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For the last two days, I have been trying and searching for a way to boot Windows 7 from the new disk.

My disk configuration is as follows:

Disk 0 - Multi boot/multi portioned 1 TB HDD - Windows and many Linux flavors

Disk 1 - ~150 GB HDD with some data on 4 partitions, Windows 7 Boot Loader for Windows 7 installed on Disk 0

I am not able to boot Windows 7 from Disk 0 as the Windows Boot Loader is installed on Disk 1.

I bought new 2 TB HDD and want to replace old Disk 1 HDD. But my first goal is to make Windows 7 accessible from disk 0 using grub along with other Linux systems.

I ran BCDBOOT C:\Windows and tried grub customizer to detect Windows 7, but it shows Windows 7 on sdb instead of sda. If I disconnect Disk 1, then I am not able to load or detect Window 7 from grub.

I have a screenshot of Windows Disk Management for reference:

 Screenshot

I came across similar Q&As on the Internet but I could not fix my problem.

My question is how do I add Windows 7 on Disk 0 option in Linux Grub?

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  • OK, I managed to create boot record on Disk 0 as instructed on this link. Now my Disk 1 is removed and I can boot into Windows 7. Now I am looking finding a way to restore grub bootloader so that I can access all my Linux OS back again.
    – Silkograph
    Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 12:02
  • Create System Recovery Disk from Win7, Run CMD and execute commands, BOOTREC /FixMBR, BOOTREC /FixBoot, BOOTREC /RebuildBCD Hope this will help others who are still finding a solution for this problem.
    – Silkograph
    Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 12:23
  • My problem has been resolved finally with the help of Boot-Repair utility by running Live Ubuntu 16 CD. I choose default option to restore boot records and it worked. Now how do I mark this question as Solved?
    – Silkograph
    Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 17:22
  • Write up your answer so others can learn from what you've accomplished then accept it.
    – jdwolf
    Commented Oct 21, 2017 at 17:46

1 Answer 1

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1

(Following process can be done if Windows 7 is getting booted from Disk 1.)

Since no one has answered my question and I managed to fix this problem myself with help / tutorials found on the Internet, I am answering my own question. I would appreciate if some one has better answer than this.

To create boot record on Disk 0 follow below steps

  1. Start Windows 7 (In my case, I was able to boot Windows only from Disk 1 boot loader)
  2. Keep blank DVD disc ready to create System repair disk
  3. Run %systemroot%\system32\recdisc.exe or search "Create a system repair disk"
  4. Once the disk is ready, insert this recovery DVD in DVD drive and reboot system with this disk
  5. When computer boots up with this recovery disk, we get 5 options
  6. Select last option of Command Prompt
  7. Type bootrec command to see command list
  8. Execute following commands
    • BOOTREC /FixMBR
    • BOOTREC /FixBoot
    • BOOTREC /RebuildBCD
  9. Remove DVD and shutdown the PC
  10. Disconnect Disk 1 from the computer

After this you should be able to boot Windows 7 from disk 0.

With this process only Windows 7 will boot from Disk 0 as it overwrites GRUB. Now to restore GRUB, for multi-boot environment I have used Ubuntu 16. 04 Live CD.

After booting into Ubuntu Live CD visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair and follow steps to install Boot Repair utility.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

Now you should see Boot Repair utility screen. Just select defaults and click Apply button.

After this I removed Live DVD and restarted PC and everything was up and running as usual.

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