Active drive and System drive

[Terry R.]

Yesterday I was looking at an HP Pavilion computer that suddenly stopped
booting for a new client. Windows would start, flash a blue screen and
restart. I loaded Bart PE and could view the data on both drives. I
noticed that one smaller drive (Samsung) had Windows/Program Files/etc
on it, and the 2nd larger drive (WDC) did also. The client had said
someone else installed a new drive in the machine, which I assumed was
the larger drive (I was wrong).

So I switched the boot options to boot from the 2nd drive (Samsung),
since there are two drives in the machine. Then XP MC loaded. The
larger drive (WDC) was assigned as C: and the smaller drive (Samsung) as
J:. Windows was using C: even though I set it to boot from the Samsung.
If I restarted and set the boot to the WDC, it failed. Setting it back
to the Samsung, it booted and I looked at Disk Management and found that
the WDC was listed as System and Samsung was listed as Active. I
removed all the Windows files, Program Files, and root files from the
Samsung and it still boots correctly.

It boots okay but it still seems backwards. Any thoughts?

Terry R.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Yesterday I was looking at an HP Pavilion computer that suddenly stopped
booting for a new client. Windows would start, flash a blue screen and
restart. I loaded Bart PE and could view the data on both drives. I
noticed that one smaller drive (Samsung) had Windows/Program Files/etc on
it, and the 2nd larger drive (WDC) did also. The client had said someone
else installed a new drive in the machine, which I assumed was the larger
drive (I was wrong).

So I switched the boot options to boot from the 2nd drive (Samsung), since
there are two drives in the machine. Then XP MC loaded. The larger drive
(WDC) was assigned as C: and the smaller drive (Samsung) as J:. Windows
was using C: even though I set it to boot from the Samsung. If I restarted
and set the boot to the WDC, it failed. Setting it back to the Samsung, it
booted and I looked at Disk Management and found that the WDC was listed
as System and Samsung was listed as Active. I removed all the Windows
files, Program Files, and root files from the Samsung and it still boots
correctly.

It boots okay but it still seems backwards. Any thoughts?

Terry R.

Hard to say since it is unclear from your description what exactly you did
when you "switched boot options". Where did you switch them, what were they
before and what were they after? Which disk is the master disk, which is the
slave disk, which partions are active?

 

[Terry R.]

On 1/9/2010 2:02 PM On a whim, Pegasus [MVP] pounded out on the keyboard

Hard to say since it is unclear from your description what exactly you did
when you "switched boot options". Where did you switch them, what were they
before and what were they after? Which disk is the master disk, which is the
slave disk, which partions are active?

There is an option on the HP startup screen "Boot options". You can
switch from there. Selecting the drive that has Windows on it fails to
boot. Selecting the other drive boots.


Terry R.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

On 1/9/2010 2:02 PM On a whim, Pegasus [MVP] pounded out on the keyboard


There is an option on the HP startup screen "Boot options". You can switch
from there. Selecting the drive that has Windows on it fails to boot.
Selecting the other drive boots.

Terry R.

Since you answered only one out of the five questions I asked, I am unable
to comment any further. On the other you appear to have a working system -
is there a specific question for which you need an answer?

 

[Terry R.]

On 1/11/2010 2:15 AM On a whim, Pegasus [MVP] pounded out on the keyboard

Since you answered only one out of the five questions I asked, I am unable
to comment any further. On the other you appear to have a working system -
is there a specific question for which you need an answer?

Actually, if you read what I first stated, you would see you only have
one unanswered question. But even that is basically answered in the last
line of my first paragraph.


Terry R.