Xp boot problems with 2 physical hdds

[landlocked32371]

First off, I'd like to admit my stupidity in what i did, but it made sense at the time. Second of all i do have a work around that seems to work fine, but it is a bit of a hassle each time i boot.

1. Built a new computer with dual physical hdd's. WD - 250gb - sata - 16mb cache.

2. Everything posted fine.

3. Installed xp on the first drive, leaving 80gb unformatted for a future install of linux....installed antivirus, updated drivers. everything was good.

4. At this point, everything works, and is stable so i decide to format the second drive. All of it one partition NTFS. Being fresh off of the install from xp on the first drive, i figure (and my brother recommended) i should boot to the xp cd, and use the provided partition utility. I do, and walk off for a while as it formats. (i chose the full format, not the fast). And i also chose, ONLY to partition, NOT to install windows.

5. I come back a couple of hours later, and somehow the thing had actually started installing windows on the second drive. I tried to cancel out...but it didnt work. I tried rebooting, with the other drive as the priority...didnt work. It kept asking for the windows disk so that it could finish its install no matter what i did.

6. i went ahead let it finish the windows install on the second drive.

7. i rebooted, and up pops a boot choice screen. i find that i can still get to my original install, and that it works fine. so thats good.

8. at this point i figure i should just completely reformat the second drive, and all will be well.

9. i figure out that there is a utility within xp to do just that under disk management. so i run that.

10. a couple of hours later, i come back, and everything is working. until i try to reboot.

11. now when i reboot, it keeps looking for an HAL file, or something similar. i think that its trying to still boot off of the second drive.

12. i go into setup, and switch the hdd priority around to see if that helps...no dice.

What else should i try? I had to come to work this morning, so i didnt get to check if the boot selector works or not yet.


I was thinking that there used to be two types of formatting...high level, and low level. where one goes deeper than the other. although, i cant recall which.

Also, i was thinking that somehow there is a file left over from the install somewhere that keeps making the computer look for xp on the second drive.

Or...perhaps its somewhere in the bios...perhaps i should pull the batter, and let it reset?

I also seem to remember reading somewhere about a Master Boot Record or MBR...perhaps this needs to be cleared somehow?

Any suggestions?

ps, i am going to post this in the os/xp section, as i think it could apply to both. thanks.

 

[PCcashCow]

Ok,

It seems that the mbr and some other files became shared over the two drives. If I were you, I would just wipe both drives and start over, use the WD utility disk to zero the drives clean.

 

[b_diddy_t]

You are right there is a file left over that is stuffing things up.

You can't do a format of a drive with the windows cd without installing windows aswell. Don't listen to your brother anymore. That utility will allow you to delete a partition if you want but there are much easier ways in windows to do all that stuff.

First of all, disconnect drive #2. Unplug the power or something so its not causing any more problems and confusion.

Boot off the Windows CD again, and when it gets to the first question, choose "R" for recovery console.

When you are in recovery console it will count down from 5 to 0, jsut let it go. Then it will probably say:

1: C:\WINDOWS
Choose your operating system (or something)

Press 1 and enter. (don't just press enter)

It might ask you for the Administrator password, if it doesn't work try just pressing enter. If it doesn't ask you don't worry.

You are now at a prompt:

C:\WINDOWS>

Type fixboot
press enter
say yes to anything it asks

when thats done
Type fixmbr
press enter
say yes to anything

Type Exit
press enter

Take WinXP cd out of drive. All should be fine, if not, come back I have more to try.

 

[haha103]

reinstall your windowsxp

 

[b_diddy_t]

reinstall your windowsxp

All these people that say to reinstall, reinstall, reinstall.

Reinstall is a last resort, reserved for when you really don't have time to troubleshoot the actual problem and would prefer to sweep it under the rug without learning anything.

 

[landlocked32371]

Thanks for the advice. I will try your suggestions when i get home tonight.

b_diddy_t: i agree with you. A full re-install will be a last resort. I rather fix it, and learn something in the process. Which is one reason i wanted to build my own computer anyway.

 

[b_diddy_t]

A full re-install will be a last resort. I rather fix it, and learn something in the process. Which is one reason i wanted to build my own computer anyway.

That sounds like a good policy.

 

[landlocked32371]

Problem solved!

i tried your tips b_diddy_t, the steps worked fine, but windows still was getting confused. but in doing so, it gave me a few other things to google, and found the boot.ini file.

so i edited that (after backing up the original of course) to get rid of the reference to the second drive, plugged drive 2 back in, and now everything works like a charm.

thanks for your support, and ideas. im proud to say i did NOT have to re-install!