Hey guys, been a while since I've been on here and it looks like a lot has changed!
Anyways, I'm in need of some assistance and i'll try to explain my issue as best I can for you. A while back I decided to make the change from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 but I decided I didn't want to remove my install of Windows 7. I installed a new SSD to the system and installed windows 8.1 to that, so now when the computer boots up I'm greeted with the Windows 8 style window where you choose which OS installation you want to boot into. Anyways the problem is I no longer want the Windows 7 install to exist on my machine but If I remove the HDD with windows 7 on it I get a Boot Device not found error. Windows 8.1 Will not boot without the HDD that had Windows 7 installed on connected to the computer. I've tried putting a Windows 8.1 disc in the machine so I can get a command prompt open so I can try using Bootrec.exe /ScanOs and Bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd to try to get windows 8.1 bootable again but when it asks m if I want to add the OS and I enter Y to agree it tells me "Element not found."
Really hope someone knows how to get my OS bootable without that other HDD installed.
it acts as if all the Boot information for windows 8.1 is on the old HDD. Could that actually be the case? Problem is I have some software that I would like to keep that is on the Windows 8.1 installation that I wont be able to get back if I do a fresh install. If I choose the HDD with 8.1 installed it gives me BOOTMGR is missing
Most programs folders cannot be transferred to a new computer without the keys because they are registered through the registry. You should be able to launch it, but doing so will create new registry keys and ask for a keycode.
Ya, I think it's a pain trying to get it working if the program can't be run portably, although could you go so far as to modify what's in the registry with the required files? I think I tried that once
I still have the HDD with 7 on it and with that installed the computer still boots up correctly. I don't want to go tweaking around in the registry, Id really hope there was a easier solution to just allow me to make the windows 8.1 installation functional without the other HDD.
Should be the same on Windows 8, if it is not let me know.
Check to make sure Windows 8 is the default listed. Then edit your boot.ini so that it only lists your windows 8 install. You can do this through cmd, manually editing your boot.ini file or through "Windows Key + R" msconfig, then boot tab. Make sure you back up your boot.ini before you edit the file.
If i remove the Windows 7 listing from the boot window in msconfig will that even really change anything? The boot information for windows 8.1 would still be on the other hdd still wouldn't it?
Do you have any hard links to the windows 7 drive? Check to see if your virtual memory is on your windows 8.1 drive also. Was Windows 8.1 the default listing in the settings panel?
Virtual Memory has been disabled on the windows 8.1 drive. Its a solid state so I wouldn't want that feature being used on it and my system has plenty of ram so its not needed. There shouldn't be anything talking to the other HDD aside from the boot manager apparently. Windows 8.1 is the default.
Your boot manager is probably on the windows 7 drive. You can check under disk management. Usually listed as the active HDD. The easiest solution is to create a new one. Open disk management and see if one or both drives are marked as active. "Windows Key + R" diskmgmt.msc
Edit: You can also check to see if your windows 7 drive is your default boot drive in bios/UEFI and change it to windows 8.
In boot management it shows the windows 7 drive as the "Healthy (boot, Page file, Crash dump, Primary partition) the only one that says its active is actually just my Storage drive for my steam games "healthy (Active, Primary partition)" oddly
I would recommend removing the windows 7 boot entry. If things go wrong you can recreate your bootmanager with bcdedit or If you have the windows 8 install media you can always do a refresh install if things go really bad. You wouldn't lose any programs, some settings would just return to default.
Here is a walkthrough for removing an OS from the boot loader. Just make sure not to remove the OS marked default.
Wait, you can try marking your windows 8 partition as active first. You can then try to remove the windows 7 drive and see if it boots without any risk. Just make sure bios/UEFI is loading your windows 8 drive. Do you know how to mark a partition as active? What does your windows 8 drive list btw under disk management. Same as the windows 7 drive? More importantly it needs to say boot also.
Edit: Sorry not used to helping people on forums, my speech in text ends up being sporadic. I really need to spell check and edit before sending.