Moving Boot files (Win7 multiboot)

[frag85]

Here is my setup:

HD1: Boot drive, Win7 RC, WinXP32, WinXP64
HD2: Win7 Pro

HD1 has all the boot information, what can I do to transfer this to HD2? Would I just get rid of the drive (or changing the priority to HD2 in the bios) and run the repair utility from the Win7 DVD?

I wanted to remove HD1 from the loop. When i installed the retail version of Win7 Pro I picked up a few new hard drives and want to get rid of the smaller drive or use it as a dedicated 'fraps' drive for gaming and backups. I had installed XP32 and XP64 for some performance testing along with Win7 RC and ended up getting Win7 Pro because I couldn't resist the $30 student discount deal and have no need for the RC or XP anymore.

 

[ep3w]

Someone else will have to answer but I have had some experience with this before. Do NOT just remove the drive as it will most likely not boot. If you go into disk management you can see which partition is listed as system/active, not boot. Despite my Win 7 partition being labeled as boot, if I delete a small 10GB partition on my drive listed as system/active I can no longer boot. I haven't bothered to figure out how to fix it yet though. Changing another to active does not work as you need the right files.

 

[frag85]

I have already tried disabling/changing the boot drive and it will not boot, but wasn't sure if running the repair utility off the Win7 disc would solve the issue. I didn't want to take a chance of running that and having it botch the drive and need to reformat again.

 

[Deads0uls]

Remove/Disable the original boot drive. Boot from your Windows 7 installation media (DVD/USB) then go into the Repair option then click command prompt. Use the bootsect tool to recreate the MBR for your drive.

-OR-

When you click the Repair option, Windows 7 has an option that will help you fix a system that is not booting. It is automated but worth a try if you're unsure of doing it yourself.