Botched hard drive upgrade

[Superuser]

In the process of upgrading my hard drive, I did something that
resulted in the following:

1. I am unable to boot the PC when I remove the original hard drive
(the original C: drive which had the bootstrap and was the system
drive, now labeled Y. Under My Computer, the drive is labeled in
blue for some reason.

2. My new C: has been mapped as a virtual drive as well (G.

I'd like to be able to remove Y: and get rid of G: while making sure
all the references to G: are moved to C:

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

In the process of upgrading my hard drive, I did something that
resulted in the following:

1. I am unable to boot the PC when I remove the original hard drive
(the original C: drive which had the bootstrap and was the system
drive, now labeled Y. Under My Computer, the drive is labeled in
blue for some reason.

2. My new C: has been mapped as a virtual drive as well (G.

I'd like to be able to remove Y: and get rid of G: while making sure
all the references to G: are moved to C:

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

You need to tell us a lot more:
- How exactly did you "upgrade" your disk?
- What partitions did you have before the upgrade?
- What resided on which partiton?
- What partitions do you have on the new drive?
- Do you wish to keep both disks connected?
- What is the contents of the hidden files g:\boot.ini and y:\boot.ini?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

In the process of upgrading my hard drive, I did something that
resulted in the following:

1. I am unable to boot the PC when I remove the original hard drive
(the original C: drive which had the bootstrap and was the system
drive, now labeled Y. Under My Computer, the drive is labeled in
blue for some reason.

2. My new C: has been mapped as a virtual drive as well (G.

I'd like to be able to remove Y: and get rid of G: while making sure
all the references to G: are moved to C:

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

Sounds more like you didn't really upgrade properly - but you did not tell
us much about this supposed upgrade.
It would be most helpful if you would come back and give us more details.

We can assume a few things.

- You have an external drive (USB hard drive, internal or external ZIP or
other removable drive (not CD/DVD), etc) connected to the system.

- You either used some sort of cloning software to clone your original boot
drive to the new drive (but for some reason, did not remove the original
drive after making the image and before applying it to the new drive..)

or

- You left the original drive in, but changed it physically to slave and
attempted to install a clean version of Windows XP onto the new hard drive
with the old hard drive still in.

There's other possibilities - like you started playing with the drive
letters, thinking you could just "make" a new C:, etc..
Please com back and clarify what you did so we can help you correct your
issue.

The "blue" color just means you have compressed files on the drive.

 

[Superuser]

- How exactly did you "upgrade" your disk?
I used Acronis' True Image

- What partitions did you have before the upgrade?
- What resided on which partiton?
I started with C: (bootstrap, system), D:, and Z: (hard drives only)

- What partitions do you have on the new drive?
old -> new
n/a C
D D
C Y
Z Z

- Do you wish to keep both disks connected?
No

- What is the contents of the hidden files g:\boot.ini and y:\boot.ini?

g:\boot.ini does not exist (there is a g:\windows\pss\boot.ini, but
it's a backup file type)
y:\boot.ini does not exist
(c:\boot.ini doesn't even existm, but there is c:\windwos\pss\boot.ini,
again a backup file type)

Add'l info: I can't patch my current Windows installation (WU craps
out)

 

[Superuser]

Thanks to both of you for replying

I do not have a USB drive, Zip, or non-CD/DVD removable drive on the
system

I used Acronis' True Image software to create a clone of Y (original
C/source) ("C1") on the new drive (new C/destination) ("C2").

Some add'l info:
C1/Y (source) and Z are SCSI drives
C2/C (destination) and D are normal drives
G is basically a link to C2 (same physical drive, different logical
drive letter)

I disconnected C1 after copying, before rebooting. Didn't set the
jumpers correctly and/or didn't set up the boot sequence correctly in
the BIOS. I think I reconnected the C1 just to try to get my PC running
again. Then it gets a bit blurry b/c I tried a few things before
setting the jumper and BIOS correctly.

Hopefully this is a bit more helpful (and I'm not hosed). I'm really
hoping that there's an easy way of mapping G back as C2 ("unlinking"
while having the references to G cascade automagically to C) and moving
the bootstrap from Y to C2

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Your situation sounds a little confusing but I think your machine can be
salvaged.

If I read your posts correctly than you copied your old
drives C:, D: and Z: to the new disk, using Acronis. They
now appear as drives D:, Y: and Z:.

