Vista 64 Boot Drive switch?

Phillychuck · § #1 10-25-2008, 03:09 PM

I did a reinstall on my system, I converted my 2 320gb drives to a RAID0 and installed a 3rd SATA drive on the 3rd port (system has 4) to use as a temporary backup drive.

What happened was Vista put the boot loader on the extra SATA drive even tho it installed the OS onto the RAID. Everything was working fine but I can't remove that 3rd drive now because windows has it tagged as a System drive and Vista doesn't boot without it.

The RAID0 was tagged as boot in the BIOS config. I loaded into Repair mode on the Vista DVD but can't seem to find the tool I'd need to fix it. Auto repair did not work :-(

**Sick Willie** · § #2 10-25-2008, 04:44 PM

There's not any way to take that drive out of the equation without a re-install. Never have any drives, other than those required for installation, connected during a clean Windows install. This includes devices like USB card readers, data hard drives, etc.

Phillychuck · § #3 10-25-2008, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sick Willie

There's not any way to take that drive out of the equation without a re-install. Never have any drives, other than those required for installation, connected during a clean Windows install. This includes devices like USB card readers, data hard drives, etc.

That is pretty sad, can't imagine why they'd think I'd want the OS on one drive and the boot sector on another.

Vista doesn't have a FIXBOOT/FIXMBR (?) type tool... Wow.

Thanks for the reply tho, saves me the effort of trying to find a solution.

**Sick Willie** · § #4 10-25-2008, 11:10 PM

Fixboot/fixmbr would not fix this. The single drive has been designated the "system" drive. And, this is not a new issue, nor Vista specific, by any means.

Edit: I agree, it's pretty sad.

Brandito · § #5 10-27-2008, 08:51 PM

i'm going to disagree with sick willie

this should be fixable.

i had a similar situation where i had xp installed and then installed vista, vista placed the bootloader on the xp drive so removing the xp drive from the system would cause a no boot. i did finally manage to get the bootloader onto the vista drive using a combination of EasyBCD and the vista recovery console on the vista install disk.

here's a couple sites i used for info

http://pcproblems.wordpress.com/2007...vista-machine/

http://www.syschat.com/remove-xp-xp-...boot-1927.html

yes these are for removing xp from the bootloader but more or less they're about moving the bitloader to the vista drive as well.

i admit i don't know what consequences a raid might have on the process so sick willie may be correct afterall.

i would be hopefull though, i've done it on my system, took the good part of a day but i managed.

wish i had a detailed set of instructions for you, but really i just did a lot of googling, used those sites, and kept trying, if you're going to resort to a reinstall anyways what can it hurt right?

i'm not one to give up and go with the re-install route, i love being able to find a good so;lution that doesn't require destruction of data. i've been batting 1000 lately!

Phillychuck · § #6 11-02-2008, 01:53 PM

Awesome tips Brandito! Using EasyBCD I was about to reload the bootloader to drive C, which did seem to break my bootup. I got a message saying some file was corrupt and could probably be fixed using the Vista Boot disc / Repair utility and it worked! I removed the "D" drive to be sure and everything appears fine.

I usually don't mind reinstalling but with all these activations and "limited" activations on software I'm trying to extend the life of my installs. This one was brand new.

Just so people know, it is possible. Just make sure you back your stuff up since messing with the bootloader is scary stuff. PS, I didn't do a recent backup (lol).

**Sick Willie** · § #7 11-02-2008, 03:29 PM

If moving the bootloader fixed the issue, then the issue was not the one I was invisioning.

I'll still stand by my advice as to not having any extraneous drives connected while installing Windows.

Glad you got it sorted.

Brandito · § #8 11-02-2008, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sick Willie

If moving the bootloader fixed the issue, then the issue was not the one I was invisioning.

I'll still stand by my advice as to not having any extraneous drives connected while installing Windows.

Glad you got it sorted.

oh no doubt, i still do it all the time, but i really need to force myself to stop intalling an os with all my drives plugged in.

next time i dual boot i'm doing it through the bios boot selector, using the windows bootloaders often leads to trouble down the road, hell any bootloader for that matter.

glad to hear it worked for you chuck, especially with a raid! i love a good success story