Maximum PC

My 3 year old SSD died 2 weeks ago. 60gigs (costs $300) and I only kept Win 7 and a few proggys on it. 3 other standard drives were slaves.

So I had to run out to Worst Buy and get a quicky WD hard drive and install Win 7 on it to get me buy. Just pulled my new SSD, OCZ Vertex 3 (got great reviews) and installed Win 7 on it so now my system has two Win 7's installed on two different drives. Of course I will use the MUCH faster SSD all the time but it's my first time with this type of setup so I had some unexpected things happen and of course questions.

1. When the dust settled and Win 7 was finally installed on my new SSD (along with Win 7 on another drive from a week ago), I made BIOS boot to the SSD and I got a message saying to install a proper boot device and press any key????? Then I had BIOS point to the other regular drive that has Win 7 on it and a DOS type screen came up and asked me which Win 7 I want to start up. Chose the top one assuming it was the latest install/SSD and it was. Booted up fine this way. Why didn't the SSD boot up normally before? Was it because there are two versions of Win 7 installed on two drives? Really don't want to have to wait every time I power up to also choose which Win 7 I want to boot to.

2. I have VLC Player, among other proggys, installed on both drives that have Win 7 installed. C drive is the SSD and the D drive is the Win 7 install from a week ago on a regular drive. If I start up VLC Player from the D drive and watch a movie, doesn't that take workload away from the C drive?? I want the C drive since it's so fast to be the drive that downloads stuff off the net and I assumed if I ran VLC from the D drive, that would help.

Most importantly, I just want my system to boot to the SSD drive, is there any way I can make this happen? Can anyone explain WHY it's not being recognized as a bootable device?? Why the D drive just doesn't startup and asks me which Win 7 I would like to start up? Thanks.

Ohai.


The problem is that the SSD is missing the boot partition. You have one of two options: reinstall without the hard drive, or follow this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 10%29.aspx

However, be sure to obliterate the boot partition from the hard drive, as it might cause problems.


Whatever download speed you're getting is "infinitely" slower than the hard drive's maximum throughput, I assure you. SSDs aren't meant for writing, they're meant for reading.

Just don't understand what I did wrong. I installed the OS the exact same way I did the SSD it replaced. The only obvious difference is that there is a regular hard drive now that also has Win 7 installed on it, that's it. Is THAT the problem???

Why is it when I tell bios to boot to the non-ssd drive that I was successfully using and instead, it gives me a choice between the two OS's????

Ohai, again.

The problem is that the bootloader is not on the SSD, it's on the HDD. When you installed Windows on the SSD, the Windows installer picked up that there was already a bootloader on the HDD. So instead of making a new one on the SSD, it just added it to the existing one on the HDD. So when you attempt to boot from the SSD, there's no bootloader, so the computer doesn't boot. When you boot from the HDD, there is a bootloader, and it has information on the Windows installs that you did.

Keep in mind that having multiple bootloaders may be troublesome. I would advise you to delete the bootloader partition on the HDD. However, this means you can't boot from the HDD anymore.

So basically I should have unplugged the hard drive with Win 7 installed on it while I installed Win 7 onto the new SSD??

If I do this and reinstall the SSD with Win 7, will it boot straight away or will it do what the hard drive is doing now on startup.....asking me to choose between the two Win 7 installs???

Maybe I should have explained myself better so I could get the help I need.

My 3 year old SSD, which was my C drive and only had OS and a few proggys on it, finally blew up 2 weeks ago. Cost me $300 but it was worth it to have such a fast drive run my OS, you know? All 4 other drives were slaves that way, if/when the C drive would crash I would never lose the vast amount of media I have stored on my PC.

So I rush out to Worst Buy and get a quickie replacement standard WD hard drive, install Win 7 and get back up until I get a new SSD. This drive, when I get a new SSD, will become just a slave drive after I install Win 7 on new SSD.

New SSD shows up in mail last night and I install Win 7 onto it and realize it's a good thing having two OS's on my pc so if/when the new SSD craps out on me, I can just have BIOS point to the old drive with Win 7 on it and not miss a beat until I get a new SSD. Like an insurance policy. I was also thinking, maybe wrongly, that I could run a few programs on the old hard drive that has Win 7 on it while my new SSD is busy downloading and doing other things. You know, like split duties.

It seems if I want to boot to the new SSD, I'm gonna have to unplug the HD with Win 7 on it which I don't mind reformatting the SSD (unless there is an easier way to put a bootloader onto it).

So let's say I do that and I plug BOTH drives in. SSD and hard drive both have Win 7 installed with bootloaders intact. If I tell bios to boot to the SSD, will it still go to a DOS screen and ask me which Win 7 to use?

Also, right now I am booting to the hard drive then being asked which Win 7 I want to use. I select the Win 7 on the SSD but since I had to boot to the hard drive, is the hard drive still being used even though I am running Win 7 on the SSD???? I want a complete break, when I am using the SSD Win 7 I want the hard drive with Win 7 to do nothing. Thanks for listening and the help.

Just thinking.......is there a way I could install the bootloader onto my SSD thru a Windows repair? I remember there was that option when I started the install.

