Can't boot to windows, Damaged hardware? I/O issue? Repair disk?

[14k]

Hi guys I've done my own research on this but I'm still stuck!

Something in my computer is failing or has failed but at the moment I'm trying to solve this particular issue:

My setup:
C drive (64GB SSD connected through SATA - windows 7 installed)
D drive (normal 500gb drive connected through SATA - used for storage)
E drive (old 60GB drive connected through IDE - used for storage and p2p)

I unplugged my e drive but now windows wont load! I understand this may have somethign to do with when i first installed windows to C drive it leaves some files on another drive, so this makes sense when I see that when the pc boots up e drive is first in the boot order.. very odd but anyway how do I get my pc to boot with C (which is where the os is loaded) without E being in the picture!? I need to bottom this out as now my pc wont boot to windows at all because of an i/o error - I think there is a good chance that this is because the E drive failing? There should be no reason why my pc needs E drive to be there!


I tried putting the windows install disk in booting to that then running disk repair, but I don't get anywhere.

Any ideas?

Regards

 

[beanoslim]

Go into bios and find boot order of drives.

To be sure that your c drive functions properly unplug all the other drives so the machine has to boot from c only.

If it loads ok you need to set your c drive as the 1st boot device in the bios.

 

[pjmelect]

Your C drive as viewed in Windows may not be the C drive and could actually be the E drive as Windows renames the drives so that the boot drive is always the C drive. You need to enter the BIOS so that the computer is set to boot from the boot disk
It could also be that you installed Windows when you had another operating system installed in which case the Windows boot loader could be on another drive to the operating system. In which case you need to boot the Windows CD and perform a boot repair.

 

[mdd1963]

I would suspect any modern MB BIOS today would allow you to view which drive is listed as what (1,2,3), and select which device it boots from...(HDD0, HDD1, etc..)

You might also check that the SSD controller settings have not defaulted to a RAID state, common with some Intel boards....

 

[14k]

It could also be that you installed Windows when you had another operating system installed in which case the Windows boot loader could be on another drive to the operating system. In which case you need to boot the Windows CD and perform a boot repair.

This is what I suspect the issue is, but as stated in my post I don't seem to be able to fix it through this method. My windows7 install CD is this the "Windows CD" I see no option for boot repair, but I see disk repair, which doesn't get very far

To be sure that your c drive functions properly unplug all the other drives so the machine has to boot from c only.

If it loads ok you need to set your c drive as the 1st boot device in the bios.

Booting to the drive with the current OS installed doesnt work, it just gives the invalid disk system error, replace etc..... but when the disconnected drive is connected and is booted to (even though no OS is installed on it) then windows on the other drive loads fine.

 

[beanoslim]

Reinstall Windows with just the drive you want to use plugged in, sure fired fix.

 

[14k]

Reinstall Windows with just the drive you want to use plugged in, sure fired fix.

but won't it overwrite my current installation of windows?

 

[beanoslim]

Yep thats the idea seeing as your current installation isn't working.

 

[14k]

But I don't think I should do a clean install just because theres a hardware component somewhere not working or breaking down

I have data on there I need too!

 

[beanoslim]

I don't think the problem is a component, I think it is the installation.

Just save data onto one of your other drives, cd or mem stick.

I'm just saying if you remove all other drives and fresh install you will definately cure your problems.

Thats what I would do but obviously the choice is yours.