Can't boot after disks rearranged...

[Terry]

I added a 2nd disk "F-SLAVE" after already having XP on my "C-MASTER" drive.
I installed XP on "F" and when restarting am now offered a choice of booting
from "C" or "F." I rearranged the drives and made the "F-MASTER" and
"C-SLAVE" but the system won't boot and gives me the following error: "ERROR
LOADING OS." After a little research on the net I was able to deduce that
there is a boot.ini file that tries to direct the actions during the boot
sequence so I made one that should be generic (on a "C-MASTER" on a single
drive system) and installed it but I still get the same results. I've gone
back to the arrangement where I can boot up with a choice, but would like to
get this problem solved as I'm trying to free-up the older drive for another
application. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Len]

Yikes, these lateral installs of XP can be a royal pain if you do not
disconect the older XP drive prior to doing it. If you get into the disk
management section you will probably see that XP now has a "hybrid" install
with one driving being "Boot" and the second as "System" or some such (on
your second installation).

Unfortunately I have seen these types of installs only cured by a format and
reinstall - hopefully your original "C" drive can boot properly with the new
drive disconnected. Using a good cloning program seems to work much better
or if the original installation was faulty disconnecting the old drive,
attaching the new drive in the system where it will be in normal use then
install XP.

Good Luck,
Len

 

[Ross Durie]

Wrong there are 3 files, Boot.ini + ntdetect.com + ntldr.