Maximum PC

Brand new SSD I install Win 7 on. Go online, download updates, played with it for an hour. Restarted itself tons of times but when I went into BIOS to have it boot directly to the SSD, pc wouldn't boot to it!!!

Did the install thru the DVD, changed all the settings, went online no problem. Even shut the pc down a bit but it was still pointing to the DVD player. I just didn't hit any button when it asks "Press any key to boot to DVD" and it would boot to the SSD. Finally went into BIOS to make it point to the SSD and no go. Wouldn't boot. Any ideas???

Forgot to lay out my setup.

I have 3 mechanical drives and one has Win 7 installed on it. I installed the new SSD and Win 7 today and all went well. It rebooted a bunch of times and when it worked it was booting to the DVD player first, when I did not hit any key it booted to the SSD successfully.

Also, I can't boot to the Win 7 on the mechanical drive with the SSD plugged into the SATA port, I have to unplug it or the first Win 7 hangs and won't continue to boot. Once SSD is unplugged the 1st Win 7 boots fine. SSD shows up in BIOS fine.

While the Win 7 on the mechanical drive was running and I was in AHCI mode, I decided to plug my SSD switch SATA ports and plug my SSD into a different port and BANG, Windows recognized it and I could see it in My Computer. Big cause the old Win 7 wouldn't boot with the SSD plugged in. Now I can see it run programs from it so I restarted hoping the SSD would boot. When you have multiple drives running Win 7 you get to pick which one during startup and I picked the Win 7 running on my new SSD.

It actually started to boot, Starting Windows appeared and the 4 pieces of Windows logo started coming but then they stopped and froze. The only thing on it is the operating system, I can try again tomorrow from scratch to install and pay close attention to what I am doing, focus on making sure it can boot. Any suggestions would be helpful.

When you installed Windows 7 on the new SSD drive, did you unplug all of your mechanical hard drives first? If not, I would suggest doing that, then try quick-formatting the SSD and reinstalling Windows 7 from the DVD again and go from there.

You did go into the BIOS and set the SSD drive as your boot drive right?

1st post.

What's weird is I swapped SATA ports and now my SSD still won't boot but the 1st version of Win 7 on my mechanical drive shows the SSD when before it did not. I thing the SATA port the SSD was plugged into was crapping out. Slave drive works fine plugged into it but the SSd won't boot from it.

I need to repair/rebuild the boot sector and from what I am reading, I can do it thru the install disc. It has some kind of Recovery program but my Win 7 is actually Vista Home Premium then the Win 7 Upgrade DVD. Which disc do I use to fix boot sector?

I use SSD for OS and a few proggys and that's it. I guess I got no problem reinstalling but like I said, I have to install Vista first then upgrade to Win 7.

If I were to try and repair the boot, which disc would I use the Vista or the Win 7 upgrade?

Use Win 7 for repair.
If you do a reinstall, just use the Win 7 upgrade. You run it through twice. When you run it the first time and it gets to the point of asking for the activation key, don't put anything in the boxes and continue on. When it finishes, you then run the upgrade again and this time put in the activation key.

First, you don't have to install Vista first, you can do a clean install which doesn't require Vista installation. Yes, even with the upgrade version of Windows 7.

Okay, that's not quite accurate... I've done 8 installs (initial installation + 7 re-installs) of Windows 7 Pro Upgrade in 2 years on the same computer (each after various hardware upgrades) and I only had to install XP twice... First install was to 16GB Compact Flash card but the reader stopped working shortly after that first installation, so I switched to a spare 80GB hard drive for the 2nd XP install. It's extremely helpful to have an external enclosure, especially if it's one with an on-off button...

1> What you need to do is install Vista to a spare hard drive and activate it, if in the computer, unplug the SATA data cable (not power cable), or unplug or turn off external enclosure.
2> Install Windows 7 through your method of choice - I use the USB thumb drive install, but the method used doesn't matter. USB thumb drive is just more convenient for me.
3> When asked, choose custom install instead of upgrade
4> Select & setup SSD for install, then begin install.
5> When you reach the point that installation asks for the Product Key, turn on external enclosure or plug drive back in then enter your product key. After entering your Product Key, Windows installation will automatically search for a valid upgrade ready product (XP/Vista), installed then continue once it's found. After installation progresses you can then remove the drive & store it for later use, keep it plugged in, or whatever else your heart desires.

Although Dedgar's reinstall method should work, it's against the EULA. The upgrade version requires a licensed & activated previous or current version of Windows (7 Home to 7 Pro for example) to be legal and within the terms of the EULA. You cannot activate Windows without an activation key, thus, you're violating the EULA.

Your bootloader is installed elsewhere.

Why you didn't put the SSD in the primary spot to begin with (read: before installing) is beyond me...

I have a 64GB version of that SSD and seem to be having the same problem booting to my Shuttle computer. I've installed Win 7 64-bit and the Shuttle drivers when I got to the Windows desktop, but when I reboot I get the spinning balls and then it immediately stops. The monitor reports it isn't getting a signal. I tried using the repair feature during the boot from the Windows install disk, but the diagnostics say there is no problem in the boot up sequence.