drive letters changed, system will not boot

[Guest]

After a power outage, the drive letters changed! C:\ became E:\, and gives a
error message that a file 'HAL.DLL' is either corrupted or missing and must
be replaced before windows will start. I copyed the file and pasted to
E:\window\System32 which contains the op sys, get same message.

I have XP Home sp2, AMD Sempron 1800, three hard drives (2 IDE, 1 SATA). The
Sata is 80 gig split 1/2 C:\ 40gig & D:\ 40 gig now E:\ contains Windows

 

[DatabaseBen]

likely that
you simply have
to reset the boot up
drive order
in cmos....

 

[nothere]

hi.

This happen to me once ...Try this... as the pc start up press whatever
key your bious uses for the boot menu ( mind was f3 it will say on bottom
of screen ) Then select the drive you wish to boot to ( E: in your case )
If you miss this menu turn off pc and try again it will go by fast .
If windows works after this the your drive and its boot files are ok ? . I
think there is a way to change the letter of your boot drive but I don't
remenber how ! .... I THINK ??? I unplug all other drives ( just the
power plug while power was off !! ) except the boot drive then change
letters using windows " Computer Management " back to C: ... If I recall
it would not let me do this to the boot drive unless it was the only drive
windows could see ???

hope this help
sorry but I forgot to backup my brain when this happen to me ..............

 

[Guest]

Your idea for unplugging the other hd's worked, almost, now it will boot to
the main XP logo screen with the moving progress bar The bar just keeps going
and going! I can now access the startup options (F8) It will not start in
safe mode it hangs up about 1/2 way through, will not start in normal stops
at progress bar same for last known working state.
What else cant i try? I'm almost there!

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Warren

Have you tried booting with a Windows XP CD in your CD drive. If it works
you
might try a System Restore using a Restore point dating from before the
power outage.

All about System Restore
http://bertk.mvps.org/


--

~~~~

Gerry

~~~~~~~~
Enquire, plan and execute.
Stourport, England
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Anna]

After a power outage, the drive letters changed! C:\ became E:\, and gives
a
error message that a file 'HAL.DLL' is either corrupted or missing and
must
be replaced before windows will start. I copyed the file and pasted to
E:\window\System32 which contains the op sys, get same message.

I have XP Home sp2, AMD Sempron 1800, three hard drives (2 IDE, 1 SATA).
The
Sata is 80 gig split 1/2 C:\ 40gig & D:\ 40 gig now E:\ contains Windows

Your idea for unplugging the other hd's worked, almost, now it will boot
to
the main XP logo screen with the moving progress bar The bar just keeps
going
and going! I can now access the startup options (F8) It will not start in
safe mode it hangs up about 1/2 way through, will not start in normal
stops
at progress bar same for last known working state.
What else cant i try? I'm almost there!

Warren:
That all this, i.e., the drive letters reversal, happened as a direct
consequence of a power outage is quite odd to say the least. But if that's
the situation - that's the situation.

There's really not much you can do about this now in terms of some simple
process to reassign the C: drive letter to your current E: drive. I assume
one of your two PATA HDDs is the one containing the OS and is now designated
the E: drive.

You can either live with the current situation or make a fresh install of
the OS onto that HDD now designated as E:, understanding of course, that all
data will be lost so it will be necessary to reinstall your programs &
applications. If you take that course, be sure to disconnect *all* other
HDDs from the system prior to undertaking the XP install process. This is
the only practical way I know of to return your boot drive to a C: drive
letter designation.

Obviously since the system currently boots, I assume you would have no
problem copying whatever user-created data you need from the current E:
drive, but as mentioned above you will need to eventually reinstall your
programs & applications.
Anna

 

[DatabaseBen]

maybe, he simply needs to re-set the
boot up order in the CMOS.

maybe, he needs to double check
that the jumpers on the disks drives
are properly set and they are connected
to the cable correctly.

sometimes, there is that one fluke where
everything worked ok even though
the odds were against it and the power
surge revealed the issues above....

