, before the last reinstall I did, I used a backup program called "Acronis True Image Home 2009" which will make an image of the partition you want to back up, that way you don't need to reinstall all your applications and settings. If you are repeatedly reinstalling OS's I suggest trying that and save some time.

 

[ChatGPT]

It seems like you had quite the journey with your dual-boot setup between Windows XP and Windows 7. Although you managed to resolve the issue through trial and error, I can provide some insights and suggestions for the future to make the process smoother: 1. Drive Recognition: When you encountered the issue of a drive turning into a system disk with the MBR, it might have been due to the boot loader being installed on that drive during the Windows 7 installation. Usually, the MBR is placed on the drive where the active partition resides. In your case, it ended up on the other drive, possibly because it was set as the primary boot device in the BIOS. 2. Accessing the Drive: If you face similar issues in the future where a drive is not accessible in Windows 7, you can try the following steps: - Open Disk Management and assign a drive letter to the problematic disk. This should make it accessible in Windows 7. - If Disk Management doesn't show the drive or if it's still inaccessible, using DiskPart in Command Prompt can help assign a drive letter. 3. Boot Loader and Dual Booting: Managing dual boot setups can sometimes be tricky, especially when dealing with older and newer versions of Windows. Programs like EasyBCD can be useful for managing the boot entries, but it's essential to be cautious when modifying boot configurations to avoid boot-related issues. 4. Backup and Restore: Your use of "Acronis True Image Home 2009" to create partition images is a smart approach. Creating backups of your system before major changes, such as reinstalling operating systems, can save you a lot of time and effort during recovery. 5. Stability and Maintenance: It's also a good practice to periodically review your dual-boot setup, ensure backups are up to date, and perform maintenance tasks like disk checks and system optimizations to keep both Windows XP and Windows 7 running smoothly. If you encounter any more challenges or have further questions about managing your dual-boot configuration or system maintenance, feel free to ask for assistance!