Booting from disk

smartest1smartest1
edited January 2004 in Hardware
I have 2 HDD in my comp. Something happened to the one that it wasn't working right so I ran off what I will call the older one to keep it simple. I took it in and had the guy who built the system look at it and he fixed it to where the newer HDD worked but it was the only one plugged in. When I plugged the older HDD in to get a few files off of it the system started using it to run WIndows (I have Windows on both). I unplugged that one and now the only way to get the new HDD to boot is to use the boot disk. How can I fix this?

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2004
    Did you change jumpers around or the position of it on the ide cable? Also what version of windows are you running on each drive.
  • smartest1smartest1
    edited January 2004
    I haven't changed anything around and as best I can tell he didn't either.... I am running XP on both.
  • rapturerapture
    edited January 2004
    What happens when you try to boot?
    Is the drive detected in the BIOS?

    So far there are only 2 things that spring to mind..

    Check the power cable and if that is good use the recovery console to fix your MBR.
  • smartest1smartest1
    edited January 2004
    When the computer boots it goes to the motherboard screen (Intel motehrboard/processor) and when it finally decides to do something it gives me a black screen that says to reboot the comp or insert boot media. I tryed running Recovery through the setup disk and was unsuccesful in getting anything accomplished.
  • NebulousNebulous New York, The Empire State
    edited January 2004
    That sounds like the harddrive is toast.. If it boots up thru bios ( see's HDD's, cdroms, ram etc), but stops after the mobo's logo screen, a split second after that the hdd is supposed to follow with windows.

    I'm afraid your hdd is fuxxord.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2004
    I wouldn't assume your hdd is dead yet. If you have both hdd's hooked up can you boot from the other and get into this one?
  • smartest1smartest1
    edited January 2004
    Yes I can... And I can run off the the one by itself as long as I use the disk to boot it. If I reinstall windows will that fix it? If thats the case is it easy enough I can do it myself (thats a little bit more than I have ever done)?
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2004
    Yeah re-installing windows should fix the problem. A clean install (which is what you should do) will erase any information that hasn't been backed up on that drive.
  • SwordsmanSwordsman
    edited January 2004
    I may be wrong, but it sounds like the boot record is on the other disk and when it's not hooked up, the system has no info to boot from. Hence, the need for a boot disk. You need to go to the recovery consloe and fix the master boot record for the install of XP on that disk. When both disks are installed, the computer is using the boot record on the other for info to boot.

    That's my opinion, anyway.

    Good Luck!
    S!
  • smartest1smartest1
    edited January 2004
    Kryyst how do I go about doing a clean install? Swordsman - the problem with using the other HDD is that it has issues of its own (i.e. no drives for most of my stuff and I am having problems making them work.)
  • SwordsmanSwordsman
    edited January 2004
    OK, do this:

    Hook up the drive you want to use for the system drive making sure it's jumpered as either master or cable select (which I'm assuming is the one the system WON'T boot off of now) and that it is the only hdd on the system;

    Put the XP install disk into the cd-rom and boot the computer, going into the bios to make sure it's set to boot from the cd drive;

    It'll ask you what you want to do, tell it to install windows;

    After a little time, it will come up and ask again what you want to do, as it has found another installation of Windows on the disk. Tell it to repair that installation, let it do it, and you should be good to go.

    Good Luck
    S!

    P.S. If anyone has any other comments, please post them as this is only one man's opinion!
  • smartest1smartest1
    edited January 2004
    I tryed that.... I ran through the fix program then installed windows again (I hvae no idea where or how seeing as how I walked away) but it didn't solve the problem.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2004
    Ok to do a clean install. Make sure the hdd you want to put windows on is your master and the other is slave...

    Then you have to check in your bios to make sure that the boot order is CDRom first. Put the windows Disc in the cdrom and reboot the machine.

    This should pull up a promt saying press any key to boot from cd:

    That will boot the XP cd and then it'll ask what you want to do repair or install. Choose install it'll then probably say that it sees an installation of XP already on the drive and want to repair it. Tell it to not repair it but you want to do a clean install.

    This should then ask what partition you want it on and show you the partition table for that drive. At that screen delete and recreate the partition on that drive. Then you have to do a Format either Fat32 or NTFS...I recommend NTFS. That should then start the installation.

    Follow the instructions from there. When finished I'd make a folder on the new hdd called olddrive back up the stuff from the old drive to it then do a complete format of the drive and remake the partition on it to make sure it no longer has any boot info on it.
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