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OK, so I used Windows XP for years before I was able to get my hands on the Windows 7 RC which I bought a new HDD for, and then followed the process to dual-boot. About a month ago Windows XP started acting funny, and I thought the disk might be dying. So I started using Windows 7 all the time.

Today I start the computer, and it can't find the disk which Windows XP was on anymore. I guess it's dead. So I remove the Windows XP HD and my computer can't start; "insert bootable disk" or something similar.

So how can I remove the primary (dead) Windows XP disk and boot straight to Windows 7?

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The title should be less generic, e.g. "How to Fix Win7 boot process". – foraidt Aug 27 '09 at 13:17
Agreed, mxp. i was going to edit it, but i don't have enough kudos yet. – Ian Boyd Aug 27 '09 at 13:37
Done-but it all started from a failed hard disk :) – MasterCorban Aug 28 '09 at 17:51
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6 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

You should be able to fix it by booting from the Win 7 DVD using these instructions

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

and doing the startup repair.

Edit: As we discovered later I should have said to unplug the damaged xp drive first.

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+1 for giving a simpler solution than mine – fretje Aug 19 '09 at 15:06
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hmmm....now starts the search for the dvd :) – MasterCorban Aug 19 '09 at 15:07
so what would you do if that didnt work? – MasterCorban Aug 21 '09 at 12:46
Did you check the bios to make sure your hard drive is the first boot device? – Col Aug 21 '09 at 15:23
Just a thought, did you run the startup repair with or without the xp hard drive in. You'd need to run it without it. – Col Aug 22 '09 at 7:23
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up vote 1 down vote

Edit: It's maybe better to try Col's suggestion first. As that one is simpler. If it doesn't work you can resort to this one though.

I suppose your XP disk was the primary and active one, from which your computer booted, so it's normal that your PC doesn't boot anymore after taking that one out. You will have to make your Windows 7 disk Active and bootable by changing its master boot record.

I've found a nice tutorial how this can be done here.

It basically comes down to booting your PC with the Windows 7 install DVD into Command Prompt mode and issuing a

bootsect /nt60 SYS
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up vote 1 down vote

I had the same problem. My BIOS had the option to boot to a specific hard drive. Check your BIOS settings to make sure it is booting to the correct hard drive.

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up vote 0 down vote

Sounds like a Master Boot Record issue.

Check this article: MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record

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up vote 0 down vote

It's possible that your Win7 harddrive is set to slave, and the WinXP harddrive was set to master. You can change this, but to do it you need to open the case, and switch the little plastic jumpers on the back of the harddrive, next to where the power plugs into it.

Photos here: http://www.onlinecomputertips.com/hardware/hd%5Fjumpers.html

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Of course, this is only applicable if you're using IDE hard drives. SATA hard drives don't have primary/slave jumpers. – Justin Bennett Aug 19 '09 at 15:12
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I've run the boot up repair several times. It works then fails again. Then it works and it fails again. It's a vicious cycle. I have one boot partition. There are three SATA hard drives and one SATA Blu-Ray reader/burner. The first device is the Boot drive and none of the other drives have a boot sector. It really looks like typical Microsoft planned failure.

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