MBR has moved from C:

RatherBeFishing said:

I have tried in Windows Disk management and in Macrium to mark Disk 1 as inactive but it does not appear as an option.

Use diskpart as in post #2 - that will let you mark disk 1 inactive.

RatherBeFishing said:

If I physically disconnect that disk 1, I get the BSOD.

try "bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:" from command prompt - that should rebuild boot entry for you specifying C as your system partition.

See Repair Windows BCD

EDIT:

SIW2 said:

There seems to be a problem with the bcd store. It should be on Disk 0 part 2. ( E)

I'm not sure about that - the boot files are on C - E is not currently used for anything as far as I can see. If system will boot with system being C and disk 1 inactive then E can be moved/deleted. At the moment E is doing nothing...

I could be wrong and perhaps "bcdboot C:\Windows /s E:" would be another option to try if the first doesn't work.

I can't understand why Disk 0 shows Drive E: and Drive C:

Disk 1 Shows Expansion Drive which is the same 2.5" disk as E: how did these get separated?

If I disconnect the cables on E: I get the BSOD.
If I disconnect the cables on C: it goes through the startup but can't find Windows

The C: drive does not appear to have system files on it and is not marked as active.

The E: drive is not empty it has 1.11GB of data on it and the "Expansion Drive" (same 2.5" disk as E) has 383.3GB of what appears to be system files on it and is also marked as active.

The BIOS also shows the 2.5" disk (E) as being the first boot disk.

"System" just means "this is the volume I booted from". There is no data there to copy - your boot files are already on C.

@lx07
Sorry but this is incorrect.

@OP
Currently your Windows is on C drive on disk 0 but the Windows Boot Manager is on disk 1.
The Boot Manager has the the following hidden Files/Folder in order to boot:
NOTE: To see these Files/Folder. Set Folder Options to show Hidden Files/Folders


In order to move these Files/Folders to C: drive, download a non commercial copy of: EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies
Install->run then follow the steps in the screen shot to move the boot manager to C:


Once done the Active flag should be in C: drive, all others will be set to Inactive.
Make sure disk 0 is the first boot order in BIOS then Reboot.

The "Master Boot Record" or MBR does not move off of a drive. It just points where the partitions are on that drive, files, active and non-active sectors, bad sectors, etc.. If it is not on a drive, you cannot access those files or drive.