[Solved]Missing Hardrive, Windows won't boot?

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PSU = Power Supply Unit.

On my system drives are connected to the motherboard with one cable each only so I am not sure what's the second connection you've got on yours but if your drives aren't connected directly to the PSU then this would certainly be how they are powered so they can spin and yes you should swap those too and check again.

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mysticvibes wrote:
codec_spurt wrote:
mysticvibes wrote:I don't think its MBR because in the setup bios there should be two WD Hard drives showing up but only one is. I assume the missing one is where windows 7 is installed cause when I try to boot from the other drive just a bleeping cursor shows then reboots. Even if the MBR is missing shouldn't the HD still show up as a boot option and show is the bios HD menu? Sometimes when I boot up and go to boot selection menu the missing one shows up but without any other info, the other hd shows the type ie WD with alot of numbers etc..... while the other one is just blank? I'll try to take a picture cause I can't use print screen without getting into windows?
You post on kvr where most don't know their mbr from their master boot file.

Yet you say, with confidence, that u don't think it is your MBR.

I think you are a lot more clued up than most kvr'rs (bless 'em). So why do you come here for help?

I really find you a bit circumspect. Why not post on the forum at the Register or something. I'm sorry, but KVR seems a very odd choice of place to ask for help with relation to hard drive problems.

Did you get it sorted out anyway? And care to share how you did, if so?

:-)
I have a seven forums account but can't remember the password and cleaned out my email so can't find it. I used up 5 tries so I have to wait a little to post there after I get a new password. Last time I had computer issues people here were very helpful so that I'd try here real quick.

Well no worries. But you got to understand someone being suspicious about a tech support request at kvr.

In fact, a lot of the time, you could get things sorted here sooner.

Are you still having problems?

Tell me. I might be able to point you in the right direction.

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Yes, I am still having trouble and it is quite frustrating, I just managed organizing my files and installing everything a few months ago after a windows reinstall. I'm going to try swapping the cable again along with the ones connected directly to the mobo. Is it possible to just try swapping the cables from the mobo without swapping the sata cables?
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Turns out the smaller cables were the sata cables and the larger ones are the psu (power cables).

Is there some software that I can boot from usb to see if it reads the hd with windows on it and check for errors, I want to make sure now that it isn't an MBR issue? Just in case I might want to install windows again on the other HD, hopefully I can salvage the files from the other drive but if windows isn't booting from the drive maybe that's a no go? Is there some other way to boot into the system to get my files from it?
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Managed to run Ubuntu on the system and works like a charm. I was able to salvage all the data from the drive which is just awesome:D. Seeing that I was able to salvage the data doesn't this mean the drive still works, so why can't windows boot up? Maybe I'm missing the boot files after all? Maybe a partition is marked as inactive where the windows is installed to? Funny thing is that in ubuntu only one drive shows up, the one with the windows installed and the other isn't showing up, but from the bios menu the exact opposite is happening. Anybody have any idea what could be going on here? Would anyone recomend some software I could run in ubuntu to solve this, maybe partition software, disk repair, disk management,, etc??
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What's creepy is you don't even need the iondows password... Just pop in a live linux distro... I hope businesses disable cd/usb booting...

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Is there a way to run the daw and vsti's inside ubuntu that are still in the program files directory so I don't have to reinstall everything again?
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mysticvibes wrote:Is there a way to run the daw and vsti's inside ubuntu that are still in the program files directory so I don't have to reinstall everything again?
No(*). Ubuntu isnt Windows.

You'd be better off trying to repair your windows installation.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/wind ... h=win8tab1

(*) For variable values of 'no' starting from 'even if you could it'd be a shitload of work for someone who knew their way around off-the-beaten-track stuff like virtual machines and/or WINE and a lot of other technical knowkedge about windows and Linux' through to 'absolutely not, ever')
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I see. What's the deal with WINE, PPA for WINE, or WOW? Also, is there a way to clone the old drive to a new hard drive so I don't have to reinstall windows or at the least a way to copy the daw and vsti plugin folder to a fresh windows installation?
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mysticvibes wrote:I see. What's the deal with WINE, PPA for WINE, or WOW?
To varying extents, they'll let you install and run Windows software. To do so they emulate some of the 'underlying' Windows architecture that needs to be there for things to work. But you generally cant just point them at a windows installation and say 'run that software'; most software would need to be installed under WINE etc to have the underlying architecture set up the right way for it to work.
Also, is there a way to clone the old drive to a new hard drive so I don't have to reinstall windows or at the least a way to copy the daw and vsti plugin folder to a fresh windows installation?
ISoftware installations aren't generally just moving some files into a single folder. There's often a lot of other things that get copied, into other folders, and information gets set up for the software to use, eg in the registry.
Some software doesnt need that 'other stuff', but a lot of it does, and anything that does wont be reusable by any system it wasnt properly installed into, WINE or Windows. Plugins tend to have less reliance on this kind of 'other stuff' but enough of it does that some reinstallation would be unavoidable. Most DAWs tend to need other stuff.
Anything with any kind of serial number or license is probably in the category that needs 'other stuff'.

On the other hand, if your existing windows installation was working(*), the whole installation, files etc could be cloned onto a replacement drive. However that might also affect software authorisations.

(*)Cloning a non-working windows installation and then trying to fix it might not work as well, IMO.
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Thanks alot for your helpful and informative post. At this point I believe windows is working fine but for one reason or another the hard drive windows is installed on isn't being read so it seems to be a hardware issue. Cloning the entire drive seems like a good idea and would save me atleast a day reinstalling and organizing all the files again.

Edit, now that I think about it now could be a good chance to upgrade this particular system to 64 bit to get some more RAM....
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Cloning the HDD will clone the problem. Use the system repair disk. You did make one? If you didn't - make one on another PC. Once its up and running - do a system backup, its all built into Windows 7. it will get you out of this if it occurs again.
Last edited by UltraJv on Sat Mar 15, 2014 11:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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mysticvibes wrote:Edit, now that I think about it now could be a good chance to upgrade this particular system to 64 bit to get some more RAM....
I actually think this might be your best option. It might be comparatively more time-consuming to reinstall your software, but in the long-term, its the 'cleaner' approach.
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UltraJv wrote:Cloning the HDD will clone the problem. Run the windows restore disk. You did make one? Once its up and running - do a system backup, its all built into Windows 7. it will get you out of this if it occurs again.
Wouldn't this only be the case if it is a software or driver issue inside windows and not a hardware one. The HDD isn't showing up at all in bios to boot from, if it was a windows error that would negate the option of cloning wouldn't the HDD still show up in bios? System backup will be my last option after I try a few things, from what I understand it erases everything after you copy everything you need but you still need to install all the programs again?
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mysticvibes wrote:
UltraJv wrote:Cloning the HDD will clone the problem. Run the windows restore disk. You did make one? Once its up and running - do a system backup, its all built into Windows 7. it will get you out of this if it occurs again.
Wouldn't this only be the case if it is a software or driver issue inside windows and not a hardware one. The HDD isn't showing up at all in bios to boot from, if it was a windows error that would negate the option of cloning wouldn't the HDD still show up in bios? System backup will be my last option after I try a few things, from what I understand it erases everything after you copy everything you need but you still need to install all the programs again?
If the drive cant be read by your PC BIOS properly, it cant be cloned. I think youll get errors trying to clone it. System back up is only useful with good working Windows. If you cant use system repair disk to get it up and running, Get another drive, start clean then backup.

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