Hi, a couple of weeks ago, some of you out there helped me add a new HD to my system. I loaded XP home on to the new drive and validated it. Then transfered all the bits and pieces I wanted from the old drive. So far so good.
Now I want to physically remove the old drive. When I do this and leave the new one in. It won't load. I've checked the jumper to make sure it's in the right place, but nothing.
Now I'm back with both drives on cable select. The thing fires up and lets me chose which drive I want to open. Could my problem be the old drive is C and the new one D?
Thanks for taking the time to read this post and I hope you have a good weekend.
Best Regards James.
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster
you need to install the XP bootloader to the second drive
you can do this by removing the old drive and booting off your xp cd (cant remember what the exact command is)
jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster
Dont worry i double posted
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
Thanks, would this be a one time thing? Will it start ok next time?
Regards James.
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
No, doesn't work. If I remove the old drive and start from XP disk/recovery it only gives me the option to start in C, no option for D.
When I put the old drive back in it won't let me change it's drive letter. So I'm stuck at the moment.
Regards James.
jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster
wierd.
shouldnt you have done this in the first place?
- instaleld clean xp on new drive (master)
- plugged in old drive as slave
- copied files to new system
- removed old drive
thats the way ive always done it
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
Thats more or less how I did it. New HD went on as Slave. Loaded clean XP to it and transferred bits over. Changed slave [new HD] to master and master [old HD] to slave.
All works fine. Until you remove old drive
jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster
you should never install XP to a slave as it screws up the bootloader, which is the problem you now face
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
I guess I could format and load a clean copy of XP on to the old drive and start again.
Thanks for your help. James.
MidiMagic 579 Nearly a Senior Poster
There should be an easier way.
If only one drive is installed, whether it is jumpered as master or slave, the BIOS calls it C:. So it is appearing. Now you just need to add the boot sector (which is what that command is). I believe it is a menu item called "Make disk bootable".
Or you could just reinstall Windows on the new C: drive, which will add the missing boot sector.
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
H, thanks for the reply. I think I know where I have gone wrong. First I should have put the new drive in, on it's own and loaded XP then put the old drive in as slave and copied everything I wanted over. Second my copy of XP is an upgrade disc, so needs to be loaded on a previous OS ie windows 98.
I have a spare drive so I'm going to load 98 onto it then try my xp on to that. if that works I'll transfer all the doc/pics over then start all over again with the new drive. The alternative would be to create a rescue disk and see if I could start the new drive from that? What do you think?
Regards James.
jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster
you can upgrade without having 98 installed. Stick the XP disc in and if it fails to find an upgradable OS it will ask you to insert your windows98 install disc as proof
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
you can upgrade without having 98 installed. Stick the XP disc in and if it fails to find an upgradable OS it will ask you to insert your windows98 install disc as proof
Hi again, thanks for the reply. It loads OK until it gets to the windows part of the installation. It says it cannot find i386 or 385? If I cancel this and continue with the installation, I have problems once it starts, no internet access poor graphics etc etc.
It gives me the option to find it (i386/5) in A or C but not G (cd) Which has the XP upgrade disc in. Tried using the repair option but that didn't work. I have another computer in the house which is connected to the www so can continue to try and find a soluction. One thing that has come out of this I'm no longer affraid to play around with the thing and find a solution and through your answers have a better idea of what I'm doing. However the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Is very true in my case.
Regards James.
gerbil 216 Industrious Poster
two xp's. This is interesting. The second installation on the newer drive should be the one that has the working boot.ini. Or did the installation modify the old boot.ini...? I am not sure... it should be the former - the new installation should have the controlling boot.ini... hmmmmm.
But did you mark this second XP's partition as active?
emmaizzy 0 Newbie Poster
Hi, unless it happens automatically I won't have marked the second (new) HD as active. Is this something I can still do? and if so how.
Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.
Regards James.
gerbil 216 Industrious Poster
yeah. open computer management [via programs> admin tools]; in the right pane rclick the partition you wish to make active, and if it is not already then the option to do so will be boldened [enabled]. You can only have one active partition.
One other thing, if you get it going would you please do this...something is bothering me, n i cannot figure it out... go start, run, msconfig n enter. Click the boot.ini tab n please paste what it says here.
gerbil 216 Industrious Poster
oops, that last bit won't let you copynpaste it. so go CP > system >advanced tab > startup n recovery settings > edit, which will give you a notepad with the boot.ini. Pls paste that here.
gerbil 216 Industrious Poster
you didn get back, so i think i may make those instructions a lil clearer..
go programs > admin tools > computer mgmnt > disk mgmnt. Then rclick in the lower part of the righthand pane on the coloured box representation of the partition in the corresponding drive.. so you can do this you will obviously have the old drive in place, thus you will be looking at drive 1.
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