Cloned drive boots, then automatically logs off: Page file / MBR issue?

M

MAG

Hi folks-

Starting with a functioning primary HD running XP SP2, with C: as a
primary partition (active with the OS) and logical partitions D through
H for data etc., I used Ghost 9 to create a copy of the C: partition to
a second HD in the UltraBay slim adaptor on my IBM T42P laptop.

I checked the "Mark drive as active for booting" and "Copy MBR" entries.
After the copy operation, the disk mounted as a new volume I could
access (it came up as partition I, since my main HD has partitions C
through H).

I swapped out the main drive, and put the new clone into the primary
slot.

Booted computer. XP booted, came up with the logon screen. Entered my
password, and it started loading my personal settings. Then, it
immediately started saving the personal settings and logged me off. Back
to the logon screen.

Did this many times over and over. I vaguely recall this might have had
something to do with drive letter assignments and the MBR, messing up
the page file created/accessed upon logon. I had some similar experience
back in my Win2000 days when I booted with two drives plugged in and
some conflicts arose.

Can anyone explain what's going on here, and how to fix it? I've used an
MBR utility to verify that the MBR on the freshly cloned disk has what
seems to be the correct partition entries in it. It shows the new active
OS in the first partition and a second partition with the rest of the
space.

I don't know why I'm getting this error; I've done this procedure before
and in fact the drive I'm using now is an exact clone of the drive I was
using previously, created with the same Ghost 9 "Copy Drive" function.

Thanks

Marc
 
M

MAG

Hi folks-

I've ruled out it being a page file issue. I changed my system to not
use a page file at all (I've got 1.5 GB RAM, so it's no big deal to turn
off paging). Re-cloned the disk over to the other drive. Swapped drives
again, got the same auto-logoff thing going on.

It seems to be that the drive is being mounted as drive "I:" whereas the
original was "C:"

Shouldn't the system drive be autodetected and mounted as C: even though
it showed up as I: when it was first made using another HD as the
system?

How can I get it to be reset back to C: ?

Marc
 
D

Doc Gigo

Hope you have not clean or altered the orgirnal drive that was cloned.
If
A notebook with a foppy will do.
START
Run
Click to expand...
enter CMD PRESS ENTER KEY ON KEYBOARD.
FORMAT A FLOPPY

CD TO THE ROOT OF THE C: DRIVE.
COPY THIS FILES TO FORMAT FLOPPY.
MIGHT HAVE TO DO THIS FIRST. >ATTRIB -A-S-H-R /BOOT.INI OR SOMETHING LIKE
THAT.

TO FLOPPY
BOOT.INI .
NTDETECT.COM
NTDR

NOW BOOT FROM THIS FLOPPY.
on THE drive that u kloned.

you should have booted in to that drive. and should be the only harddrive in
the system for the time being.
Right Click MY COMPUMTER OR WHAT EVER YOU HAVE RENAMED TO.
CLICK porporties
"""" Advanced Tab
""""" Sartup and Recovery
""" Edit.
1st Example paste and copy to the edit page but only one of them@
[boot loader]
timeout=15
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
Or
1st Example paste and copy to the edit page but only one of them@

[boot loader]
timeout=0
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

You shoud boot from that drive...as C:
If I remembered all of it.

DocGigo(911)
Jake
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

MAG said:
Hi folks-

I've ruled out it being a page file issue. I changed my system to not
use a page file at all (I've got 1.5 GB RAM, so it's no big deal to turn
off paging). Re-cloned the disk over to the other drive. Swapped drives
again, got the same auto-logoff thing going on.

It seems to be that the drive is being mounted as drive "I:" whereas the
original was "C:"

Shouldn't the system drive be autodetected and mounted as C: even though
it showed up as I: when it was first made using another HD as the
system?

How can I get it to be reset back to C: ?

Marc
Click to expand...

As you say, your system drive letter has changed. The method
to fix this depends on your current setup:
- Can you reach the machine via a network connection?
- Can you temporarily install the disk as a slave disk in
some other Win2000/XP PC?
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

The OPs problem is not related to an invalid version
of c:\boot.ini. It is caused by an incorrect system drive
letter. Your suggestion is unlikely to address this issue.


Doc Gigo said:
Hope you have not clean or altered the orgirnal drive that was cloned.
If
A notebook with a foppy will do.
START
Run
Click to expand...
enter CMD PRESS ENTER KEY ON KEYBOARD.
FORMAT A FLOPPY

CD TO THE ROOT OF THE C: DRIVE.
COPY THIS FILES TO FORMAT FLOPPY.
MIGHT HAVE TO DO THIS FIRST. >ATTRIB -A-S-H-R /BOOT.INI OR SOMETHING LIKE
THAT.

TO FLOPPY
BOOT.INI .
NTDETECT.COM
NTDR

NOW BOOT FROM THIS FLOPPY.
on THE drive that u kloned.

you should have booted in to that drive. and should be the only harddrive in
the system for the time being.
Right Click MY COMPUMTER OR WHAT EVER YOU HAVE RENAMED TO.
CLICK porporties
"""" Advanced Tab
""""" Sartup and Recovery
""" Edit.
1st Example paste and copy to the edit page but only one of them@
[boot loader]
timeout=15
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
Or
1st Example paste and copy to the edit page but only one of them@

[boot loader]
timeout=0
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

You shoud boot from that drive...as C:
If I remembered all of it.

DocGigo(911)
Jake
Dave said:
If you're using Win XP, check out the following link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307844
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
M

MAG

Hope you have not clean or altered the orgirnal drive that was cloned.
If
A notebook with a foppy will do.
START
Run
Click to expand...
enter CMD PRESS ENTER KEY ON KEYBOARD.
FORMAT A FLOPPY

CD TO THE ROOT OF THE C: DRIVE.
COPY THIS FILES TO FORMAT FLOPPY.
MIGHT HAVE TO DO THIS FIRST. >ATTRIB -A-S-H-R /BOOT.INI OR SOMETHING LIKE
THAT.

TO FLOPPY
BOOT.INI .
NTDETECT.COM
NTDR

NOW BOOT FROM THIS FLOPPY.
on THE drive that u kloned.

you should have booted in to that drive. and should be the only harddrive in
the system for the time being.
Right Click MY COMPUMTER OR WHAT EVER YOU HAVE RENAMED TO.
CLICK porporties
"""" Advanced Tab
""""" Sartup and Recovery
""" Edit.
1st Example paste and copy to the edit page but only one of them@
[boot loader]
timeout=15
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
Or
1st Example paste and copy to the edit page but only one of them@

[boot loader]
timeout=0
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

You shoud boot from that drive...as C:
If I remembered all of it.

DocGigo(911)
Click to expand...

Thanks Doc! Next time I'm in the situation I'll give it a whirl.

Marc
 

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