Help formatting 500gb internal drive

[BIG-HOL]

hi guys, i recently purchased a ssd to use as my OS drive, then i attached the 500gb drive that used to serve the OS into bay 2 of my laptop, but sometimes it still tries to boot into the 2nd drive and i get an error on screen when this happens, and my laptop wont boot up, iv went into device manager and tried to format the 500gb drive, could anyone take a look at the pic and help me with whats going on as i aint got a clue, whats the healthy oem partition in disk 1, im guessing thats the problem, i dont know, lol, when i get the error at bootup i have to go into bios and reset the drives so the SSD drive boots 1st, which should be set as basic and which should be dynamic. any help how to properly delete or setup the 2nd drive so it dosnt try to boot. it works fine most the time just randomly when i restart it tries to boot into 2nd drive and i get the error at startup.

 

[BIG-HOL]

Bump..........

 

[MH]

Delete the partitions, and reformat.

 

[wiz569]

Both of my hard drives show as basic m8 but I dont have an SSD,
I wonder would it be something to do with the OEM partition on your 500G one which I presume is some kind of factory restore partition?

Have you tried formatting it in your desktop PC or even using a Linux live cd with GParted on it?

 

[GTO]

if your going to be using it for your OS, just start the windows install (win 7) and select the drive let it format it for you.

 

[Abu Baniaz]

The partition is not set as active or primary.

The simplest thing would be to disconnect the other drives and start installing from your CD and the CD will do what it needs to do without getting confused with the other partitions on other drives.. Alternatively you can use easeus to change the partition type.

 

[little_pob]

Have you put the SSD where the mechanical drive was originally fitted and put the mechanical drive in the 2nd HDD bay? I don't know why you should have to do this, but this was recommended when I did the same to my Dell laptop.

As for the partions you currently have:

To keep the restore partion:

• Remove the 500GB drive.
• Boot from the Windows installation disc and go to custom install.
• Delete the partions on the SSD.
• Create a 40MB partion to move the restore partion later.
• Allow Windows to install normally.
• Put the 500GB drive back in.
• Copy the 39MB recovery partion to the 40MB partion created earlier.
• Delete all the partions on the 500GB drive, then format and repartion it.

If you are not bothered about the restore partion:

• Delete all the partions on the 500GB drive, then format and repartion it.
• Remove it from the laptop and put it to one side for now.
• Boot from the Windows installation disc and go to custom install.
• Delete the partions on the SSD.
• Allow Windows to install as normal.
• Put the 500GB HDD back in.

I wouldn't worry about the 100MB paging partion being on the SSD. TRIM, wear leveling and an industry average of 10 year MTBF should mean the drive lasts longer than the laptop.

When removing and reinstalling drives disconnect the laptop from the mains and remove the battery.

 

[dibbers]

basically when you 1st had the machine then that small partition has disk info etc installed on it, if you just want to use it as a 500 gig attached drive then delete both of the partitions (as pob has stated) on the 500 gig that is and then format it as one huge 500 gig ntfs drive, that's why some times it's trying to boot.

Of course make sure there isn't;t any thing on that HDD that you need and make sure it's the 500 gig one your deleting the partition from....simples...


looks like you didn't format the hard drive correctly at the beginning, bummer, as this is what it should look like. see how you get on with the 500 partitions deleted and see if you have any more problems, it'll just be a bug bare if any thing about the c: drive.....if it turns out that it's not and it's still getting booting info from it, then might be a fresh install, might i say as not the end of the world the way you have it.

 

[BIG-HOL]

what i did when i got my ssd was take the 500gb drive straight out, plugged in ssd and booted up from disc, installed windows 7 fine, then a few days later i put the 500gb back in after i got the caddy for it, formatted the drive to ntfs, and everything was fine till it started trying to boot from the 500gb instead of the ssd.

when i format the 500gb drive it does not delete that small 39mb partition nor can i format it from device manager as iv tried a few times, i think this is whats causing the problems, as both drives work fine, like dibs says i think theres program files or whatever left in this partition causing it to think theres an os on it, but how the hell can i delete it. id rather just try to delete the partition then a full install as iv just got it set up the way i like, lol, iv backed up all my files on the 500gb drive so there safe, just need to find out how to delete that 39mb partition!

