Why is my Windows 7 installation failing when a new bootable Linux drive is inserted?

3

Ok so I just got a new SSD for my laptop. I have installed Windows 7 on the SSD and can successfully boot into Windows 7.

I took the SSD out and put in the normal hard drive and installed Ubuntu onto it. So now when I add the other SSD back into the laptop I go into the BIOS and boot override into the SSD to try and get to my Windows 7 install.

I at least make it to the "Starting Windows" screen for about a second. Then it starts saying "Loading files" like its doing a recovery. It opens up recovery and tries to repair forever but then after 5 minutes will say that it can't repair.

If I try to boot override into the Ubuntu hard drive it works just fine.

If I take out the Ubuntu hard drive I can then boot into Windows 7.

The expected behavior is that I will be able to use the BIOS to boot into either hard drive.

meanbunny

Posted 2012-08-08T02:50:16.300

Reputation: 313

1Windows is pretty fussy about the physical order of the disks. Are you able to swap the ssd and hard disk? – Paul – 2012-08-08T02:58:46.000

Yes I haven't tried that yet, you mean just the bays that they are in? – meanbunny – 2012-08-08T03:36:53.807

Yeah, the bays they are in. – Paul – 2012-08-08T03:52:37.757

ok I am going to try that. – meanbunny – 2012-08-08T04:07:10.197

That didn't work. – meanbunny – 2012-08-08T14:54:20.067

Answers

0

Ok for the many boot problems that a computer can have I will explain how I fixed mine and what my problem was.

First off I downloaded EasyBCD to try and fix my issue hoping that I could point my configuration towards the other drive. EasyBCD could never load my System BCD. However, if I added an entry regardless that entry would show up whenever I booted.

Secondly Windows created two hidden partitions on the SSD. So my assumption is that the BCD was on one of those two partitions. After hours of frustration I finally decided that I would wipe the SSD and divy it up into two partitions storing 1 Linux OS and 1 Windows OS.

I installed Linux first because it obviously has more control over what you can do with OS's as compared to Windows. After that I created a new NTFS partition with my Ubuntu Live USB stick. I knew that if I created the partition with the Windows disk it would have recreated the hidden partitions and I don't want that.

I then booted up with the Windows disk, installed it to the partition I created, and low & behold when I booted into Windows 7 I had my Boot folder. Which means that my boot configuration for Windows is now on the same partition.

After this I installed EasyBCD and added a GRUB2 entry from the Linux tab. I could then reboot and choose between which OS I wanted to use. Oddly enough after I booted into Ubuntu, that OS's grub loader started first before the Windows boot loader, and it detected my Windows installation. So I ended up using EasyBCD in Windows to remove my Ubuntu entry.

meanbunny

Posted 2012-08-08T02:50:16.300

Reputation: 313

Asked: 2012-08-08T02:50:16.300

Viewed: 224 times

Active: 2012-08-09T14:58:47.420