Disk boot failure, works with slave drive, but not on its ..

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

Had XP pro on 2 HD, removed original master, now can't access 2nd disc.
Changed jumpers, can see it in bios. Option to select either at boot up has
gone. If I reconnect other disc, everything works fine. Original disc is
corrupted so must use second disc. Glad I actually installed it now, although
frustrated can't access it.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

Hi,

Despite where you installed the operating system files, the boot files are
on C:. What you will need to do is disconnect the C: drive, then boot with
the WinXP CD and run the Recovery Console by hitting "r" when prompted. From
the command prompt, run fixboot. You may also need to run bootcfg /rebuild.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"cablemartin" <cablemartin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:221D6A0D-BAA0-4EED-A3E5-46681728E163@microsoft.com...
> Had XP pro on 2 HD, removed original master, now can't access 2nd disc.
> Changed jumpers, can see it in bios. Option to select either at boot up
> has
> gone. If I reconnect other disc, everything works fine. Original disc is
> corrupted so must use second disc. Glad I actually installed it now,
> although
> frustrated can't access it.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Despite where you installed the operating system files, the boot files are
> on C:. What you will need to do is disconnect the C: drive, then boot with
> the WinXP CD and run the Recovery Console by hitting "r" when prompted. From
> the command prompt, run fixboot. You may also need to run bootcfg /rebuild.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>
> "cablemartin" <cablemartin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:221D6A0D-BAA0-4EED-A3E5-46681728E163@microsoft.com...
> > Had XP pro on 2 HD, removed original master, now can't access 2nd disc.
> > Changed jumpers, can see it in bios. Option to select either at boot up
> > has
> > gone. If I reconnect other disc, everything works fine. Original disc is
> > corrupted so must use second disc. Glad I actually installed it now,
> > although
> > frustrated can't access it.
>
>
> Hi Rick, first many thanks for the prompt response! wasn't expecting that!
Followed your advise and this is what happened:
when I got to the prompt it asked for the administrator password, I'm sure I
wasn't given one or set one so I just hit enter and got to the next prompt.
Fixboot gave the following message: cannot find the system drive, or the
drive specified is not valid. Then tried bootcfg/rebuild, it went off to
search and came back having identified 1 windows install labelled as
[1]:C:\windows (which is correct, as this is the one I want to use)
Then Add Installation to bootlist (yes,no, or all) I pressed Y
Enter Load Identifier: I pressed 1 (No idea what to put here)
Enter OS Load Option: (As above, I pressed 1, probably wrong!)
I think I am heading in the right direction, what should I put in for the
last 2 questions, and will there be some more similar questions? Again I
probably don't know the answers! Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

Hi,

You may need to specify fixboot F:

Question 1: Whatever you want to call that installation. Default is
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional" which is what you'll see if you use the
boot loader to run more than one installation.

Question 2: Usually just /fastdetect

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"cablemartin" <cablemartin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BFAB2A03-CBB8-445A-8AAE-92C6D349A8D9@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Despite where you installed the operating system files, the boot files
>> are
>> on C:. What you will need to do is disconnect the C: drive, then boot
>> with
>> the WinXP CD and run the Recovery Console by hitting "r" when prompted.
>> From
>> the command prompt, run fixboot. You may also need to run bootcfg
>> /rebuild.
>>
>> --
>> Best of Luck,
>>
>> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
>> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
>> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>>
>> "cablemartin" <cablemartin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:221D6A0D-BAA0-4EED-A3E5-46681728E163@microsoft.com...
>> > Had XP pro on 2 HD, removed original master, now can't access 2nd disc.
>> > Changed jumpers, can see it in bios. Option to select either at boot up
>> > has
>> > gone. If I reconnect other disc, everything works fine. Original disc
>> > is
>> > corrupted so must use second disc. Glad I actually installed it now,
>> > although
>> > frustrated can't access it.
>>
>>
>> Hi Rick, first many thanks for the prompt response! wasn't expecting
>> that!
> Followed your advise and this is what happened:
> when I got to the prompt it asked for the administrator password, I'm sure
> I
> wasn't given one or set one so I just hit enter and got to the next
> prompt.
> Fixboot gave the following message: cannot find the system drive, or the
> drive specified is not valid. Then tried bootcfg/rebuild, it went off to
> search and came back having identified 1 windows install labelled as
> [1]:C:\windows (which is correct, as this is the one I want to use)
> Then Add Installation to bootlist (yes,no, or all) I pressed Y
> Enter Load Identifier: I pressed 1 (No idea what to put here)
> Enter OS Load Option: (As above, I pressed 1, probably wrong!)
> I think I am heading in the right direction, what should I put in for the
> last 2 questions, and will there be some more similar questions? Again I
> probably don't know the answers! Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

cablemartin wrote:

