Windows 7 I am lost...please help!

[bitmonx]

here are my specs; C2Duo 3.0Ghz Wolfdale, EVGA 750i SLI FTW, 4GB DDR2 Crucial Balistix, 1x 1TB WD Caviar Black FALS HDD, 2x 500GB Seagate SATA2 HDD, 1x LG DVD SATA Drive, Corsair HX1000 PSU, 2x EVGA GTX275 in SLI., Case HAF932. Keyboard (G15) and mouse (G9) are USB from Logitech

I installed Windows 7 (W7) first to one of my 500GB HDD's (no RAIDand it was a fresh clean install). Install was perfect. I have lots of data on this HDD like pics, sound and DVD files. I decided to have W7 on my brand new 1TB HDD and use the two 500GB HDD's in a RAID Mirrored with XP Pro on it. So I installed W7 on my WD 1TB HDD. Install was easy.

Now to my problem. I have now 2 copies of W7 installed in my PC but on different HDD's. When I boot up with all HDD's connected I get a screen which lets me choose between two Windows 7 versions. I can use either version fine when selecting, but if I disconnect the one 500GB HDD with W7 on it and correctly set in the BIOS to boot from the WD HDD I am unable to boot. I get this message:
Client MAC ADDR: 00 1F BC 00 1C AF GUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0807-060504030201
DHCP...... and a spinning -/\ is here. Nothing is happening then. So I hit ESC and it says:
PXE-EAO: Network boot canceled by keystroke
PXE-MOF: Existing NVIDIA Boot Agent
Disk boot failure, insert system Disk and press enter

I can't boot from the 1TB HDD without having the 500GB HDD set as boot HDD.
How can I fix this? Thanks for help.......

 

[mike2k9]

The errors you are seeing are from your system trying to use the PXE boot option, which boots over the network and is looking for a RIS server. It is bypassing your HDD because somehow the Boot sector got messed up. I know, you're saying, but the installs were on 2 seperate HDD's. Yes, the same thing happened to me. I had Win7 32bit on one HDD and Win7 64 bit on a seperate drive. When I accidently messed up the 64 bit (messing with video settings and couldn't see anything anymore) I decided to disconnect it and just use the 32 bit version. Well, it would no longer boot from that drive anymore.

I don't know how this happens, so if someone has an explanation, it would be nice

 

[bitmonx]

Can I fix the boot sector? Somehow I already know the answer........

So basically a fresh install.......Not again!!!!!!

BTW; The Mobo was brand new and I did a BIOS update on it. I don't know if that has anything to do with it but after the BIOS update I tried to boot from only the WD 1TB HDD and that's when I recognized the problem. I did not try to boot directly from the WD 1TB HDD before the BIOS update so I can't tell if it has something to do with it or not.......

 

[mike2k9]

I'm sure there are ways to fix the MBR. I've tried it in the past but never successful. I've installed Win7 9 times so, don't be

Always make sure you can re-install your OS without worrying about losing your files. It's a sad realization. Hopefully someone else can help you out, but this is normally the point I say "F it, re-install"

 

[loathe]

Can I fix the boot sector? Somehow I already know the answer........

Put the Windows CD in and boot to that, with the HDD you want the boot manager on. Choose repair and Windows should find there is a problem and fix it for you.

 

[bitmonx]

loathe I was really hoping you were right........but no you were not.......

As mentioned before, I have one 1TB WD HDD and two 500GB Seagate HDD's. One copy of W7 is on the WD HDD and another is on a 500GB Seagate HDD. However, I have found out that the nearly empty 500GB HDD has to be connected to the Motherboard for Windows 7 on the WD HDD to start.

I did put the W7 DVD in and selected repair but first of all the Operating system that should be repaired was not even shown. I selected to load drivers and there was the WD 1TB drive shown as C: and a boot file under X:

How the hell did my boot files end up on that 500GB HDD?

Strange.....

 

[loathe]

loathe I was really hoping you were right........but no you were not.......

As mentioned before, I have one 1TB WD HDD and two 500GB Seagate HDD's. One copy of W7 is on the WD HDD and another is on a 500GB Seagate HDD. However, I have found out that the nearly empty 500GB HDD has to be connected to the Motherboard for Windows 7 on the WD HDD to start.

I did put the W7 DVD in and selected repair but first of all the Operating system that should be repaired was not even shown. I selected to load drivers and there was the WD 1TB drive shown as C: and a boot file under X:

How the hell did my boot files end up on that 500GB HDD?

Strange.....

Why did you pull the drive? Are you planning to put it back in at any stage?
Put the other drive in the SATA port of the drive you pulled to replace it, or better still put it in SATA port 1. You may also have to clear the CMOS. By the sounds of it, Windows cant find it to boot to it. Check that the drive appears in the boot order in your BIOS

 

[daprez546]

I have encountered this conundrum before. What worked for us was using EasyBCD to change the boot order. Once you are booted up to the drive you want to use for the OS, then you can access the "offending" drive and clear or move its contents. There are solutions available using "Disk Management" and/or removal of the boot manager file from the "offending" drive as well. You can also use EasyBCD to remove the "offending" drive as a bootable entity. Good luck and we hope you keep your data intact.