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| Thread ID: 102312 | 2009-08-15 03:45:00 | New HDD install - some problems! | R.M. (561) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 801245 | 2009-08-15 03:45:00 | My replacement HDD arrived this morning. 'Himself' has put it in - but of course it is a couple of weeks since the old/broken was taken out, and we have forgotten some things I think, possibly even installed incorrectly. Without the new HDD, I can boot from a CD, run Linux Live, or start Acronis Emergency Boot Disk. This replacement HDD is to have the OS on it (XP Pro) and I have this on an Acronis backup on and external drive. With the new HDD in (and see above about doubts about correct installation!) I can't run cds as boot up. When I try to run either Acronis Emergency Boot Disk from my DVD reader, the boot up goes so far, and I get the following message (I think - can't see all of it, as some of it is missing on the left of the screen): NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. My understanding of that message is that 'something is wrong'! But what, and what is to be done? "Himself' is getting distinctly tetchy. He is a retired electronics tech, but with little practical knowledge and less interest in 'puters! His knowledge is more in esoteric things about the theory behind them. I'm now at the edges of my knowledge - so please be gentle. :) TIA - as always! |
R.M. (561) | ||
| 801246 | 2009-08-15 03:54:00 | Go into your bios & make sure your new hard drive is selected as the boot drive. You should be able to install the os then | Phil B (648) | ||
| 801247 | 2009-08-15 04:06:00 | Go into your bios & make sure your new hard drive is selected as the boot drive. You should be able to install the os then I don't actually want to install the OS from scratch on the new HDD - I want to reinstall the Acronis image from last year. This is on an external HDD, and includes the OS. So, I want to boot from the Acronis Emergency Disk to get access to an external HDD with the image on it... :) |
R.M. (561) | ||
| 801248 | 2009-08-15 04:11:00 | Edited at wrong end :D Reread the post - if the Acronis CD wont boot, then go into the BIOS and make sure the first boot device is the Optical Drive. Other wise,something is not right - on a NEW blank drive you shouldn't get the NTLDR error, you should get an error about boot disk failure. If an OS had been installed thats when you get the ntldr error ---- Looks like the the OS has not reinstalled correctly from the backup - seen this many times - while there are articles on how to fix the NTLDR, often they dont work -- The following does. 1st Download This ISO (tinyempire.com) - From This site (tinyempire.com) unzip it, and burn to a CD using your ISO burning software, boot from the CD, select 1st Try This - windows should now boot normally from that CD. Assuming it does, get your XP CD, boot from it and do a repair install of Windows, this fixes the NTLDR problem - as mentioned, you can replace the Loader by other methods, but they often fail. The other method of replacing the loader I mentioned is Insert the Windows CD and start the computer. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R. Type a number corresponding to the Windows installation you wish to repair (usually 1) and press Enter. When prompted, type the administrator password and press Enter. From the command prompt, copy NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from the i386 folder of the CD to the root folder of the hard drive. In the example commands given below, C: is the hard drive and D: is the CD-ROM drive. You will need to change the drive letters if appropriate: COPY D:\I386\NTLDR C:\ COPY D:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\ Remove the Windows XP CD from the drive and restart the computer. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 801249 | 2009-08-15 04:37:00 | Mmm - had a look in BIOS - always have my doubts about my abilities there! Looking at Master - says None, the slave is correct (that's a SATA HDD) . Boot order - 1st boot is CDROM, 2nd HD . I haven't done what you said yet, Wainui . I just have the feeling that this is something a bit more basic . 'Himself' and I had a 'discussion' about the correct data cable . He says the grey one (how informative is that!) doesn't fit, but the 'blue' one does . And has one part of the blue one to the SATA drive and the other part to the IDE drive . I have reservations about that . How I wish we had taken a photo of the tangle and detail - but I hadn't expected a delay of nearly three weeks . The other thing is the jumpers - think we have that right . . . But anything is possible! |
R.M. (561) | ||
| 801250 | 2009-08-15 05:40:00 | Errr just trying to picture how you described the cables - IDE and SATA are not interchangable. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but from what you describe I'm picturing a SATA cable going into a IDE connection.-- Any chance of a Picture showing both drives and connections ?? Sata connections look like These (www.imagef1.net.nz) ( purple x 4 + 1 Blue) and These (www.imagef1.net.nz) ( thats a Optical drive, but a HDD will have the same connections) some are slightly different ( have surrounds or not) but basically the same - color means nothing. Shouldn't need to touch any jumper on the board. most boards have in the BIOS the option to disable the SATA ports on the board, esp if there are IDE connections as well. You NEED to make sure these are enabled other wise the SATA drive wont show. ( even a new blank drive will show) Once the drive is showing, you usually have to go into the boot sequence, and tell the PC as to which drive to boot first, other wise it also wont work - this is of course if you have more than one HDD drive. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 801251 | 2009-08-15 06:14:00 | Err - yes I do know the difference between Sata and IDE cables! Don't know lots, but that I do. We're under way at the moment - still a few worries, but had another look at the cables (and I have two IDE data cables - hence the confusion). We've shuffled things around after I read on line for a while, and lo, Acronis Emergency Disk has fired up, and it is reinstalling C Drive. The main worry at the moment, is it calling it H Drive. :( I think you have answered my question. Not sure how I will do that - but... So - we wait and see, and if that goes ok, then I have to partition the remainder of the HDD (400GB). I downloaded Paragon Partion Manager the other day when it was free. :) I'll be back - I'm sure.:thanks |
R.M. (561) | ||
| 801252 | 2009-08-15 10:08:00 | It's all go for the moment - just a bunch of tidying up to do... :( But I'm getting there - always the unexpected glitch though. Certainly a way to pass the time. :badpc: |
R.M. (561) | ||
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