Multiple OS problem

NuClArPeNgUiN

Honorable
Aug 28, 2012
14
0
10,510
I have a 500gb hard drive with win7 on it and a 1tb hard drive for storage.
One day i decided to format and install win7 on the 1tb and use that as my main drive, now whenever i boot my pc i get an option between the two different Win7 installs. The thing is the 1tb doesnt work/boot without the 500gb being plugged in, it like there tied to eachother. Also when the 1tb hard drive is plugged into a new pc it isnt recognized as a boot device( it is detected in the bios).

All want to do is leave the 500Gb hard drive in my old pc(works perfectly) and use the 1tb hard drive in my new pc, I'd like to try and avoid format/re-install win7 on the 1tb hard-drive. So basically is there anyway i can get the 1tb hard drive to be recognized as a boot device?
 
Solution
Right.
What you did will not work.

What you did:
500GB drive with Win7
Then, you installed Win7 on the 1TB (why?)
It now gives you the option of which one to boot into.

Why does it do this? Because the System Reserved partition (boot info) lives on the original 500GB drive.
It now knows about 2 OS's.

Take that 1TB out, put it in a new PC, and no boot. This is the expected result.
Why? 2 reasons:
1. No boot partition on that 1TB drive
2. You generally can't move an install between PC's like that.

Solution?
Install the 1TB drive in whatever hardware it will live in
Install the OS on that drive
(Yes, this will wipe out whatever is on that drive now)

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Right.
What you did will not work.

What you did:
500GB drive with Win7
Then, you installed Win7 on the 1TB (why?)
It now gives you the option of which one to boot into.

Why does it do this? Because the System Reserved partition (boot info) lives on the original 500GB drive.
It now knows about 2 OS's.

Take that 1TB out, put it in a new PC, and no boot. This is the expected result.
Why? 2 reasons:
1. No boot partition on that 1TB drive
2. You generally can't move an install between PC's like that.

Solution?
Install the 1TB drive in whatever hardware it will live in
Install the OS on that drive
(Yes, this will wipe out whatever is on that drive now)
 
Solution