My C drive changed to D, windows restarts on boot up

echo_beta

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I recently moved to Australia from an extended stay in China and haven't booted my computer up till now. Got a new mobo and cpu since I knew I needed one. However on boot up, windows freezes (Without blue screen since not hardware issue) then it restarts.

Upon further looking around I found my C drive had no files on it but curiously found them all on D.. no partitions on the disk, only have the bare basics plugged in (hard drive, disk drive).

My questions are 1. Why is everything showing up on BIOS on D drive instead of C (through the command prompt in recovery mode).. 2. How to fix it? Copy all files to an external, delete D then move them all back to C? or just a fresh install?

Going to a local computer store tomorrow since I don't have all the tools to do it myself.
 
Solution
If you can boot up the old drive in Safe Mode, you could run Magic Jellybean Finder. It will retrieve the product key. The problem with just looking for the key is it's hashed in the registry, it's not something you can search for in the registry.

However unless you purchased the retail version of Windows 7, you are not legally entitled to move it from one computer to the next. Since your new motherboard and CPU are technically a new computer, when you attempt to activate Windows, it will detect that the hardware is different. How it does this is when you activated it the first time, Windows scanned the motherboard, finds 10 common devices and creates a unique key based on what it finds. The key is registered with MicroSoft and is...

echo_beta

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Well I took it in earlier today to see if the techs could figure what was wrong but they couldn'tind the installation of windows (probably searching on C drive).. But my old mobo is shot and all the PCI-e slots are damaged so I can't install the drivers that way.. so ill take it back in the morning to see what they can do to back up my data and reinstall (lost my disc and key a long time ago).
 


Well assuming its an OEM version of Windows, you'll need a new Windows license as your product key is tied to the motherboard it was installed on. Sometimes you can call MicroSoft and explain the situation, but the EULA clearly states that you can't take your copy of Windows to another machine. Technically a new motherboard and CPU are another machine. So you'll have to pony up for another copy of Windows.

Did you have data on both disks before this? If not, it could be that if you switch the SATA cables on your motherboard around, your old C drive will return to C. However that doesn't mean it will boot since as Martell has pointed out, it's trying to boot with drivers from your old system.

The good new is that you could install your new Windows onto the empty drive which is now your C: drive (if you don't mind it that way) and then copy over your files from your D drive.
 

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Well I have 1 hard drive and a cdrom plugged in to the motherboard.. So I don't see why if I move it over to C that it wont work..

But installing on a new hard drive, maybe much faster one might be the way to go. Then using the other drive for just media storage.. Ill let you know in 12 hours if I got the first option working (Still not sure why its being shown on D drive, nothing is on C and we were able to copy some files over.. just not enough space to copy it all).
 
OK I took it that you had two hard drives and one had your windows files and the other was empty. Well that explains a little. If you don't have a DVD/CD in what is your C drive, of course there would be no files.

If you swap the SATA connectors on the motherboard, the BIOS should have your hard drive on C and your ODD on D.

That still won't fix your problem about not booting as we've already established that it's because it's trying to load drivers for your old system.

If all the above is the case, the easiest solution would be to buy a new drive and windows and install windows on the new drive. Then back up your user files from the old drive once your up and running. You could even treat yourself to a SSD for a boot drive (huge bump in boot speed) put Windows on it. Then backup your user files, format your old drive and then copy your user files back and set windows up so that it finds your user files on the old drive.
 

echo_beta

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Yeah, I was trying,to remember the name of the SSD.

But even with no discs or anything in the cd dvd drive it still shows the stuff on D with nothing on C. Even with a CD in, it shows still nothing on C.. maybe a way my old mobo stored the data differently I was thinking. I used to use an EVGA x58 sli le and changed to an ASUS H87-PRO.
 


How are you viewing the files on the drives? You aren't able to boot into Windows, are you booting off a CD/DVD?
 

echo_beta

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Hit the wrong button.. crap..

Using the BIOS tools on the ASUS mobo.. as well as the command prompt through system restore in advanced system restore options. Can either be when windows crashes, restarts and prompts system restore.. or with a system restore disk.
 


Normally this is how I connect my drives. If your SATA ports start at 0, I use SATA 0 for my boot drive, any other HDDs/SDDs on the next number drive SATA 1, SATA 2, and so on depending on the number of drives. Of course if your motherboard has them labelled starting at 1 then just shift that order by 1. Either way in your case you'd want your HDD plugged into the first SATA port. In fact you could place the ODD on the fourth SATA port, it doesn't really matter.

I unselected the solution you picked as I figured that the crap was because you selected my last post as the solution.

Going to have supper, a run, a bike, and bed. I'll check in with this in the morning.
 

echo_beta

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Well I'd believe what you said had I not been able to copy some of the files manually to the C drive from what the ASUS board is reading as a D drive. It stopped because my HD didn't have enough space to copy everything over (I was able to copy them over in the command prompt in advanced system restore options, when I did the dir command on C drive it said no files but D drive had them all from my old C drive). So it's similar to the mobo trying to read the HD and then creating its own partition, or thinking it created its own partition and tries to read it rather than the actual windows files?

