Win7 Not loading after installing 2nd HDD

shravank30

shravank30

Disciple
Hi

I have a 500GB HDD which I was using as my primary HDD
I have now installed a 2nd 250GB which is absolutely blank

As soon as I connect the 250GB HDD, I dont get the option of choosing the 500GB HDD as the Booting option during setup.
It shows only the option of 250GB HDD
The 500GB Drive is visible under HDD option but not under booting sequence

If i just remove the power from the 2nd HDD, I can boot normally from the 500GB HDD.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for advising
 
To which controller are the drives attached?

Normally the BIOS would give controller-wise priority.

You can safely disable the drive in BIOS (not the port, the drive - this will be in the main BIOS menu and not under the peripherals menu). Usually, this means that BIOS will not initialise the drive though once you boot Windows should be able to see it.

I have the same issue with a Gigabyte B75M which does not allow me to boot from my OCZ Agility SSD unless I disable the secondary 1TB drive. On doing so the system boots normally and Windows can recognise and work with the drive anyway.
 
cranky said:
Reading posts may help while replying to them.
Click to expand...
In my motherboard's BIOS (ASUS P8B75 and it was same with P8Z77 and my old 880G), in the boot device priority you can only select one Hard disk (which is primarily selected for booting). You need to change the hard disk order as well (which is a different option), in order to get the bootable disk selected.

I very well know what i said, only if you knew how to interpret it.
 
Forums are for helping people with clear and precise answers, not guessing interpretation.

You can look at both of your replies and see which is helpful. Hint: only one of them is.
 
One more clarification.
As my Cabinet is very congested, I am using the same power cable which has 2 connectors for connecting both the hard disk.
I hope that is not causing the problem?

Thanks for advising
 
@shravank30, which motherboard do you have? And we assume, you are talking about SATA hard drives here?

I have seen an older motherboard of my friend, which has 4 ports, and two of them are kinda secondary slave SATA ports, means if you connect a drive on one of those two ports, that hard drive cannot be used for booting. So, do check if you have any such arrangement on your motherboard.

Also check for possible slave/master configuration. Although, that won't be the case, but still does not hurt to check.

Connecting the same power cable should not cause this issue, but if you can, then try separate power connectors, and see if it makes any difference.

Please tell which motherboard do you have, and maybe other relevant configuration of your PC too.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The solution was very simple
MAV2000 advised me on another forum just to change the priority of booting in Setup to the 500GB 1st.

It worked like a charm and I am able to boot normally with both the HDD installed.

But although I can see the 250 GB in the Device manager, I cannot see it in My computer.
While the computer booted the 1st time after installing the 250GB HDD, it loaded drivers for the same.
(I have not done any changes in the setup other then changing the priority of HDD)

Is this Drive also faulty or am I still missing something?

Thanks for advising

- - - Updated - - -

Hi

As there are multiple advices on the internet for the same problem, I dont want to choose a wrong one and accidentally ruin my primary 500 GB HDD also as the data on it is critical.
Hence I prefer an experienced member to guide me.

Got an official Microsoft guide link and followed the same and successfully installed the 2nd HDD also

Thanks for advising
 
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