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Windows 7 won't boot after installing new HD

B

burnside

Junior Member
I just got a SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB and installed into my PC. My PC is a Dell with 2 500GB drives running RAID 1. I just want to use my new 1TB drive to store photos. When I boot up the PC I see all 3 drives in the BIOS, but after getting past the BIOS screens I never can get into Windows 7. I did notice that the BIOS (after pressing F2) sees the SAMSUNG as a RAID drive, although when going into the RAID utility (CTRL-I) it sees the SAMSUNG as a non raid drive.

Any clue how to get the new drive to boot up?
 
Hey, welcome! Is it possible that you are trying to boot from the new drive, as it may have become first in boot order. Make sure the Raid array with windows on it is first in bios boot order, so that there are no issues trying to boot from a drive with nothing on it.

GL!
 
Thanks for replying! I looked at the boot sequence and saw it was:

1) CD/DVD
2) RAID Array(0)

Let me know if you think of anything else.
 
Set the boot priority of the 500GBx2 RAID to position number 1. Why is your opening post stated RAID 1 but in your second post it becomes RAID 0?
 
It's a RAID 1 configruation, but on the RAID screen it says Array (0). I'll change the config so the RAID Array(0) boots up first and report.
 
Still didn't work. I attached a screenshot of my RAID utility screen for more information.

IMG_0528.jpg
 
Then try removing the 1TB HDD and boot to the OS first and in the OS plug the 1TB HDD like a hotswap HDD and do a clean format from there. See if that would make the 1TB HDD distinct from the RAID array.
 
Unplug the SATA connector before you boot up and connect the SATA connector to the HDD when you are already in the OS. You could say it is something like a hotswap device where you plug it the HDD on the fly in the OS environment. The OS should detect the HDD and most probably you could do a format once the OS has detected the HDD.

No guarantees that it will work though, I'm just going all out with alternatives methods till something eventually works.
 
OK, we're getting somewhere. I plugged in the drive while in the OS. I then went to Computer Management and here is the screen I see. I don't know what to do next to allocate the space. What should I do now?

disks.jpg
 
It seems that your HDD @ Disk 6 is not initialized. Follow the steps below that I have extracted from here or you could just watch this video. Just use the whole 900GB+ as a single NTFS partition. There are plenty of tutorials about formatting the unallocated space.
Initialize New Disks



To initialize new disks
  1. In Disk Management, right-click the disk you want to initialize, and then click Initialize Disk.
  2. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize. You can select whether to use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style.
Note The disk is initialized as a basic disk.



Additional considerations

  • New disks appear as Not Initialized. Before you can use a disk, you must first initialize it. If you start Disk Management after adding a disk, the Initialize Disk Wizard appears so you can initialize the disk.
Click to expand...
 
So I initialized then formatted the disk. I assigned the disk a label and all that good stuff. Rebooted and got the same issue. Once the PC gets past the boot screens there is a blinking cursor and that's it. Any ideas?
 
That means that your BIOS insists on reading from the 1TB HDD which does not have the necessary MBR like the 500GBx2 does. The blinking cursor is common symptom when such condition occurs.

Other alternatives is to try other available SATA ports on your motherboard or tinker with the settings in the BIOS to fix the problem, which is the most likely cause. Also I would like to know what are Disk 1 - Disk 5.
 
Disk 1 and 5 are just for the card readers. There are 4 SATA ports on the motherboard. 1 and 2 are for the RAID 1 array, port 3 is for the DVD drive and port 4 I used for the new HD. I switched the DVD and HD ports to see if that would help but nothing.

I'm trying to see a way in the BIOS to switch something up, but no changes seem to help out. This sucks!
 
My last resort, update your BIOS. Go to your motherboard manufacturer's website and download the latest BIOS and flash it to the latest version. There should be plenty of instructions as well for this and varies a little bit depending on the manufacturer.
 
burnside said:
I'm trying to see a way in the BIOS to switch something up, but no changes seem to help out. This sucks!
Click to expand...

Somewhere in your bios it should list your drives boot order. Looks like the added drive bumped the array down. Hunt and see if you can find it. Maybe under Boot options.
 
I already had the RAID array as the first boot device. For some reason, the system is seeing the new drive as a RAID drive. I contacted Dell and went through some steps, but nothing worked. Eventually our chat session closed, so I'll try contacting them tomorrow.
 
dma0991 said:
MBR by default. GPT if you have HDD >2TB and a UEFI BIOS.
Click to expand...

GPT by default because its more reliable. MBR only for backwards compatibility only if you absolutely have to use it. Since he isn't booting from the drive and isn't dual booting winXP there is no reason not to go GPT on a spare drive.

burnside said:
I already had the RAID array as the first boot device. For some reason, the system is seeing the new drive as a RAID drive. I contacted Dell and went through some steps, but nothing worked. Eventually our chat session closed, so I'll try contacting them tomorrow.
Click to expand...

you use a dell motherboard?
 
Dell mobo's use custom dell firmware.
It sounds like you have discovered a firmware bug in that dell firmware. Expect them to never ever fix it. I highly dislike that aspect of dell.
 
Last edited:
You could switch mobo. or you can probably work around the issue by plugging the new drive to a cheap add on SATA card.
External enclosures suck and tend to kill drives very very rapidly. I would avoid them.
 
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