Startup and boot problems with 2 OS on 2 phys drives

ZKR

New Member
Messages
2
Hey guys.

I have an asus p8z77-v LX, Core i7, 8GB Ram.

Ran 2 OS on two distinct physical drives :

1. Win 8.1 on Samsung 840 pro 256GB
2. Win 7 Ultimate on WD 1TB

also have a 4TB WD without OS.

Now the boot order was that the SSD is first, with the 1TB connected too but as a slave. It was the main OS I used.

When I wanted to load Win 7 instead, I would just disconnect the SSD and the 1TB Win7 load. I would also connect another old 150GB drive as slave. At some point it started to constantly try to chkdsk for all or some of the drives on startup (while still a black screen).

When I tried to put back the SSD win 8.1 and change the boot order in it`s favor, I would usually encounter a problem loading, some of the problems would include:
* Windows would take several minutes to load (instead several seconds)
* Stuck for a long time after login to windows
* different windows startup error messages
* Stuck on Asus MB screen then restart
* "No proper boot device" message
* PC is on but screen is off
etc.

Also the 4TB WD would be constantly 100% busy (maybe because of drive letters mix)

A month ago, the problem has escalated so that Win 8.1 was dead totally. I formatted the SSD, then used samsung magician to erase and restore the drive to manufacturer settings. Installed win 7 on the SSD.

When I went back to the 1TB win7 to download some drivers, then came back to the SSD win 7 - it didn`t load but with an error message relate to a recent hardware chagnes.
Now it says select a proper boot device, it won`t even detect the SSD.

Those boot changes must cause trouble.

A. What to do now ?
B. Is there a way to use 2 OS on different drives without causing problems ?

Please help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Asus p8z77-v LX
    Memory
    2X4 GB Skill
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 780i classified
    Screen Resolution
    1440X900
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 pro 256GB (OS)
    WD Black 4TB (new)
    WD Green 1TB (4 yrs old)
    PSU
    Sea Sonic 660W Platinum
B. Is there a way to use 2 OS on different drives without causing problems ?

Yes ... but it depends on how you want to select the OS to boot into and the order in which you install the OSs.

If you want to select the OS by manually choosing the boot drive in the BIOS, then the simple solution is to install each OS to its own drive -- with only that drive connected during the installation. Since each drive is then bootable on its own, you have to change the boot order in the BIOS to switch OSs.

Another way is to first, install Win7 to its own drive -- with only that drive connected. Then, with both drives connected, install Win8 to its own drive. Win8 will detect the Win7 installation and will actually write its boot loader files to the Win7 drive. When you reboot, you will be booting from the Win7 drive but you will get an OS selection menu with entries for Win8 and the Previous OS (Win7)
 

My Computer

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