Cannot boot W7 with old XP drive attached

[liamjf]

Hello, hopefully someone can help!
I have a new system that I have just built with a GB GA-Z77-DS3H motherboard and a brand new Vertex 3 SSD. I have installed W7 64bit from dvd and all seems well.
However, when I attached the old HD (samsung 1TB partition into 2 drives) it always attempts to boot from the old xp install on the samsung drive and I get an error and it won't boot
I can boot without the samsung HD attached and then plug it in afterwards and read/write no problem. I have deleted the old XP partition (drive F) and reformatted it under W7 but that hasn't helped. I need to keep the second partition (Drive G) as it contains all my data (photos etc.)
I assume its something to do with the bios and Windows Boot Manager -
In the BIOS Windows Boot Manager is the boot preference and in fact it won't boot from drive C (the vertex SSD with W7 on) if I select it directly, only from WBM
I have tried various options in the bios - disabling CSM support and booting in UEFI mode only but I really don't understand these options and I have only managed to get it to not boot at all.

How do I format my F drive so that the Bios doesn't think that there is an OS on it (which there isn't anymore) or how do I alter my BIOS so that it will only boot from my SSD?

Many thanks, Liam.

 

[ViRGE]

It would appear that you've managed to install Win7 in UEFI mode. This makes things tricker.

The issue I suspect isn't what's on the second drive, it's the presence of the second drive. Do you know which SATA ports you have your drives plugged into? UEFI is still a bit funky right now, and if the drive configuration changes it has a bad habit of not realizing the drive it wants is at a different place on the list. I'd try plugging that HD into the last SATA port, and see if that gets you anywhere.

 

[liamjf]

Thanks for the advice Virge, I suspect you may be right!
Some (not much!) progress.. I can now boot with the drive attached IF I delete the volume; going and then creating a new simple volume (Primary partition, Basic, NTFS) means the PC won't boot until I delete the volume again.
My SSD (C) is plugged into SATA3 0 (The first SATA 6Gb/s port)
The DVD is in SATA2 3
My other HD that I have no issues with (H) is in SATA2 1
The problem HD (F/G) is currently in SATA3 1 but I have swapped it with the other HD to no effect.
Which drive do you suggest I plug into the LAST port (Is that SATA3 1 or SATA2 3?). Obviously the SSD is in SATA3 0 as its a 6Gb/s drive, the others are all 3Gb/s

How do I install W7 NOT in UEFI mode? The install is only a few days old so if that is going to solve the issue then I could re-install but not sure what I did wrong!

Cheers, Liam.

 

[ViRGE]

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of experience chasing down UEFI boot issues, so for 3 drives I don't know what a working order may be, or even if there is a working order.:|

As for installing Win7 in BIOS mode, you'll have to check your documentation. On that motherboard I believe you need to set the optical drive to be the 1st boot device, and make sure the boot device you select is not prefaced with UEFI, which would indicate it will try to boot that drive in UEFI mode.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It may be a gigabyte bios bug.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2315058