Then tried bootcfg/rebuild, it went off to
> search and came back having identified 1 windows install labelled as
> [1]:C:\windows (which is correct, as this is the one I want to use)

But that isn't correct... You want to use the XP setup that was
installed on HDD1 and recognized as being installed on F, isn't that
what you said in your first post? By removing HDD0 you have changed the
drive and partition enumeration and you won't be able to get that XP
going again, at least not without considerable knowledge, effort and
patience. Think about it, all the drive references during the
installation pointed to F:, now you're trying to tell it that it's C:.
Your registry on that installation contains hundreds of references to
drive F and also shows the mounted installation drive as being F. There
is no simple easy way to change that.

John

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

I'm beginning to think this is a lost cause! Understand what you say,
assumed that because the whole thing works nicely, that there would be a
simple answer to the booting up problem, but obviously not! I may as well
get another HD, remove the existing 2 and start again...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

You could get a small drive and partition it as you had the defective
drive, put the boot files on it and install it as HDD0 in the computer.
It only needs to be the smallest of drives. It's a work around to
keep your XP installation on F: as you have it now. You could have
avoided these problems with the use of a third party boot manager when
you installed the second XP copy.

John

cablemartin wrote:
> I'm beginning to think this is a lost cause! Understand what you say,
> assumed that because the whole thing works nicely, that there would be a
> simple answer to the booting up problem, but obviously not! I may as well
> get another HD, remove the existing 2 and start again...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

Hi John
I'm already way beyond my PC skills, don't understand partitions or such,
didn't really grasp your message either! When I installed the 80 GB HD (WD
caviar) no CD supplied or info, just searched the net for guidance. If all
else fails then I have to leave the original C in situ and hope it never
dies! Ideally I would like to remove it, and replace with another drive to
use purely for back-up with no OS on it.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers (More info?)

For all it's worth that 40gb hard drive may last a long time yet. Your
reason for installing the second 80gb drive was because you needed
additional disk space, not because the other one was failing, right? If
you do a chkdsk on it and it doesn't return a large amount of bad blocks
and if subsequent chkdsk's don't return new bad blocks I would say that
there would be no eminent danger of drive failure.

Also, if you don't use the XP installation on that drive, you seem to
prefer your second installation for some reason or other, there is
nothing stopping you from deleting all* the files on that 40gb drive and
using it for storage and backups.

*EXCEPT: You MUST keep the following files where they are on that 40GB
drive:

- Ntldr
- Ntdetect.com
- Boot.ini

And you MUST keep the active partition flag on that partition. As it is
now the only purpose that the drive seems to serve is to be the boot
disk for your other installation, an essential purpose of course. Should
the drive fail replacing it with another boot drive would not be overly
complicated. You could even boot the second XP installation with a boot
floppy disk.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305595#3

You might want to create one of these disks, try it and keep it in a
safe location in case the boot drive does fail.

To create a boot hard drive you would basically do the same as for the
diskette in the above article.

- Put (slave) the new hard drive in an XP computer.
- Format it with XP disk utility
- Make the drive active with XP disk utility
- Copy Ntldr & Ntdetect.com from the i386 folder or from the XP setup cd
i386 folder on to the drive.
- Copy YOUR boot.ini (from your present installation) to the drive. You
could also make a new boot.ini file providing you included the proper
path in the file.

And there you have it, should be able to boot your pc with that. If you
feel that you can't do it, any pc repair shop should be able to do it
for a very minimal charge, just bring them your boot.ini file on a
diskette and tell them to use it. Then all you need to do is make sure
that the drive is properly jumpered and install it in the computer, it
should work.

John

cablemartin wrote:

> Hi John
> I'm already way beyond my PC skills, don't understand partitions or such,
> didn't really grasp your message either! When I installed the 80 GB HD (WD
> caviar) no CD supplied or info, just searched the net for guidance. If all
> else fails then I have to leave the original C in situ and hope it never
> dies! Ideally I would like to remove it, and replace with another drive to
> use purely for back-up with no OS on it.