Boot system problems- new drive install, remove info from old drives

[anony mouse]

I have XP SP2, fairly up on upgrades (not Win Exp 7 though) 2.4 GHz- IDE,
about 3-4 yrs old, Pentium

It has a 40 gb c: drive and a second drive, partitioned into 4x20 for D, E,
F, G drives(don't ask me how that happened- seemed to be the drive mfr)

Anyway- I re-installed last year and somehow ended up with a dual boot- a
boot.ini file on the c drive which lets me pick the C or D version of XP.
the "D" is the newer installation- so its the default or first value on the
list at the boot screen. I can also choose the second, which boots up from
C drive. C is the master drive (40 Gig)

I cannot find a boot.ini on the d drive.
Anyway, i notice some errors on the D-- so i bought a 250GB drive (EIDE).
Figured it was time to transfer before loss of data.

I was not able to get the system to recognize it, as a new drive on slave
channel, so I removed both drives and got it up and running by itself-
figured I'd have a clean system to work with, and I'd try to bring files
down from the other drives as slaves. Now my problem is that I cannot seem
to get either of the other drives to recognize on the second cable. I
figure with all my cabling, I have probably damaged the last cable harness.

I can boot up either the new one as master with neither of the other two
attached, or I can boot up off the old C, not recognize the new drive as
slave.

Tonight I will replace the cable to see if the second harness has a problem
(I am assuming the closest connector to the IDE socket is the master and the
furthest one out is the slave.)

(yes, I have been grounding myself)

The fact that several times, I would restore the original connections and
have both drives available again in original condition, just not being able
to read the new drive as a slave or read either old drive as a slave (yes,
changing jumpers) and now that only the old C drive or new drive boots in
the first position has me now thinking that the 2nd cable connector is
defective, and became so sometime last night, but earlier, and having
restored original conditions, on a few occasions, has me feeling that
something like this special boot.ini file on C, or lack of boot.ini on the
second drive is interfering with the ability to read it as a slave drive if
I set up the computer with the older drive as slaves to pull the information
into the new.

(I had originally not been able to read the new drive with the OEM format
CD), which prompted me to install it as the only drive (partitioned into
100, 100, 50, since the OEM disk indicated possible problems above 137 GB
partitions. (all 3 are NTFS formatted partitions). Since I restored to
both old drives again after this, I know that it was probably not a possible
defective cable until lateron last night.


Any advice on what boot ini files should be on each drive- should I remove
the old C multi boot file with a stock boot ini file (and if so- what should
that file say) and what could I use on the old "D" drive to get that one to
boot independently of the old C drive, and how could I get either of the
older drives to be recognized with the new drive as "C", "D" and "E" as 100,
100 and 50 GB partitions??

Any programs or utilities I can use to facilitate reading recognizing the
drive and pulling the info down into the new drive?

My first venture tonight is to restore the old original condition- so I am
also not sure I have the orginal jumper pinouts, I 've tried using both as
cable select, haven't had success, tried master/slave. (assuming closest
connector to mother board is master, furthest is slave).

Tried changing boot sequence- currently all as IDE0, 1st, 2nd, third,
tried IDE1, ARRGGHH Need some simple advice, I'm getting confused. Its
not as simple as it used to be.
Thanks

 

[peter]

First of all there is only one boot.ini file and that is on the boot
drive...in your case the C drive.
When you installed XP onto the D drive it overwrote the bootsector of the C
drive and created a new boot.ini to tell the system that you now have dual
boot and where the 2 OS are located.
Installing a 3rd drive as a slave on the 2nd IDE channel should have been
easy...and would not show up under Explorer until you formatted the drive
thru Computer Management.At this point I would revert to the original setup
and double check the Slave/master pin setup of the new drive before
installing it.
peter

 

[Guest]

I thought I had done so, but I will carefully check again. I suspect the
cable is now unreliable at the end... just so happen to have a new one. My
strategy will be to dump "C" into the new slave, and then possibly put the
old drive back in and move it back down to the old "C" and repeat the
process into the new drive, when done, reformat one of the older drives as
a new slave.

