Boot failure for my 2nd hdd

[Evolution0521]

Hello, i am currently trying to format my vista hdd, it is the first hard drive i had on my pc, the problem is that im trying to get windows my seconds hdd to boot without the first hard drive.
Now i am wondering why is this happening? Is it due to my second hard drive not having the boot files for the windows 7 to boot it?
Every time i try to boot the seconds hard drive alone, i get Boot failure, yet it works if i have both plugged, in as it gives me the option on if you would like to boot in Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

 

[C12Friedman]

Are your HDD's SATA or IDE?
If IDE, make sure (as much as I hate to suggest this) both HDD jumpers are set to AUTO. It may even be such that the boot drive has to be set as master and the non-boot drive set to slave but try auto first.
If SATA, ensure that the SATA cables are in the proper (according to your mobo manual) ports for dual boot operation.

 

[Evolution0521]

My vista one which is the one i want to reformat is in the sata 1, the one which has windows 7 which is the one i want to use as my primary partion is plugged into sata 3
while my DVD drive is plugged into my sata 2.

 

[rdc85]

When u install w7 did u unplug your vista HDD and leave only one hdd connected?

if it not unpluged, hate to say but boot record/system is stored to your first drive (vista HDD), u will need recovery/reinstall win7 to make it bootable....