Actually, my version of Win 7 is Vista with a Win 7 upgrade. So instead of doing a complete reinstall of my new SSD with the other Win 7 hard drive unplugged, could I choose the repair option on the disc and get the bootloader installed onto the SSD????

Ohai, again.

It seems you can't listen to instruction. I just told you how to solve your problem. But you won't listen to me, instead you continue to complain that you cannot boot onto your SSD if you told BIOS to boot from it instead of the HDD. That or you're not very clear on what you want. Do you want to boot just from the SSD, or do you want to have the option to boot from the HDD as well?

So I will reiterate the steps again, and if you cannot follow them, I'm afraid I've done all that I can and will consider this a hopeless cause.

1. Boot into the HDD, using the HDD's Windows 7 install
2. Download and install Partition Wizard or some equivalent program.
3. Shrink your SSD's Windows 7 partition by about 100MB
4. Create a new partition with this 100MB space with drive letter S:
5. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage. Right click on the 100MB partition and select "Mark Partition as Active"
6. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> right click on Command Prompt, select "Run as Administrator"
7. Type in: Bcdboot #:\Windows /s S:. Bcdboot, where # is the drive letter assigned to the SSD Windows 7 install. So if the SSD Windows 7 install is assigned drive letter D:, the command would be: Bcdboot D:\Windows /s S:. Bcdboot
8. Reboot into the SSD, it should now boot just fine.
9. If you want to get rid of the menu when you boot into the HDD, while in the SSD's Windows 7 install:
10. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage. Format the smaller system partition in the HDD, give it a drive letter T:
11. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> right click on Command Prompt, select "Run as Administrator"
12. Type in: Bcdboot #:\Windows /s T:. Bcdboot, where # is the drive letter assigned to the HDD Windows 7 install. So if the HDD Windows 7 install is assigned drive letter D:, the command would be: Bcdboot D:\Windows /s T:. Bcdboot
13. Reboot into the HDD, it should now boot without the menu

OR

• Reinstall Windows on both drives, with the other one disconnected during the install.

This will be my last post. The instructions to do what you want are all here or in the link provided a few posts back. Good luck!

Ohai, again.


Dr. Lat, I super appreciate ALL the help you have provided but I stopped reading your post after #3 where you said:

"Shrink your SSD's Windows 7 partition by about 100MB".

My very first post I said my 60gig SSD died and I had it replaced. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that it was obvious I replaced it with another 60gig SSD.

Let me make it as simple as possible. I have an existing hard drive with Win 7 installed on it along with 3 other drives that are just slaves. I would like to install a 60gig SSD with Win 7 on it and be able to boot to it straight away. I want to keep Win 7 installed on the existing hard drive as a back up in case something goes wrong with my SSD. Ideally in the end, my system would have one 60gig SSD running Win 7 as the main C drive, included would be 4 other drives one that also has Win 7 installed on it that I can boot to by simply pointing BIOS to it if something goes wrong with my SSD.

Just trying to learn as best I can and thanks again so much for all of your help.

*edit* when I say "hard drive" that is referring to the common spinning hard drives. SSD of course is for the Solid State Drives.

Well my LatiosXT friend I just wanted to tell you all is well in the SSD world.

I don't just come to forums like this for answers I put my time in and spent the entire night loading and reloading Win 7 and one problem.... on startup after the quick diagnostic check I would get SATA 2 not compatible with ATAHI Press F1 to continue.

Putting in so much time you try everything and the final winner was swapping the SATA cables between the DVD drive and the SSD and BANG!!!!

MOBO screen comes up, diagnostics runs but quickly and without an F1 prompt, just keeps going. I get the DOS looking screen with two Win 7's stacked on each other waiting for me to pick one and before, I had to physically be there to pick one which sucks when you just want to hit one button and power up your rig.

This time, the newest SSD Win 7 install was on top and highlighted and barely 5 seconds later it booted itself!!!!! Can't believe it!!!

Do you really think a CABLE can have that much of a difference?? They are both rated SATA II but the cable I plugged into the SSD was much newer looking. I guess it makes a difference plugging the latest and highly regarded latest SSD into a 3 year old build but I finally got what I wanted. My system boots directly to the SSD with Win 7 on it along with all my other hard drives and of course the one hard drive that also has Win 7 on it. Thanks for helping me get there.

Both this topic and another one have much enlightened me on installing to an SSD. I have also downloaded Sean Webster's guide. I installed Win7 to a 60g SSD, and made the mistake of leaving the HDD plugged in, and so ended up with the problem of incorrect boot. I have a new SSD (also an OCZ, I am a faithful type) of 240G, and I plan to reinstall to that SDD and put the 60G in my wife's computer.
I have a Goflex, and Memeo backs up everything, so I am tempted to format the HDD, and re-install from the beginning. Is there a danger with this programme ? Has anyone done this (perhaps with another backup device) ?
I seem to remember a how-to article in the magazine, or am I dreaming ?
Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated. If, or when, I go ahead, I will come back here and make a report.
Famous last words: no problem, everything is backed up....