Took out HDD now computer won't boot

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Ezenemy

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Oct 25, 2012
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Hello,

I have three drives. One of them is a 1TB SSD and the others are two normal 1TB HDD. I have three copy of Windows installed on each for specific reasons. Usually when I turn on my computer a nice screen pops up and asks me which one I want to boot into. However, I plan on replacing one so I took it out, and when I did, this happens when I try to boot -

http://imgur.com/AaRubnE

I've never seen it before and I can't get past it. I went into my boot options to try to fix it and this is what I see -

http://imgur.com/JgGvPN9

It usually is "Windows Boot Manager" as my boot option.

I don't know what to do, please help. I haven't even plugged my other drive in yet (it's another SSD) and I've never seen this. Whoever can fix it I'll give you a $10 game on Steam or something.
 
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PsyKhiqZero

PsyKhiqZero

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Jun 1, 2008
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I believe windows install the important boot info on a single drive, even when there are multiple windows installs on separate disk. It's just a theory of mine as I had a similar problem. Plus I noticed that when you format the first hdd it will create 3 partitions then only 2 on the next disk.
1. If you re-install the HDD will it boot? Will it boot without the other 2? (assuming the disk is in working order when you pulled it.)
2. IF the disk is in working order can you try cloning it to the SSD.
 
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Mike Prior

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Jul 24, 2013
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Although it's listed in the sata info, this doesn't mean the other disks are listed in the boot priority.

On my system, I too was running several OS's on 3 bootable disks. I too removed one disk which turned out to be the boot priority drive. Although the other 2 disks were listed in the sata info, when I checked the boot priority the bios was trying to boot from 1./Floppy, 2/CD, 3/USB, 4/Data Disk, all of which were unbootable. Once the priority was changed, problem solved.

As a quick check,manually choose the boot disk (usually by pressing F8 during bios start up, otherwise check m/board manual) If this works it will be your priority settings that are the problem.
 
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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This. You've removed the drive which has your "Windows Boot Manager".

Windows versions up to XP would only boot off the primary drive. Starting with Vista, Microsoft let Windows be installed on and boot from second or third drives. That gives you more flexibility, but it leads to a lot more complications. When Windows is not installed on the primary drive, what happens is a boot manager gets installed on the primary drive. That boot manager is then programmed with the location(s) of your Windows installation(s) (both the drive and partition), and tells the computer to look there to boot Windows. If you remove the drive with the boot manager, the computer can no longer boot because even though the other drive has Windows on it, there's no boot manager to tell the computer where Windows is.

This is why people recommend you remove all extra drives when installing Windows on a new drive. That way you're guaranteed to get the boot manager and Windows on the same drive. Go ahead and do this - disconnect all your extra drives, install the SSD, then install Windows on it. Then reconnect the other other drives. Make sure the computer is still booting from the SSD. Once you've confirmed that, you can use msconfig to add the Windows installations on the other drives to the boot manager on the SSD.
 
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Ezenemy

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Oct 25, 2012
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Okay. So I removed all of my drives, only plugged in my main 1TB SSD with W10 on it to run startup repair and let Windows install Boot Manager on it. However, that didn't work. It just kept saying that Windows can't boot from this device and to insert a media device. So, I put in my 8.1 disc and tried to just reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. However, it won't even let me install Windows, it says it's the wrong type of setting or whatever. So, I installed my brand new 128GB SSD and installed Windows fine on it, it installed Windows boot manager and everything looked good. I then plugged in my other drives and they're not working. It says they're "locked" when I try to run startup repair, they don't show up in Windows boot manager, and it won't let me install a new copy of Windows on any of the other drives. Even if I reformat it (which I've done and lost all of my files on every drive now).

I honestly have no idea what to do and I can't believe this is happening just from replacing a drive.
 
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PsyKhiqZero

PsyKhiqZero

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The "wrong type of disk" error was likely because you didn't boot into the correct "version" of the windows installer. Windows disk have 2 installer options. a legacy and efi. If the disk is formatted in GPT and you boot into legacy you will get that error. The same is true when you have disk formated in mbr and you boot into efi installer.

I noticed that some motherboards didn't let you pick which type of installer to boot. Mine for example will actually list both of them in the boot overide options. Sorry you had so much trouble.
 
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Ezenemy

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I made the decision to just go ahead and reformat every drive but it won't let me install windows on any of them because they're of the GPT partition setting? What the fuck do I do??
 
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Ezenemy

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Oct 25, 2012
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I tried following the link you just sent me and when I tried deleting the drive and clicking next this error popped up

http://imgur.com/Lut9kAN

You can see both my drives. One I tried deleting and continuing, and the other just doesn't even let me because "the selected disk is of the GPT partition style"
 
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BadAsAl

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Oct 13, 2009
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Do you need GPT on any of the drives? GPT is for drives over 2TB or if you need more than 4 partitions. I only see (2) 1TB drives so unless you need more than 4 partitions, you can use MBR. Drive 1 must still be formatted GPT.

I have not done this during install before but from the screenshot you just showed, try hitting Shift-F10 to open a command prompt, then type DISKPART, then type "list disk". You should see disk 0 and 1 listed. Type "select disk 1" and then type "clean". This will wipe the drive with no formatting. See after you close the command prompt if the drive 1 now shows unallocated space.

 
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PsyKhiqZero

PsyKhiqZero

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What is the make and model of the SSD? If what BadAsAL suggest does not work. Use the manufactures utility to perform a low level format of the drive. This should erase both the partitioning style (gpt or mbr) AND the disk formatting.

In your BIOS, change boot mode to whatever is not UEFI. then try the installer disk again.
 
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