How to boot from original hard drive after cloning

[danjac55]

I cloned xp which was a dual boot for xp and vista, new hd boots fine but is now g insteas of c. Problem is, I want to put the old drive back in and boot from it, but now, machine won't boot from original drive. Gives and error message some file missing or something of the sort. How can I change the bios or mbr so the old drive will boot?

 

[Chicano]

Download a bootdisk from http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm - Download the file "xpquick in .exe or .zip "from line 31 that reads: "XP Quick Boot Diskette xpquick.zip | xpquick.exe | Read.1st", and either extract the files from the zip folder to a formatted floppy disk, or execute the .exe file to install it on the floppy disk. Insert the floppy and try to boot the computer. Once loged on, copy the files contained in the floppy disk to C:\ to rebuild the replace the removed boot files.

 

[danjac55]

Chicano, I will try your suggestion. Just a thought; I cloned the drive with XXclone, free personal version. It, the program has a tab named Cool Tools. One option is to maked target drive bootable, mbr, ini etc. Suppose I started as though I was going to do a reverse clone from the new drive to the old, then choosed make target driver bootable. After that action completes, I would just stop, install the old drive and try to boot from it. Don't know if it would work but would be fast, simple way to do it. Also, have partition magic 8 installed. Should have given more info in my post;ie program used to clone etc. Anyone know xxclone that well. If it doesen't work, I will use Chicano's advice. Thanx to all. I am new here.

 

[Chicano]

Chicano, I will try your suggestion. Just a thought; I cloned the drive with XXclone, free personal version. It, the program has a tab named Cool Tools. One option is to maked target drive bootable, mbr, ini etc.

Suppose I started as though I was going to do a reverse clone from the new drive to the old, then choosed make target drive bootable. After that action completes, I would just stop, install the old drive and try to boot from it.

Don't know if it would work but would be fast, simple way to do it. Also, have partition magic 8 installed. Should have given more info in my post;ie program used to clone etc. Anyone know xxclone that well. If it doesen't work, I will use Chicano's advice. Thanx to all. I am new here.

Right that should work... I suppose the option does either or all of: Repair the MBR, adds boot files, activates the partition... And that's what the drive may need, Partition magic can also make the partition Active. So try making it bootable with XXClone and check if it's Active from the Disk Manager or from Partition Magic. Also check if the boot files have been added: (NTDETECT.COM, ntldr, and boot.ini).... also check that Boot.ini reads as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /

----------------------------------
If doesn't read exactly like that, make the necessary editions or copy this text to replace the text on boot.ini in the unbootable drive.

 

[danjac55]

Right that should work... I suppose the option does either or all of: Repair the MBR, adds boot files, activates the partition... And that's what the drive may need, Partition magic can also make the partition Active. So try making it bootable with XXClone and check if it's Active from the Disk Manager or from Partition Magic. Also check if the boot files have been added: (NTDETECT.COM, ntldr, and boot.ini).... also check that Boot.ini reads as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /

----------------------------------
If doesn't read exactly like that, make the necessary editions or copy this text to replace the text on boot.ini in the unbootable drive.

I will do that and check all those settings. Thanks. I will let you know later how it works out. I'm glad that I found this formun. So much good info and knowledgable people.

 

[danjac55]

Best answer selected by danjac55.

 

[danjac55]

It worked. Thank you.

I know where to go now when I have any problems.

 

[Chicano]

It worked. Thank you.

I know where to go now when I have any problems.

Great!.. glad you solved it.. and Thanks for the Best Answer vote

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

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