Old Hard Drive Takes Over New

[Guest]

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

I was transferring files from my old hard drive to my new drive (both are on
my new system), dragging files from one to the other. When I was
transferring a bunch of music folders from my old hard drive to the new, it
gave the usual "system file" message I've seen a million times before and I
clicked on "yes to all" as always. However, this time when I rebooted my
system, my old hard drive is now loaded up in Windows, all the settings are
as if I was using the old system. I can see both drives, but I have
absolutely no idea how to get the settings back.

A system restore won't work because it said it was not monitoring the old
hard drive. Apologies but I have absolutely no idea where I should have
posted this, I've never even heard of this problem before. Thanks for any
help!

 

[Guest]

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

This seems a bit strange and I'm not sure if I really understand the problem
but here goes.

The hard disk drive from which you want to boot configured as the primary
main. The ribbon data cable should be in the data0 (not data1) socket on
the motherboard. The hard disk drive should have the small connectors
inserted as in the plan somewhere on the hard disk drive to configure it as
a master. The other hard disk drive may be configured as primary slave,
secondary master or secondary slave - as long as there is only one other
device (CD or DVD) drive configured similarly.

If you get that right you are well on the way to solving the problem. If a
problem persists please re-post.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

"Wagz" <Wagz@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6DE30C5F-EE12-4E6E-BE83-7467D5F18B81@microsoft.com...
>I was transferring files from my old hard drive to my new drive (both are
>on
> my new system), dragging files from one to the other. When I was
> transferring a bunch of music folders from my old hard drive to the new,
> it
> gave the usual "system file" message I've seen a million times before and
> I
> clicked on "yes to all" as always. However, this time when I rebooted my
> system, my old hard drive is now loaded up in Windows, all the settings
> are
> as if I was using the old system. I can see both drives, but I have
> absolutely no idea how to get the settings back.
>
> A system restore won't work because it said it was not monitoring the old
> hard drive. Apologies but I have absolutely no idea where I should have
> posted this, I've never even heard of this problem before. Thanks for any
> help!

 

[Guest]

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

Yes, my explanation was pretty vague. I have the new drive set as the
primary SATA drive (C and the old on as the primary IDE drive (E. Both
have been working fine for a couple weeks now. The BIOS has them both
properly mentioned. I have the feeling that somewhere in the registry, when
I transferred the system files from the old drive to the new, the old drive
was given the first boot priority or something like that within the operating
system.

I just got done unplugging the old drive from my computer, and my new drive
is functioning properly now. Is there something within Windows that
prioritizes which formatted drive gets loaded first?

"Bill Ridgeway" wrote:

> This seems a bit strange and I'm not sure if I really understand the problem
> but here goes.
>
> The hard disk drive from which you want to boot configured as the primary
> main. The ribbon data cable should be in the data0 (not data1) socket on
> the motherboard. The hard disk drive should have the small connectors
> inserted as in the plan somewhere on the hard disk drive to configure it as
> a master. The other hard disk drive may be configured as primary slave,
> secondary master or secondary slave - as long as there is only one other
> device (CD or DVD) drive configured similarly.
>
> If you get that right you are well on the way to solving the problem. If a
> problem persists please re-post.
>
> Regards.
>
> Bill Ridgeway
> Computer Solutions
>
> "Wagz" <Wagz@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:6DE30C5F-EE12-4E6E-BE83-7467D5F18B81@microsoft.com...
> >I was transferring files from my old hard drive to my new drive (both are
> >on
> > my new system), dragging files from one to the other. When I was
> > transferring a bunch of music folders from my old hard drive to the new,
> > it
> > gave the usual "system file" message I've seen a million times before and
> > I
> > clicked on "yes to all" as always. However, this time when I rebooted my
> > system, my old hard drive is now loaded up in Windows, all the settings
> > are
> > as if I was using the old system. I can see both drives, but I have
> > absolutely no idea how to get the settings back.
> >
> > A system restore won't work because it said it was not monitoring the old
> > hard drive. Apologies but I have absolutely no idea where I should have
> > posted this, I've never even heard of this problem before. Thanks for any
> > help!
>
>
>

 

[chelsea]

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

"Wagz" <Wagz@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6DE30C5F-EE12-4E6E-BE83-7467D5F18B81@microsoft.com...
>I was transferring files from my old hard drive to my new drive (both are
>on
> my new system), dragging files from one to the other. When I was
> transferring a bunch of music folders from my old hard drive to the new,
> it
> gave the usual "system file" message I've seen a million times before and
> I
> clicked on "yes to all" as always. However, this time when I rebooted my
> system, my old hard drive is now loaded up in Windows, all the settings
> are
> as if I was using the old system. I can see both drives, but I have
> absolutely no idea how to get the settings back.
>
> A system restore won't work because it said it was not monitoring the old
> hard drive. Apologies but I have absolutely no idea where I should have
> posted this, I've never even heard of this problem before. Thanks for any
> help!

I have never heard of this before either, but one thing we can be fairly
sure about is that Windows will only boot from a partitition that is marked
as active.
There are lots of third party programs that amongst other things set the
active partition. The obvious one is Partition Magic, but Acronis Disk
Director and Partition Table Doctor will also do it. Fortunately Windows XP
also has tools for doing this. Go to Control panel/Administrative
Tools/Computer Management and click on Disk Management. As there are two
hard disks in the PC You will have entries for Disk0 and Disk1 as well as
entries for your removeable drives. Select your new hard disk, could be
Disk0 or Disk1 and you should see the partitions on the new drive. Click on
the dark blue colored partition which should be the primary partition-unless
someone has changed the default colors-the other partitions if any are
logical. Right click the primary and you should see on the list "Mark
Partition as Active". If that is greyed out then that partition is already
marked as active. Check the partitions on the other ie the old hard disk-the
primary partition should not be active, but in reality its possible to have
2 active partitions in the same computer. This is not normal, but can result
with the type of upgrade you are attempting. I would correct this with one
of the third party programs mentioned. I'm afraid I don't know of a way to
get XP to do this internally.

Anyway that may be the cause of your problem. Hope it helps

Chelsea