Main OS Not Recognized After Installing Secondary OS on a Different Hard Drive.

**tmockingbird** · #1 17th Apr 2009, 02:53

I currently have two hard drives in my computer, one has my main OS (Vista 32-bit) and the other one used to be a simple slave drive. I decided to install Vista 64-bit on the second hard drive, this went flawlessly. However, I can now only boot into the Vista 64-bit, and my main OS seems to have disappeared.

I tried changing boot order in BIOS, using F8 to directly select the hard drive containing my main Vista (32-bit one), but it keeps on booting into the 64-bit one. When I remove the second hard drive which used to be the slave drive (thus forcing my computer to boot into the 1st hard drive), I get the following message: "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

What on earth is going on? I'd really like to be able to easily switch in between the two OS'es.

Thanks in advance,

~ tmocky.

**Hybr!d** · #2 17th Apr 2009, 07:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmockingbird

When I remove the second hard drive which used to be the slave drive (thus forcing my computer to boot into the 1st hard drive), I get the following message: "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

There is a problem with the 32Bit OS, that is why it will not boot on it's own or with the other drive attached.

I would boot of the 64Bit drive, with the 32bit drive as slave (make sure it shows in BIOS) then in Windiows check the 32bit drive still has an install on it.

Sounds like you could have wiped it.

**tmockingbird** · #3 17th Apr 2009, 09:22

Yeahh I checked and the primary hard drive containing the 32-bit Vista still has everything on it. I'm positive that the only thing I wiped was the second hard drive, I specifically made sure not to touch my main OS. =(

Would it be useful to use some sort of tool to try and repair whatever is on the hard drive? I'm gonna go try out some of my CDs and see what happens. =)

Thanks for the reply, Hybr!d. =D

**Hybr!d** · #4 17th Apr 2009, 09:27

Ok, so put just the 32bit (non booting) drive in.

Boot of the OS CD and perform a repair.

**tmockingbird** · #5 18th Apr 2009, 02:58

Ahh, the repair from my OS CD directly picked up the booting problem and fixed it in seconds. Should've tried that before posting zhaha, my bad. Now each time I boot up I get the option of which drive to boot, yay.

Thanks for the tip. =D

**Hybr!d** · #6 18th Apr 2009, 03:13

Good stuff, glad it's fixed.