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Thread ID: 66565 2006-02-27 08:25:00 Hard drive will not boot Shane (1677) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
434254 2006-02-27 08:25:00 Hi there, I have removed one of the two hard drives on my computer and it will not boot. THe system software is freshly installed on the newer hard drive and I have formatted the older drive I am removing. However Windows XP will not load up after I have removed the older hard drive. All is OK when I have both in. Any thoughts on how I can fix this?

Cheers
Shane
Shane (1677)
434255 2006-02-27 08:39:00 Hi, Welcome to PressF1

Using your WinXP disk, load the recovery console and run the command fixmbr to fix the master boot record.

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console (support.microsoft.com)
Jen (38)
434256 2006-02-27 09:26:00 Hi Jen, Many thanks for the advice. No luck so far. The fxmbr seemed to run, despite me not knowing what my administrator password was. Said it was successful. The drive will still not boot without the other one present. Shane (1677)
434257 2006-02-27 19:00:00 Must be like nuns, they only work in pairs......LOL :D

Seriously... is the new drive set as master, is the primary partition active, is it C: ??
snoopy (74)
434258 2006-02-27 21:37:00 It could be when you remove a hard drive, the partitions are re-numbered. Could you post the contents of this file:

Start... Run... Cmd

notepad c:\boot.ini

Edit...Select all
Edit...Copy
File...Exit

exit
kingdragonfly (309)
434259 2006-02-28 04:13:00 Hi Kingdragonfly. The file reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

This is while there are two drives installed.

Shane
Shane (1677)
434260 2006-02-28 04:17:00 The boot.ini file or the boot loader will be on the original hard drive.

Quick solution, leave old drive out, boot to winxp cd and do a repair on the install, 15min and you will be sorted, but dont forget to patch again!
SolMiester (139)
434261 2006-02-28 04:18:00 I suspect that the fixmbr command worked all right. On the old disk drive. :D

Try doing it again with that drive removed, and the new one jumpered (or on the appropriate cable connector) to be the master drive.
Graham L (2)
434262 2006-02-28 04:20:00 or do fix mbr as Graham suggested, either way! SolMiester (139)
434263 2006-02-28 04:33:00 Update

Ok I originally did the fixmbr on the new drive with the old one removed. That does not seem to have fixed what is happening.

However, it seems that I might have been describing the problem incorrectly. After leaving the computer for a while I found that it infact does boot off the new drive, it just takes about 5 minutes. This has not improved after a couple of boots.
Shane (1677)
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