It seems that you also created a new partition at the start
of the new drive. It appears as drive C:. What is its purpose,
its size and its type (FAT? NTFS? other?).

Before we get started I need some more answers:
- The contents of Y:\boot.ini. You say that it does not exist.
I think it does. What do you get when you run "notepad y:\boot.ini"?
- The location of the Windows system folder. Start a Command
Prompt, then type set systemroot
What do you get?
- Is the machine connected to a network? If yes, do you have
another WinXP/2000 PC connectd to the same network?
- Is this a desktop? If yes, do you have another WinXP/2000
desktop?

 

[Superuser]

If I read your posts correctly than you copied your old drives C:, D: and Z: to the new disk, using Acronis. They now appear as drives D:, Y: and Z:

Just to clarify, old C/C1 -> Y, D is still D, Z is still Z

- The contents of Y:\boot.ini. You say that it does not exist.

I think it does. What do you get when you run "notepad y:\boot.ini"?
Not sure why I can't find y:\boot.ini in a search, but I did what you
asked and here are the contents:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Server" /fastdetect

- The location of the Windows system folder. Start a Command Prompt, then type set systemroot

What do you get?

SystemRoot=G:\Windows

- Is the machine connected to a network? If yes, do you have another WinXP/2000 PC connectd to the same network?
Yes

- Is this a desktop? If yes, do you have another WinXP/2000 desktop?

Yes desktop, no only another laptop


Thanks again!

 

[Ron Sommer]

Scsi drives have a different reference in boo.ini.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314081
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\winnt
[operating systems]
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\winnt = "Windows NT" /NODEBUG C:\ =
"Previous Operating System on C:\"
--
Ron Sommer

If I read your posts correctly than you copied your old drives C:, D: and
Z: to the new disk, using Acronis. They now appear as drives D:, Y: and
Z:

Just to clarify, old C/C1 -> Y, D is still D, Z is still Z

- The contents of Y:\boot.ini. You say that it does not exist.

I think it does. What do you get when you run "notepad y:\boot.ini"?
Not sure why I can't find y:\boot.ini in a search, but I did what you
asked and here are the contents:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Server" /fastdetect

- The location of the Windows system folder. Start a Command Prompt,
then type set systemroot

What do you get?

SystemRoot=G:\Windows

- Is the machine connected to a network? If yes, do you have another
WinXP/2000 PC connectd to the same network?
Yes

- Is this a desktop? If yes, do you have another WinXP/2000 desktop?

Yes desktop, no only another laptop


Thanks again!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

and Z: to the new disk, using Acronis. They now appear as drives D:, Y: and
Z:

Just to clarify, old C/C1 -> Y, D is still D, Z is still Z

- The contents of Y:\boot.ini. You say that it does not exist.

I think it does. What do you get when you run "notepad y:\boot.ini"?
Not sure why I can't find y:\boot.ini in a search, but I did what you
asked and here are the contents:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

- The location of the Windows system folder. Start a Command Prompt,

then type set systemroot

What do you get?

SystemRoot=G:\Windows

WinXP/2000 PC connectd to the same network?

Yes


Yes desktop, no only another laptop


Thanks again!

I'm still somewhat confused about your drive letters. You previously
reported drives C:, D:, Y: and Z. Are drives C: and Y: the same?
In your latest post you also mention drive G:, which adds to the
confusion . . .

You may have to clean up this mess in steps. For starters you
must not keep the old disk connected. You should now do this:
1. Run regedit.exe.
2. Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
3. Rename keys such as \DosDevices\Y: to what you think they
should be. If a given target letter is already occupied, rename
it first in order to make room.
4. Reboot.

A couple of pointers:
- The file "y:\boot.ini" is a hidden file - that's why you could not see it.
You must turn on "Show system files" in "My Computer" or in "Explorer"
if you want to do serious work.
- You appear to have WinXP and Win2000 Server installed on the
same drive. This is not recommended at all. An acceptable solution
is to install the two OSs in different drives. A far superior and cleaner
solution is to use a proper boot manager (e.g. XOSL) and install them
in mutually invisible partitions.

 

[Superuser]

I'll summarize the drive situation:

orig letter -> new letter
C Y
D D (unchg'ed)
Z Z (unchg'ed)
- (new disk C
- G (not a phys disk--a link to the new C)

I do have DVD and CD-ROM drives (E and F) installed as well.

I previously had W2K Server installed, but I thought I had wiped it out
when I installed WinXP on the machine.

