new system problems!!!! please help!!!!!

[tuk]

I need help badly must have installed XP + fully updating about a dozen times...

Old drive: 20Gb seagate ata slave(same cable as DVD/CD ide master
New drive: 250Gb samsung sata spinpoint(sata 1)master

When my system was built i connected my old hard drive to bring my old files onto my new hard drive, however when i try to:

remove the old drive(disabling in hardware device menu and then unplugging)..
.for some reason the old drive dosent show up using the 'safely remove hardware' program even though its visible/usuable in' my computer'
ii can disable it in 'hardware device menu' and xp will still load as long as the old drive is first in the boot order and connected

or

change the boot priority so my new drive is first

then xp dosent load, either:

trys to boot from cd then asks for system disk
or
ntldr file is missing
or
hal file is missing

if i put the old drive to the top of the boot order and attach the old drive then xp loads

I tried to use 'Partition manager' to install xp on my new system and also create copies of my xp partition, but it seemed to create lots of boot errors
(described above)and the reinstalling of windows ..aarrrrghhh

its as if the new drive needs the old drive before it can boot properly?????
__________

Ok it appears that the old drive has a boot.ini file, but not the new drive
here is what the boot file says:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


I think partition manager somehow move the boot file to the wrong drive...so how do i get it back....if that is indeed the solution

 

[waylander]

Have you successfully installed XP onto the new drive? Are you using a XP disk to do this or just trying to "ghost" your old drive?

If you have the disk my suggestion would be to take out the old drive completly, boot from CD and install XP to the new drive. Once that is done power down and plug in the old drive but make sure the new drive has priority.

OR

Have both drives plugged in, boot from CD and at the "which drive do you want to install windows on" page delete all partitions, create the new partitions you want then install windows on the new drive.

Personally, 80 gb is enough space for the OS and programs, I'd just use the new drive as your data drive (there is no advantage to using the new drive as the sata won't be any faster than your IDE).