Windows 7 won't boot unless another HDD is connected

[EvilYoda]

I've never encountered anything like this...so I replaced my PSU and everything's fine. I try to start my system with just the main HDD and it gives me an error. I finally figure out that another HDD has to be connected in order for the OS to boot.

What could this mean? I don't think it was even connected when I installed! I haven't had this hard drive installed for a few weeks now, I don't get where the issue is coming from.

Is anybody familiar with this? Any solutions?

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
I've never encountered anything like this...so I replaced my PSU and everything's fine. I try to start my system with just the main HDD and it gives me an error. I finally figure out that another HDD has to be connected in order for the OS to boot.

What could this mean? I don't think it was even connected when I installed! I haven't had this hard drive installed for a few weeks now, I don't get where the issue is coming from.

Is anybody familiar with this? Any solutions?

Sounds like an MBR issue. Get easybcd and try to reprogram the mbr on the right drive?

 

[Stevem627]

I'd bet money on the MBR being the issue. Easybcd is the answer for you.

 

[EvilYoda]

Hmph, I'm used to MBR stuff...don't know how it came to be though, considering that this hard drive's been installed with the 1TB one, not the 500GB that it wants now.

Oh well, I'll try it tonight. Thanks guys.

 

[jae]

the other drive is flagged as the active boot drive with mbr info

 

[EvilYoda]

So, after a few times messing with it, including ultimately deleting all MBR settings and adding a new one, it's still telling me the same issue.

Any ideas? I'm not really sure where to go from here. Am I still able to boot the Windows 7 DVD and go into the command prompt and do it the old way?

 

[armstrda]

Was the second drive in the computer when you installed W7? And if it was, was there a possibility it was labeled as the first boot device in the BIOS?

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: armstrda
Was the second drive in the computer when you installed W7? And if it was, was there a possibility it was labeled as the first boot device in the BIOS?

That's the thing, it hasn't been installed for weeks now! ugh.

 

[armstrda]

Wait, so it worked without this drive connected, then all the sudden it stopped working? But if you plug the drive back in it works again? And just curious, when you say it worked without the drive installed, were you booting the system or just using sleep?

 

[DaveSimmons]

IDE drives? Some need different jumper settings for Master with Slave vs. a drive by itself.

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: armstrda
Wait, so it worked without this drive connected, then all the sudden it stopped working? But if you plug the drive back in it works again? And just curious, when you say it worked without the drive installed, were you booting the system or just using sleep?

Yeah, installed it with hard drive A (Windows 7) and hard drive B (new 1TB data drive). Now all of a sudden, after the PSU failure, I can only boot when I have hard drive X (old unused, but still formatted and contains data).

And when it used to work, it was from a cold start.

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
IDE drives? Some need different jumper settings for Master with Slave vs. a drive by itself.

Nope, I know enough that I would look at that...all SATA.