HDD changes boot order when boot slave is added

[Modifyinc]

I have W7 loaded on a SATA HDD using Native IDE in the BIOS.

It is using IDE Channel 2 Master

I plugged in another SATA HDD, one that has WHS2011 installed on it, so it also has a boot partition, but it is the slave.

It is using IDE Channel 2 Slave

I'm confused though, why does the slave WHS2011 boot over my W7 boot HDD? Also my W7 has the hidden Boot folder, and holds the boot configuration data store, if that holds any merit in this.

I'm really puzzled over this, but I do admit, I really don't understand how the HDD priorities are determined, especially in this specific scenario .

Does it have something to do with that 100 MB hidden partition on the WHS2011 drive? I just noticed, it has that, and my W7 doesn't. How can I add that to my W7 drive?

Thanks

I attached my disk management screen shots.

 

[raybay]

You have control when you want it. For example:
Go to Start-> Control Panel-> Administrative Tools-> Computer Management->
and look in Disk 0 and Disk 1, etc., for paths and properties. You can correct what needs to be done there.

 

[Modifyinc]

You have control when you want it. For example:
Go to Start-> Control Panel-> Administrative Tools-> Computer Management->
and look in Disk 0 and Disk 1, etc., for paths and properties. You can correct what needs to be done there.

Not sure what I need to correct though.

I just tried it again, with the WHS2011 drive connected to slave again and this time it booted to W7. Now I'm really confused, why did it previously boot to WHS2011 twice, and now this time it went to W7. Did it just fix itself, does it randomly decide which boot drive to boot (doubt it)?

Anyhow this is what I wanted, the W7 drive booting and the WHS2011 drive slaved so I can delete it and reformat it. Though I see another problem arising.

In Computer Management, when I click on the D partition of the WHS2011 drive to delete it, it says it is active and running and I will have to forcefully unmount it. I'm confused why it is active, since W7 booted and is Master. If I forcefully unmount it, I'm certain to have issues with booting and will have to use a Windows Recovery disc to repair the boot sector.

 

[Leeky]

Partition D is System Reserved, which is used by Windows 7 to handle the boot settings I believe, but in either case you can't just remove it without breaking your Windows install.

Normally when installing using SATA disks (In SATA mode) it creates the small partition on the disk which will become drive C during install, thus keeping them on one single disk.

For reasons unknown, disks running in IDE mode have a habit of doing what they have in your case, with the System Reserved sitting on another physical disk.

In either case, both of the first partitions (G and I) can be deleted, then reformatted as a single, or multiple partitions without any risk to system operation. Just don't delete Partition D (100MB NTFS) unless you want to have problems booting Windows.

 

[Modifyinc]

Partition D is System Reserved, which is used by Windows 7 to handle the boot settings I believe, but in either case you can't just remove it without breaking your Windows install.

Normally when installing using SATA disks (In SATA mode) it creates the small partition on the disk which will become drive C during install, thus keeping them on one single disk.

For reasons unknown, disks running in IDE mode have a habit of doing what they have in your case, with the System Reserved sitting on another physical disk.

In either case, both of the first partitions (G and I) can be deleted, then reformatted as a single, or multiple partitions without any risk to system operation. Just don't delete Partition D (100MB NTFS) unless you want to have problems booting Windows.

Thanks for the reply...

I had no trouble deleting Volume 'I', but volume 'G' is giving the same issue. It complains that it is in use, and forcing it to delete could be dangerous.

Any suggestions?

 

[Leeky]

What is on partition G?