Moving the Windows 7 bootloader

[ZimZum]

I have a dual boot system with Windows7/Vista. Both Operating systems are installed on different HDDs. Vista was 1st then I installed Win7. Now I want to format the Vista drive and install a different OS there. The problem is when Win7 was installed it put the boot loader on the Vista HD for some reason. So now I cant format or remove The Vista drive or the system wont load Win 7. I tried disconnecting the Vista drive changing the boot order in bios to the Win 7 drive but it wouldn't boot into W7 at all.

I read you could disconnect the non W7 drive and run Repair from the Windows 7 installation disk. I tried that but the installation disk wouldn't even recognize my Win7 installation.

So is there a way to manually or otherwise move the Bootloader from one HD to another?

Also the Vista drive is IDE and the W7 drive is SATA, if that makes a difference.

 

[ZimZum]

Bump

 

[bruceb]

You can't just move the boot files with normal disk commands. It needs special programs to read / write to the boot sectors. What you can do, is a Start Up repair. Remove the drive with Vista, connect the Windows 7 drive as Primary Boot and then do the repair. Since your Win 7 drive is SATA you need the SATA drivers if windows does not see the drive.

This link is how to do a startup repair in Vista

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html

Next link is instructions for Windows 7

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ss/windows-7-startup-repair.htm

Other option would be a clean install of Windows 7