Windows 7 not starting with 2nd HDD

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Windows 7 not starting with 2nd HDD

Having lots of fun with this one.

Have a Mid 2012 MBP Classic. Recently purchased a HDD caddy for a second hard drive and a SSD (Crucial M500 480GB).

My intention is to run OS X Mountain Lion on a 400GB partition on the SSD, Boot Camp Windows 7 on the remaining 80GB, and then format the old 750GB Apple HDD in exFAT for storage both OSes can access.

I have everything running at the moment apart from the fact that I can't start Windows. I just get the usual 'No bootable device' error when I try.

If I disconnect the old 750GB drive it starts fine. If I run Windows as a VM in Parallels it starts fine. Otherwise I can't start it.

One thing I did have to do during Boot Camp setup is format the install 80GB as NTFS, which I assume is normal.

How can I make this work? I have already tried rEFIt which makes no difference. Modifying stuff via diskpart in Windows will break things-I've been there before!

Does anyone else have a similar setup to the above?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), Windows 7

Posted on Aug 1, 2013 9:28 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 1, 2013 9:32 AM in response to Kinsy

The Bootcamp partition and Windows must be on the first/primary hard drive.

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Answer 2

Kinsy Author

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Aug 1, 2013 9:41 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

They are.

Are you saying I need to connect the SSD to the internal HDDs SATA connector? It's 2013 IDE has been dead for 6 years...

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Answer 3

Aug 1, 2013 9:52 AM in response to Kinsy

I'm saying that the Bootcamp partition and Windows must be on the primary hard drive/SSD. Read the Bootcamp Help manuals. You can not use a Bootcamp partition on a secondary drive.

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Answer 4

Kinsy Author

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Aug 1, 2013 9:57 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Yes and if you read my post properly, you'll see I'm not trying to do that.

OS X and Windows 7 are on the SSD. The 2nd drive is merely for storage.

At the moment the SSD is in the SuperDrive HDD caddy, and the HDD is still in its original spot. Since the SSD is solid state I'd sooner have the HDD in the original position as it has rubber mounts. Is it worth swopping them around?

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Answer 5

Aug 1, 2013 10:07 AM in response to Kinsy

If you would read my post properly, you can not use Bootcamp and Windows in a drive that is not the primary drive. A hard disk/SSD in the optical bay is not the primary drive. Your HDD is the primary drive and you've indicated that your HDD is not the drive with Bootcamp and Windows.

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Answer 6

The hatter

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Aug 1, 2013 10:52 AM in response to Kinsy

If windows see other drives with GUID it will not install.

Unplug

change it to FAT

You will get an error message otherwise.

Years of people using multiple drives, began in 2006 with Vista and Mac Pro, every SSD + hard drive iMac or MacBook or even two of anything.

I don't even think it cares about port 0 or 1 or "primary".

Swap the optical and SSD etc AFTER you install Windows.

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Answer 7

Kinsy Author

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Aug 1, 2013 11:57 AM in response to The hatter

Just swopped them over. Booted up straight away! Bloody ****, been tearing my hair out & reinstalled about 6 times!

Thanks for the help. Why it makes a difference I don't understand. Back in the days of IDE controllers I could understand it as you had primary and secondary disks on one cable. With SATA certainly my pc doesn't care what disk goes into what SATA port, and I'm running 2 RAID-0 arrays on that! The only thing I can think of is a setting in the NVRAM or Mac EFI which points all Boot Camp installs to SATA 0.

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