 

[wiz569]

what i did when i got my ssd was take the 500gb drive straight out, plugged in ssd and booted up from disc, installed windows 7 fine, then a few days later i put the 500gb back in after i got the caddy for it, formatted the drive to ntfs, and everything was fine till it started trying to boot from the 500gb instead of the ssd.

when i format the 500gb drive it does not delete that small 39mb partition nor can i format it from device manager as iv tried a few times, i think this is whats causing the problems, as both drives work fine, like dibs says i think theres program files or whatever left in this partition causing it to think theres an os on it, but how the hell can i delete it. id rather just try to delete the partition then a full install as iv just got it set up the way i like, lol, iv backed up all my files on the 500gb drive so there safe, just need to find out how to delete that 39mb partition!

Live linux cd with GParted m8 or else Hirens bootCD should have something on it to erase that partition,and that way its being done outside of the windows environment

 

[dibbers]

Sorry mate, had my hands in a pair of surgical gloves putting some of that windows reflective mirror stuff on some of the windows and was right in the middle of pealing the sticking plaster stuff of the back of it when you posted, water gun and craft knife in one hand! got a kink in it as well, gutted...lol.....i'll dive on and have a look for you but you should defo be able to delete it in windows disk management, any way if after I've had a look of it I'll report back in the thread to tell others what the problem was (is) and then any one with the same should be able to do it or follow what we do....(fingers crossed and all that of course) PM sent

is all your stuff defo backed up just incase it goes bottoms up and all that....

 

[little_pob]

Disk management in Windows kernel 6.x (i.e. Vista and 7) has flaws. For example, I had to drop down to XP to even be able to detect the drives from a software RAID0 setup that failed when the CMOS battery died! The partition table was reporting the drive was ~298 GiB (320GB), but the drive's controller was saying it was a 160GB disk, as such 7 just wouldn't show it...

As such try a live disc as previously mentioned by wiz569.

 

[dibbers]

that's what it's called again pob " partition table " pain in the but some times they are.....! good call...

 

[BIG-HOL]

whys nowt just ever easy, lol, dibs just had a look for me over team viewer and nowt worked, i aint got any other pc to chuck the drive in and try and format other than my xttreamer pro so guess ill put it in that and try and format and see what happens, if not ill have to give what pob mentioned a go, just seems a right faff on just to sort a drive out, lol!

 

[dibbers]

never ever seen a drive do that before matey.....it's like the MBR (master boot record) is protected and i ain't ever come across that before...shame you ain't got a machine to plug it into and then format it, then again I'm thinking it might be the same just plugging it into another windows based machine as after all that's all you've done with this one.

The lap top does boot with this drive removed? if that's the case one of the posts made earlier might as suggested might be the answer, I'm intrigued to know though.....

 

[wiz569]

Jeez Louise use a Linux live CD,no windows to interfere,

Then again it might not work either lol

Sent from my ZTE-BLADE using Tapatalk

 

[BIG-HOL]

Jeez Louise use a Linux live CD,no windows to interfere,

Then again it might not work either lol

Sent from my ZTE-BLADE using Tapatalk

what do i do once iv got the linux live cd though mate, and where would i get that, as i aint gotta clue about these things in all fairness, worth a try!

 

[dibbers]

you just download it and burn it to cd then make your lap top boot from it, it then loads a linux operating system and you get to do lots more stuff you can't with windows. live cd i think it's called, was up to version 9 the last time i used it i think...right off to bed for me...catch ya the morra and see how you get on....

 

[BIG-HOL]

you just download it and burn it to cd then make your lap top boot from it, it then loads a linux operating system and you get to do lots more stuff you can't with windows. live cd i think it's called, was up to version 9 the last time i used it i think...right off to bed for me...catch ya the morra and see how you get on....

no worries mate cheers for the help anyway!

 

[BIG-HOL]

is it this what im looking for or not

Live CD.com: Windows-based bootable recovery CD/USB Flash disk.

theres so many linux versions can someone point me in the right direction