Cannot Remove Dying 2nd HDD As Win7 Fails to Load from Primary HDD Also

I am having 2 physical HDD
Seagate 250 (D Drive)
WDC 500 (C& E Drives)

I had win XP loaded on my 250 GB HDD

Thereafter i got Win7 loaded on my WDC 500 with Dual boot option.

Everything is working fine except that my 250 HDD has started failing & I am getting message to check for bad errors.

Now when I try to disconnect the 250GB HDD, the Win7 OS also fails to load & I get the error message that insert disk

As soon as I reconnect it, everything works fine.

Moreover Win 7 mycomp is showing 250 GB HDD as 0 bytes so I cannot delete any software from that HDD

I shall be grateful if You can advise me some solution.

Please let me know if you need any more details

Thanks for advising
 
I downloaded Easy BCD 2.1.2 & tried running it

I am getting the following error
'The Boot data store could not be opened. The system cannot find the file specified."
Would you like to manually load a BCD Registry for EasyBCD to manage ? Please note that the easy BCD required the Win7/ Vista boot loader, and will not work in win XP only environments

Please advise

Thanks for advising
 
Since "change boot drive" is copying the W7 boot files from where they were originally installed, you'll need to still have that drive connected until after you've completed the copy. It would seem from that message that you don't have the drive connected any more so EasyBCD can't find the BCD to copy. (It looks for it on the "active" partition of the first HDD in the boot sequence). If the drive is connected, but you're not booting from it, then just tell EasyBCD to look in \boot\BCD on the XP partition. (set folder options like this to be able to see it).
If you're booting into W7 via the W7 DVD, then you'd just as well let it re-create the boot files on W7 for you.
Recovering the Windows Bootloader from the DVD - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
 
The old drive is still connected & probably its still working minimally & thats why I am able to boot normally through the HDD's
As I am a newbie, I shall be grateful if you could give the instructions in more details then you would normally do.
How do I tell Easy BCD to look into \boot\BCD ?

Thanks for advising
 
bcd.JPGWhen it asks, say yes.
Then navigate to the BCD on your XP partition.
If you have folder options set as previously described, the boot folder and its hidden contents will be show "faded" as in the picture here.

 
I cannot open the 250 GB Drive ("D") in my computer on which the Win XP is loaded
It shows 0 Byte and does not allow it be repaired also using wintools
As such you shall have to give an alternate solution
I am booting from C drive which is WDC 500 & contains win 7 files

Thanks for helping
 
Last edited:
You're booting from W7 ?
If so, what's the problem ?
Or do you mean you are booting from the DVD to get into W7 ?
If the latter, then follow the instructions in post #4
 
I am booting from W7 without any problem currently directly from HDDs
But my 250GB HDD has nearly failed which contains some files to load Win7 because if I disconnect it, the computer asks for the disks.
As such I cannot give my 250GB HDD for RMA untill I am able to boot after disconnecting th 250GB HDD

Please advise
 
If the system is using the W7 boot files on the XP drive, then you must be able to navigate to them in the Explorer dialog that EasyBCD produces when you reply "yes" to its message.
When you say "insert disk" in your post #1, do you mean you're inserting the W7 installation DVD, or putting the bad HDD back in the PC ?
Do you have a W7 DVD, or did the PC come with W7 pre-installed ?
If you don't have a DVD you can repair the PC with, then create yourself a repair CD while W7 is still working
Control Panel > Backup and Restore > Create Repair Disc
then use it as described in post #4 (with the bad HDD disconnected) to recreate your boot files.
Remember to boot it and run "startup repair" three times. It has several things to fix.
 
I cannot navigate to the D drive when I say yes in EasyBCD as it says cannot access D drive
I have a Win7 DVD
I get a message of insert disk if the 250GB HDD is disconnected when booting similar to what we get when there is no OS loaded on a new PC

I am only worried using the Win7 DVD route that if I have to reinstall the complete OS, then my whole weekend would be wasted in updating my OS as my DVD is quite old & there have been lots of updates in the OS & also re install all my programs & data

How much time will it take to repair the OS ?
Will I get the option to repair the OS if I insert the Win7 DVD & change the BIOS to boot from DVD?
Any pitfalls I should be aware of & any dos and donts in this case ?

Thanks for advising
 
The link I gave you contains the instructions.
You don't use the "Install" button. Ignore that. Down in the bottom left is "repair your computer"
Select that, then "startup repair"
It will take very little time (but you'll need to do it again twice).
It won't touch your installation or damage the OS in any way, just rebuild the boot files in the "active" partition on the HDD (make sure that you set W7 active before you start (in Disk Management), if it isn't already)
 
Thanks for the help
Just 1 more clarification:
How do I set W7 active in Disk Management ? (Recommended by you in the last post)
I have reached Disk Management but could not find W7 active link.

Thanks for advising
 
Right click on the partition and if it's not active it will give you a "mark partition as active" option. If it's already active, the option will be "greyed out"
 
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