I thought I had showed system files in windows explorer (and swear that
it's set to do that based on the settings that I see)

In regedit, I see the following \DosDevices:
A (floppy)
C (the new drive)
D (nothing's changed here)
E (CD burner)
F (CD-ROM)
G (appeared out of nowhere--it's mapped to C)
X (nothing as far as I can tell)
Y (old C)
Z (nothing's changed here)

The values for C and G are the same (not surprisingly, I guess).

Are you suggesting that I delete the entry I have for C and rename the
entry for G to C, i.e. 1) delete \DosDevices\C:; then, 2) rename
\DosDevices\G: to \DosDevices\C:?

 

[Ron Sommer]

I'll summarize the drive situation:

orig letter -> new letter
C Y
D D (unchg'ed)
Z Z (unchg'ed)
- (new disk C
- G (not a phys disk--a link to the new C)

I do have DVD and CD-ROM drives (E and F) installed as well.

I previously had W2K Server installed, but I thought I had wiped it out
when I installed WinXP on the machine.

I thought I had showed system files in windows explorer (and swear that
it's set to do that based on the settings that I see)

Show hidden files is another setting.
It is not the same as show system files.

What about the scsi entry that is missing from boot.ini?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

I'll summarize the drive situation:

orig letter -> new letter
C Y
D D (unchg'ed)
Z Z (unchg'ed)
- (new disk C
- G (not a phys disk--a link to the new C)

I do have DVD and CD-ROM drives (E and F) installed as well.

I previously had W2K Server installed, but I thought I had wiped it out
when I installed WinXP on the machine.

*** You still have an entry in boot.ini. Use notepad.exe to open
*** the file, then get rid of the unwanted entry.

I thought I had showed system files in windows explorer (and swear that
it's set to do that based on the settings that I see)

In regedit, I see the following \DosDevices:
A (floppy)
C (the new drive)
D (nothing's changed here)
E (CD burner)
F (CD-ROM)
G (appeared out of nowhere--it's mapped to C)
X (nothing as far as I can tell)
Y (old C)
Z (nothing's changed here)

The values for C and G are the same (not surprisingly, I guess).

Are you suggesting that I delete the entry I have for C and rename the
entry for G to C, i.e. 1) delete \DosDevices\C:; then, 2) rename
\DosDevices\G: to \DosDevices\C:?

*** Even simpler: Delete the entry for G:.
*** Delete Y: too. It refers to a drive that is not available unless you
*** connect the old disk as a slave disk (which you should not!).

 

[Superuser]

Thanks for your help so far:

- Entry in boot.ini deleted
- G: and Y: entries deleted using regedit
- Y: drive (old c disconnected as well

After rebooting, losing Y seems to be ok; however, the G: drive still
exists (repopulated itself?)...any thoughts?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for your help so far:

- Entry in boot.ini deleted
- G: and Y: entries deleted using regedit
- Y: drive (old c disconnected as well

After rebooting, losing Y seems to be ok; however, the G: drive still
exists (repopulated itself?)...any thoughts?

What is the current system drive? C:? G:?

 

[Superuser]

Here are the variables that refer to G: when I type "set":

ComSpec=G:\windows\systems32\cmd.exe
Homedrive=G:
Systemdrive=G:
SystemRoot=G:\windows
TEMP=G:\ [snip]
TMP=G:\ [snip]
Userprofile=G:\Documents and Settings\[snip]
windir=G:\windows

Thanks!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Here are the variables that refer to G: when I type "set":

ComSpec=G:\windows\systems32\cmd.exe
Homedrive=G:
Systemdrive=G:
SystemRoot=G:\windows
TEMP=G:\ [snip]
TMP=G:\ [snip]
Userprofile=G:\Documents and Settings\[snip]
windir=G:\windows

Thanks!

Your system is still running off drive G:. Whenever I had this
problem I was able to fix it by renaming/deleting the appropriate
DosDevices value in the registry.

 

[Superuser]

Ok...while it does sound like the same thing in theory, but this time I
deleted the \DosDevices\C: entry and then renamed \DosDevices\G: to
\DosDevices\C: (remember C: and G: where actually the same drive) and
it worked...this seems to suggest that G: was the "real" drive and C:
was the one that was "virtual" or linked/mapped to G:.

It looks like all is good now...thanks for your help (and thanks for
others who have chimed in as well)!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Superuser]

You've been very helpful and patient--there should be some way to build
a reputation...