Problem on restart after partition backup

[Majestic100]

I have two caddied HDD's each with two partitions. HDD-1; C: & D:, HDD-2; E: & F:

HDD-2 is a mirror backup of HDD-1.

Having made the copy, it boots OK with both drives available but if I try and boot with HDD-1 (C: & D:) only, start up hangs. I try and reset but still hangs. If I switch power on to HDD-2 (E: & F:) kicks into life and powers up to desktop.

Perhaps I'm not performing procedure correctly so help appreciated on resolving.

[Majestic100]

Update................performed mirror copy again

a) HDD-1; Primary Partition drive letter C: and Logical Partition driver letter D:

1) On HDD-2, assigned no drive letter to logical partition F:
2) On HDD-2, formatted primary partition
3) Copied primary partition from HDD-1 to primary partition of HDD-2. Deleted partition left by this action, resized and assigned no driver letter.
4) No action taken on HDD-2 logical partition as no changes been made

At this point, not committed actions. Check .....

b) HDD-1; Primary Partition drive letter C: and Logical Partition driver letter D:

4) HDD-2 primary partition same size as HDD-1 primary partition but no drive letter assigned
5) HDD-2 logical partition same size as HDD-1 logical partition but no drive letter assigned

c) All action committed

6) Partion copied and system successfully booted.
7) open Director Suite and check........

d) HDD-1; Primary Partition drive letter C: and Logical Partition driver letter D:
e) HDD-2; Primary Partition no drive letter and Logical Partition no drive letter

8) Shut Down. Switch off power to HDD-2.
9) Start up. PC hangs on I assume POST screen ...says "press DEL to enter SETUP or Alt+F2 to enter AWDFLASH". Not seeing Acronis kicking in and assigning drive letters
10) Power off and switch on HDD-2
11) Start up and lo and behold, continue to desktop.
12) Open Director Suite and see d) and e)

Need help on this. I only want one drive powered with the ability to use mirrored backup in emergency.

[K0LO]

Two things to check:

1. Which HDD is set as the boot device in your PC's BIOS?
2. Does HDD-1 have a Master Boot Record (MBR)?

[Majestic100]

Many thanks for this reponse.

HDD-1 is set as the boot device in PC's BIOS (CH0). HDD-2 is CH1 and secondary boot device which can't be disabled

found by using Recovery console that needed to fix MBR. This done on HDD-1 and 2. for HDD-2 had to fix boot.ini as well. Now can boot from each individually.

Would like to know how these got corrupted in first place.

Thanks for suggestions.

[K0LO]

Glad to hear that. If the MBR got erased on your first drive it probably happened if you were installing a Microsoft OS on the other drive at some point in time. The MS installers usually will nuke whatever MBR is present on the drive and replace it with their own. I'm not positive but it wouldn't surprise me if they check all available HDDs when doing this.