NTLDR Missing - After removal of old hard drive

[edro]

I recently upgraded my computer (motherboard, cpu, gpu, ram, hdd).
I put a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 on the new hard drive.
It has been working great.

Today, I decide to remove my old IDE hard drive that used to have my old WinXP primary install on it.

When I reboot, I get NTLDR Missing and cannot boot to my primary Win7 SATA drive (C: ).

I put the IDE drive back in, and the computer boots correctly into Win7!

It's like the computer is looking for the old IDE drive as it's primary boot sector, but still boots into Win7 normally.

How the heck do I switch the primary drive to be the new SATA (C: ) drive so I can remove the old IDE drive without my computer getting pissed off?

The old IDE drive has nothing on it except the hidden files like bootmgr, the boot dir and System Volume Information. I have removed everything else from the drive.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Nothinman]

The old IDE drive has nothing on it except the hidden files like bootmgr, the boot dir and System Volume Information. I have removed everything else from the drive.

Which are the Vista/Win7 boot files. You might be able to boot off the Win7 DVD with just the SATA drive in and do a fixboot to fix that, but I'm not sure.

 

[RebateMonger]

I'm not an expert at boot records at all, but I do suggest that, next time, you disconnect all other hard drives when installing Windows on a new drive. Windows can't put boot files on a disk that doesn't exist.

Here's somebody with a similar situation, some links, some explanations, and some pictures that might help.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/SwitchingMyWindows7BootDiskFromDToCWithBCDBootRatherThanBCDEdit.aspx

 

[edro]

I found this video that helped me.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=1306

I had to copy the 'boot' folder and the 'bootmgr' file from my old drive (D) to my new Win7 drive (C).
I then booted the Win7 DVD, used the console, used DISKPART to delete the WinXP partition and set the Win7 drive/partition as Active (it probably already was).
Then, I did "bootrec /fixmbr" on my Win7 drive/partition.
I also tried "bootrec /fixboot" like the video said, but it said Element Not Found.
I exited and then set my (C) as my first boot device and got into Win7.
I then used EasyBCD to remove the WinXP entry from my dual boot screen.
I restarted and it booted straight into Win7!

Good advice Nothinman. For some reason, it put the Win7 boot files on the old XP drive.
I the future, I will remove all drives except the one I want the new OS on. Then I wil reconnect the drives after the install is done.

 

[RebateMonger]

Congrats on your success. And thanks for the link and the detailed description of what you did.

 

[Nothinman]

For some reason, it put the Win7 boot files on the old XP drive.

It'll always default to putting them on BIOS drive 0 and the Windows installer is too stupid to let you change that.