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Anna

Unless I am mistaken it is simple to change a drive letter. The problem is
that
it renders many file / folder paths obsolete so that they no longer work.
Effectively
if it is the operating system drive being changed destroying the whole set
up.

Am I mistaken?

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Anna]

maybe, he simply needs to re-set the
boot up order in the CMOS.

maybe, he needs to double check
that the jumpers on the disks drives
are properly set and they are connected
to the cable correctly.

sometimes, there is that one fluke where
everything worked ok even though
the odds were against it and the power
surge revealed the issues above....

DatabaseBen (and Warren):
As far as I can tell, at this point Warren's problem goes far beyond merely
"re-set(ting) the boot up order...". It's highly doubtful (I think) whether
this will have any effect on solving his problem. But if it does, that would
be great.

Ditto for a different jumper/connectivity configuration changes. I do not
believe this is at the root of the problem he's experiencing.

Yes, it is true that power surges (together with brownouts) can cause all
sorts of mysterious problems with one's PC and it's the very devil to
diagnose why this or that problem occurred and more importantly, what's the
fix. But I've never run into the problem Warren described as a result of a
"power surge". But who knows?

Warren has stated that he's "almost there". Not sure what that means but
maybe he's on the verge of solving his problem without the necessity of what
I suggested. I certainly hope so.
Anna

 

[nothere]

Some files may have been damage when the power fail.... Your may wish to
reinstall windows or try this trick.......

unplug the hard drive from this computer , take it to a working pc , install
it as a slave drive on the 2nd ide cable ( this way it will not mess up the
other pc boot drive if it see 2 bootable drive on the same cable--- windows
can sometime do weird things if you let it ) or if it a sata just plug it
in to the highest # sata port you have ( not #1 or pc will try to boot it )
.. Now if this works you can clean up the files on this disk using file
management prograns on the 2nd pc or run "chkdsk". I think you may find
some fixable errors in the fat tables. If all go well .reinstall it as the
only drive as see what happens.


maybe you can tell I hard a few problems like this before ???
using a 2nd pc to clean up bootable hard drive is something I was told to do
by others ... and it has work for me ..hope it work for you.

 

[Anna]

Anna

Unless I am mistaken it is simple to change a drive letter. The problem is
that it renders many file / folder paths obsolete so that they no longer
work. Effectively if it is the operating system drive being changed
destroying the whole set up.

Am I mistaken?
--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gerry:
Unless I misunderstood the OP's problem, i.e., what he is presently
experiencing is that his boot drive changed from the C: drive letter
assignment to an E: as a result of a "power surge" (I'm a bit suspicious
about that being the cause, but stranger things have happened with PCs!). So
that the system is attempting to boot to the E: drive and is apparently
experiencing some problems in doing so.

Based upon what I thought is the problem I didn't think that using Disk
Management to change the drive letter from E: back to C: would work under
these circumstances. Is that what you're referring to when you mention it's
a simple matter to change a drive letter? As we know, it surely is a simple
matter to do so when dealing with one or more *secondary* HDDs but, of
course, the system will balk in changing the drive letter assignment of a
boot drive back to the C: drive letter. (There are some very rare exceptions
to this, but I don't think it would apply in this case).

Obviously there's no harm in attempting this. And it is possible I've
misunderstood the nature of the OP's problem.

Also, please see my response to "Database Ben" a few moments ago.
Anna

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Anna

Obviously there's no harm in attempting this.

Not sure I agree here. For the reason you give "the system will
balk in changing the drive letter assignment of a boot drive back
to the C: drive letter. " Isn't there the prospect it will make things
infinitely worse because it renders many file / folder paths
obsolete so that they no longer work. That could force the issue
making a new clean Install of Windows XP unavoidable?

I was happy with your suggested course of action. It was this
statement by you "There's really not much you can do about this
now in terms of some simple process to reassign the C: drive
letter to your current E: drive. " I felt was not correct.

