Added Fedora HDD, now Windows will not boot

supasoaker · 10-26-2013, 05:56 AM

Hi all,

I just added a hdd from my laptop that runs Fedora into my main desktop which runs windows. I did not remove the windows drive and it booted into the Fedora OS. Now with the Fedora drive removed Windows will not boot.

Can anyone advise on this issue? Much Obliged!

yancek · 10-26-2013, 08:58 AM

If the second hard drive had Fedora on it, you would have needed to change the boot priority in the BIOS to boot it or configure the windows bootloader to boot it. Which did you do? If you did the first option, change the boot priority back. Or did you install Fedora after attaching the second drive to the Desktop? Are you planning to keep the second drive attached? And which version of windows might you be using?

supasoaker · 10-31-2013, 04:01 AM

Hi - the second had Fedora on it, first boot I left it to see what it would do.

I had to rebuild my windows 7 boot sector using the command prompt on the setup cd and running 'bootrec /RebuildBcd' - this fixed the issue - but I am worried about why I had to do this in the first place, unless when Fedora booted it did something to the windows drive when it incorporated into its list of accessible drives...?

yancek · 10-31-2013, 08:38 AM

Based on the info in your last post, Fedora installed part of the bootloader to the first drives master boot record which would be the drive on which you have windows. That is the default setting for Fedora and most systems so if you did not manually change it, I suspect that is what happened and why you also had to repair the windows drives' mbr. Pay close attention during installations, particularly when it comes to the bootloader. Every Linux system I have installed will give you options.

supasoaker · 11-01-2013, 03:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Based on the info in your last post, Fedora installed part of the bootloader to the first drives master boot record which would be the drive on which you have windows. That is the default setting for Fedora and most systems so if you did not manually change it, I suspect that is what happened and why you also had to repair the windows drives' mbr. Pay close attention during installations, particularly when it comes to the bootloader. Every Linux system I have installed will give you options.

Thanks, I had a feeling it would be something like this, but was not aware Fedora would do it.

By the way, there was no installation, it was a HDD that ALREADY had Fedora on it and I added it to my machine to boot in, I still don't think it should have done what it did, unless when mounting the windows HDD it changed the boot sector...