When are they going to fix the serious flaw with boot files with Win7 installs?

[VirtualLarry]

Is this fixed, in a pre-slipstreamed SP1 disc?

It seems that you MUST disconnect ALL OTHER HDs, other than the boot drive that the OS is going on, otherwise Win7's installer has a disturbing propensity to install the bootloader partition onto an otherwise non-bootable data disk.

See this thread for a good example:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2149138


I've seen this happen countless times, and I've nearly had it happen to myself. For some reason, the SSD in port 0 on the mobo on the Intel ICH9R/10R was showing up in Win7 as disk 1, and the HD in port 1 as disk 0. I had to unplug the HD before installing Win7 on the SSD.

 

[MrChad]

This has been the case with nearly every version of Windows I've ever installed.

 

[lowrider69]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2149138

That sucks.

When I installed Windows 7 early last year I unplugged all my drives except for the one I was installing Windows to just out of habit and past experience. I'm glad I did. I remember I almost didn't, I was lazy that day and thinking about it and decided to spend the extra 4 minutes and just do it.

 

[Nothinman]

This is an issue with every OS, others just give you more flexibility in where the boot loaders go. Windows just always picks one and goes without letting you choose where. The order in which the OS sees disks isn't guaranteed, it's affected by hardware spinup time, driver load and init order, etc.

 

[KeypoX]

I have never had this happen, always installs on the install drive.

 

[Nothinman]

I have never had this happen, always installs on the install drive.

I'd say you've been lucky then.

 

[SimMike2]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2149138

That sucks.

When I installed Windows 7 early last year I unplugged all my drives except for the one I was installing Windows to just out of habit and past experience. I'm glad I did. I remember I almost didn't, I was lazy that day and thinking about it and decided to spend the extra 4 minutes and just do it.

Good advice. I do this all the time now. I didn't do it for one install of Windows 7 and it put the boot loader on a big data drive full of video and music. When I went to the Windows backup utility to make an image backup of my small OS partition, it selected the huge data drive also. So I could not image the small OS partition without the huge data drive to. Made the image backup useless. Now I disconnect all other drives until the install is done.

 

[JimKiler]

I have never had this happen, always installs on the install drive.

This was never an issue for me until Win 7 and I experienced it. I assume it took the current boot drive as the boot file drive for my first win 7 install even though i set the install drive as another partition and drive.

I never had this issue with previous Windows operating systems.

 

[Modelworks]

I switched to using virtual drives for all my OS, it is just easier to manage.
Make one partition on the drive.
Create a VHD for each OS you want to run.
Add the VHD to the boot loader.
No OS can screw up any other OS this way and backing up is easy , just copy the VHD file.

Currently have :
Windows 7 64 bit.
Windows xp
Fedora
UcLinux
Ubuntu

Also split off the installs of applications and games to their own VHD.

To install windows 7 to a VHD , during the first part of the install , right after it load setup files, press SHIFT+F1 for a command prompt. Run DISKPART and create the VHD drive you want to use then attach it. Close the command prompt and during windows 7 setup it will see the VHD drive like a regular hard drive and you can install to it. It will put the correct options in the boot loader.


I was concerned with doing it in the past because I was concerned about it maybe being slower, but if it is I can't tell it.

 

[Lorne]

Had same issues before with several OS's but mainly Win7,,, I have always disconnected extra drives.
I have a friend who also now belives in this after his 2TB secondary (Full of his music and porn) were cleanly formated and a clean install of seven was installed over it even though he choose the org primary.

 

[Matt1970]

I have sen XP format both drives in a machine even though it was told to only format 1. I have also seen the upgrade installs say it will put the old data in WINDOWS.OLD yet it never show up.

 

[wrockisland]

I'm having a WIN 7 bios issue that is killing me on a Dell T3400. Somebody out there must have had this happen to them, cured it, and is back to drinking beer!

Got the T 3400, new to us, without drives. Bought three new drives, started the install. Set bios to Raid. Loaded Win 7 in a Quick silver SSD. Loaded drivers. Everything went swell. Installed two 2-TB drives. Set bios to Raid 1. Loaded more apps and drivers. Made Document file and put empty folder in one of the Raid Drives. Double checked drive condition in Computer Management. Both drives (C) and (E) showed up. (C) was partitioned. Went to bed fat and happy.

Next morning. Start the workstation. No boot drive. Wrangle the boot drive out of the bios, and get the properly captioned drives to appear in the boot sequence. Viola! OS7 starts up.

Next morning, same stuff. Called the guy who sold me the new drives.
He suggests I change the bios battery. Oddly enough during another restart wrangle the computer suggests the same thing. Old battery tests 3 volts. New battery tests 3 volts. Nothing changes. Computer still says the battery is getting low. Hmmmmm.

Today I've had to rearrange the bios a couple times. The Mercury SSD keeps on going bye bye every time I shut the thing off.

The only clue I haven't explored is when I get to the Disk Volume/Information screen (after the Control India screen) is why the Raid Volume is listed as item 0 in Port 4&5 , and is bootable? The Mercury is listed in Port 0, and isn't captioned bootable or not.

I must be barking up the wrong tree, anybody have any suggestions!
Steve