How to regain access to win 8 after reinstalling win 7 ?

[quicky008]

I have 2 hdds on my system-80 gb and 1 tb.Before adding the 1 tb drive,i used my 80gb hdd as my primary hdd and had win 7 installed on it.After adding the 1 tb drive,i installed win 8 on 1 of the partitions of this new drive,but the MBR for win 8 was created on my older 80gb hdd as it was still configured as the primary hdd in the bios.

However the 80gb hdd has outlived its usefulness and so i am planning to replace it with a new 2 tb drive,which is intended to be used as the primary hdd from then onwards.I also wish to install win 7 on this 2 tb hdd.However what bothers me is that as the mbr for win 8 originally existed on my older 80 gb drive,will be able to boot into windows 8 after replacing it with the 2tb drive and installing win 7 on it?Or will i have to reinstall win 8 as well from scratch?As i have said earlier,win 8 is currently installed on my existing 1 tb drive and i'd like to keep it even after replacing my primary hdd as it contains many of the games and applications that i use frequently-reinstalling everyone of them will be an extremely time consuming and difficult task and so i wish to avoid that at all costs.

So can anyone tell me how can I continue to use Win 8 even after changing my primary hdd(containing the boot-loader for win 8)?Thanks.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Use EasyBCD
and read these:
Can I move My MBR? [Solved] - Configuration - Windows 7
Move mbr to a different partition | Windows Secrets Lounge

 

[Shah]

As saiyanGoku said, use EasyBCD. After installing Win 7 on the new drive, Add a new entry to Win 8, if it doesn't appear on the boot menu.

 

[quicky008]

As saiyanGoku said, use EasyBCD. After installing Win 7 on the new drive, Add a new entry to Win 8, if it doesn't appear on the boot menu.

Thanks a lot to both of you,i'll do as you've suggested and keep you posted about the outcome.

 

[quicky008]

guys,i followed your instructions and added an entry for the partition containing my win 8 installation to the boot menu via easybcd after installing win 7 on the new 2 tb drive.But when i select windows 8 from the boot menu during startup,it shows an error that goes something like "'winload.exe' Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file" and says "press enter to continue".After pressing enter,the same boot menu appears again containing the options for win 7 and 8.Although win 7 is loading just fine,i still haven't succeeded in booting into windows 8.Why is this happening?How can i resolve this problem?Please help me.

 

[meetdilip]

Are you using latest version of EasyBCD ?

 

[Shah]

guys,i followed your instructions and added an entry for the partition containing my win 8 installation to the boot menu via easybcd after installing win 7 on the new 2 tb drive.But when i select windows 8 from the boot menu during startup,it shows an error that goes something like "'winload.exe' Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file" and says "press enter to continue".After pressing enter,the same boot menu appears again containing the options for win 7 and 8.Although win 7 is loading just fine,i still haven't succeeded in booting into windows 8.Why is this happening?How can i resolve this problem?Please help me.

Did you try repairing the boot files?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, Did you click on "Write MBR" after adding an entry?

 

[quicky008]

Did you try repairing the boot files?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, Did you click on "Write MBR" after adding an entry?

Yes,i was able to resolve the problem yesterday by booting with the win 8 installation disc and and selecting the repair option.After this,i no longer received the aforesaid error after selecting Win 8 from the boot menu.I'm not sure whether i clicked on Write MBR after adding the 2nd entry for win 8-as far as i can remember made the entry and then clicked on "save"-yet i'll check it once again and report back by 2moro.