My feeling is that if he OP has a booting computer he should
be content. Does it matter what drive letter is allocated to the
partition containing the operating system.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Anna]

Anna

Obviously there's no harm in attempting this.

Not sure I agree here. For the reason you give "the system will
balk in changing the drive letter assignment of a boot drive back
to the C: drive letter. " Isn't there the prospect it will make things
infinitely worse because it renders many file / folder paths
obsolete so that they no longer work. That could force the issue
making a new clean Install of Windows XP unavoidable?

I was happy with your suggested course of action. It was this
statement by you "There's really not much you can do about this
now in terms of some simple process to reassign the C: drive
letter to your current E: drive. " I felt was not correct.

My feeling is that if he OP has a booting computer he should
be content. Does it matter what drive letter is allocated to the
partition containing the operating system.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gerry:
I'm under the impression from the OP's description of his problem that due
to a "power surge" and through *no* user intervention, his boot drive letter
assignment changed from C: to E:. While I'm uncomfortable with the notion
that a "power surge" *alone* caused this problem (having never come across a
similar instance), I'm accepting it at face value.

As I believe I indicated in one or another of my posts re this situation, I
do not think there's a reasonable chance of finding a process - either
through Disk Management or some registry hack - to return his system/boot
drive back to its original C: drive letter assignment.

However...
When I used the phrase "Obviously there's no harm in attempting this", I was
thinking about the possibility of undertaking the process described in the
MS KB article 223188, see - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/EN-US/
If this process would work (and in my experience it has been an extremely
rare instance where it *would* work), then there would be no problem
involving pointers (registry entries) as they affect accessing whatever
programs/data the OP had originally created on that boot/system HDD. In
retrospect I should have made this clear by citing what I am now citing but
since I pretty much concluded this wasn't the answer to the OP's problems
and further thought there might be potentially additional problems arising
from possible incorrect manipulation of the registry, I neglected to "flesh
this out". So your point is well-taken.

In any event, unless the OP provides additional information that bears
differently upon his problem, I think my original advice still holds, to
wit...
"You can either live with the current situation or make a fresh install of
the OS onto that HDD now designated as E:, understanding of course, that all
data will be lost so it will be necessary to reinstall your programs &
applications. If you take that course, be sure to disconnect *all* other
HDDs from the system prior to undertaking the XP install process. This is
the only practical way I know of to return your boot drive to a
C: drive letter designation.

Obviously since the system currently boots, I assume you would have no
problem copying whatever user-created data you need from the current E:
drive, but as mentioned above you will need to eventually reinstall your
programs & applications."

All things considered, for a variety of reasons, it is best that one's
boot/system drive be designated with the C: drive letter. If, after some
untoward change of that drive letter, it is not too onerous a task for the
user to make a fresh install of the OS, together with his or her programs
and user-created data, so as to achieve this, i.e., revert the system/boot
drive to C: as a result of a fresh install of the OS - then that is the
course of action we usually recommend. But, if for one reason or another,
this is not a practical course of action, then I certainly agree that it's
possible for the system to operate with the system/boot drive being
designated other than C:. Provided, of course, that no further problems
occur (or will occur) as a result of a non-C: designation of the boot drive.
And there's the rub...
Anna

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Anna

Thank you for your comprehensive reply. You practical knowledge goes
much deeper than mine and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more
about this subject.

It would interesting to know what result was obtain by trying Start,
Run. Regedit and using Edit, Find to search for "\C" without the quotes
to see what it turned up. There are examples in KB223188.

I did look at the options in TweakUi but I couldn't see them helping
here.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[sparky]

Nice little "trick" using one pc to fix the boot drive of another. It just
may work if his E: was his C: after it get clean up ( I would also defrag
it to ) it just may work. All of the installed programs were installed on
C: as C:. If C: cleans up all may go back to normal, if not nothing lost,
reinstall windows.