Will report back from work tomorrow- as I'm down for the count at home at
present.

Thanks
Paul

 

[Andy]

I have XP SP2, fairly up on upgrades (not Win Exp 7 though) 2.4 GHz- IDE,
about 3-4 yrs old, Pentium

It has a 40 gb c: drive and a second drive, partitioned into 4x20 for D, E,
F, G drives(don't ask me how that happened- seemed to be the drive mfr)

Anyway- I re-installed last year and somehow ended up with a dual boot- a
boot.ini file on the c drive which lets me pick the C or D version of XP.
the "D" is the newer installation- so its the default or first value on the
list at the boot screen. I can also choose the second, which boots up from
C drive. C is the master drive (40 Gig)

I cannot find a boot.ini on the d drive.
Anyway, i notice some errors on the D-- so i bought a 250GB drive (EIDE).
Figured it was time to transfer before loss of data.

I was not able to get the system to recognize it, as a new drive on slave
channel, so I removed both drives and got it up and running by itself-
figured I'd have a clean system to work with, and I'd try to bring files
down from the other drives as slaves. Now my problem is that I cannot seem
to get either of the other drives to recognize on the second cable. I
figure with all my cabling, I have probably damaged the last cable harness.

I can boot up either the new one as master with neither of the other two
attached, or I can boot up off the old C, not recognize the new drive as
slave.

Tonight I will replace the cable to see if the second harness has a problem
(I am assuming the closest connector to the IDE socket is the master and the
furthest one out is the slave.)

Your assumption is wrong. Using cable select, the end connector is
master.

 

[anony mouse]

Hmm, i will have to look at the mfr literature again, I had always thought
this too, but the diagram in the vendor lit shows the middle as primary or
master and the farthest away as slave.

 

[anony mouse]

last night i diagnosed my problems as not a bad signal ribbon,as first
thought, but instead found that one of the power connectors was dead- used
a different one and the new 250Gig installed as slave to the old "C" drive,
so I started moving files down to it. (I have a new power supply ready and
watiing- the old one failed 3 weeks ago and I had an old one laying around
that i put in on a temp basis- forgot that I had taken it out because of one
bad power connector.

So I do not have to reconnect the old "D" and then pul lit back into the old
"C" drive, is there a way I can put a boot ini on the old "D" (used to be
the second OS), so I can run it as a primary master, keeping the new 250G as
slave until the process is complete?

(my reason is that I have not mirrored the new system as yet, have not
installed any software other than XP updates and system drivers- just
pulling files into the secondary partitions.)


Thanks
Paul

 

[Bob I]

The literature is wrong. Master is on the end.

Hmm, i will have to look at the mfr literature again, I had always thought
this too, but the diagram in the vendor lit shows the middle as primary or
master and the farthest away as slave.

 

[Anon]

My problems were what I initially thought- bad data cable- the connector
popped off, hence my sometimes shaky connections and inability to boot
predictably.

A new ribbon and all is reacting as it should. Now for a follow up
question:

My old c drive has the dual boot script in the boot.ini file. Can I copy
that and copy it to the new 250 gig?
-----------------
Script:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect
----------
This first line boots "D" first, second line boots the old "C" partition

this script defaulted to "D" drive to boot (second hard disk) With the new
250Gb, the second disk would be "F"
as C, D, E are the 250GB, and FGHI would be the 80 GB with 4x20 partitions.

Would I need to change the boot file?
WOuld I need to change anything else

I could make the new HD the slave, and select the first line to boot like I
do now, but I am thinking making it primary and modifying the script.

By restoring the dual boot with the new HD, I would be able to keep running
and boot up in sessions to build all the software restorations, not have to
swap drives repeatedly to back up data, ipod music mp3's from all my cd's
etc.


Thanks
Paul