Yeah I hit the solution button by accident, and thanks for the help so far. Its stumping me as to why its moved drives.. I would have had a new install today or update but couldn't find the files at the store.
 


OK, I'm getting confused, how many hard drives do you have. I'm under the impression that you only had one and one ODD?
 
I believe what is happening with the drive letters is due to how you are accessing the drive. When accessing it the way you are, the computer is creating a temporary DOS partition so that you can access the drive via that interface. This partition is not intended to hold any files, its just for diagnostics and access. This partition is given the C drive letter, so your files and Windows install are bumped to the D drive letter. If you were able to get into Windows, the D drive would be your DVD drive and C your regular drive(as normal), provided you don't add partitions or additional drives. The C drive you are seeing is just a temporary diagnostic drive.

The booting to Windows issue is as I stated before, it's loading drivers for the old board and crashing. Fresh Windows install is needed.
 

echo_beta

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Yeah I found out ASUS mobo's create a 100MB partition on any drive I would install even a brand new drive. I bought a new equivalent drive to backup all my data.

My thought goes on as follows:
1. Move what I want to keep to the new drive with an unregistered version of windows currently.
2. Reinstall windows onto the old drive but would the new installation (same version of windows) pick up the old windows key that I had installed? And if i did a custom install of windows will it delete all my data and files or store it in a windows.old file? (Techs at the local store told me this was possible but when I look at the custom install it says it will delete and do a fresh install).
3. Move data back to the old drive and reformat the new drive and then use it as a backup/extra drive for storage.

or..

Could I using the new drive try to install the mobo drivers to the old drive and have it work that way? (Im guessing this isn't possible but doesn't hurt to ask)

Techgeek, sorry for the confusion but I had 1 HD until today when I bought an equivalent sized HD to back up the data.
 
I would install Windows on the new drive, update and configure everything, then move the data from the older drive to the new one and use the old one as a second drive for storage. Depending on the age of the old drive, the new one is possible faster and would give you better performance.

How was Windows 7 installed? OEM (pre-installed by Dell, HP, etc.) or did you buy a copy and install yourself? If OEM, there should be a sticker with the code somewhere on the computer for Windows 7 or older. If its a copy you bought, you should have a Disc and the code with it.
 

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Well the old drive has 20,000 hours or so on it (used it quite a bit over 5 years and my old CPU cooler had a time gauge on it which read 9997, it had crossed 10,000 once before and reset to 0).. So I should probably use the new one as the main drive rather than the old one.

For Windows 7 I built the computer myself so I "had" the disc and key.. but somewhere along the journey from the US to China to Australia over 5 years it got lost.. I was told there is a way to retrieve the key once i get windows up and running, but only if i get it running on the original hard drive. But what I am trying to avoid is having to rebuy windows for basically the same machine..
 
If you can boot up the old drive in Safe Mode, you could run Magic Jellybean Finder. It will retrieve the product key. The problem with just looking for the key is it's hashed in the registry, it's not something you can search for in the registry.

However unless you purchased the retail version of Windows 7, you are not legally entitled to move it from one computer to the next. Since your new motherboard and CPU are technically a new computer, when you attempt to activate Windows, it will detect that the hardware is different. How it does this is when you activated it the first time, Windows scanned the motherboard, finds 10 common devices and creates a unique key based on what it finds. The key is registered with MicroSoft and is forever tied to your product key. The same process will take place when you activate it on this computer except this time when it sends a different key based on this new hardware, activation will fail.

Like I said originally, it would be best to install the OS on your new drive. In fact I would keep the old drive disconnected while installing Windows and going through driver installs, updates, etc. This way you don't accidently pick the wrong drive to format and install Windows on. Then once you've got everything set up, reconnect the drive and copy your data off of it. Putting Windows on the new drive just makes more sense from a reliability and performance point of view. The newer drive should have a longer life span than your old one (unless you've gotten unlucky and gotten a dud) and newer usually means faster though likely not by much.
 
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echo_beta

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Yeah it makes complete sense.

It will fail as well when trying to boot into safe mode and I can't slave the drive and get the key afaik that way.. most, if not all programs that will retrieve the key will search only the active main drive for a key and nothing attached, correct?

So my current plan of attack is to take the computer in tomorrow and have the techs at the store ghost an image and see if they can retrieve the key in any way. Meanwhile also backing up all my data and most of what I have on my original HD to the new HD later tonight just in case they mess the ghost image up (just as a backup-backup plan). 700-900 gb of data may take a bit to copy over but I have a night to do let that copy on its own. If that doesn't work maybe finally succumb and buy a new copy of windows which is what I am still trying to avoid.