Fails to recognise XP installation

[Guest]

I have just replaced my second IDE harddrive with an SATA drive. I (used
Acronis True Image to) clone the old drive on to the new one. Now I can't
boot XP from the drive. Boot-up starts with the banner and scrolling blue
dots then the PC reboots again. The XP setup CD doesn't think I've got an XP
installation on the drive. It does recognise the installation on my first
(IDE) drive, which boots fine.

Any suggetions would be most welcome.

 

[DL]

Maybe you need to undertake a repair installation using the F6 option early
in the process to install sata/raid drivers from floppy. Or maybe you need
to enable sata in the bios or on the mobo.
Consult your mobo manual

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I already enabled SATA in the BIOS - my first XP installation sees
the drive fine. I've also tried loading the SATA driver with F6 but it makes
no difference. How does the utility identify whether there's an XP
installation on the drive? I've also noticed that if I boot the first
installation after a failed attempt at booting the second, XP will chkdsk the
partition with the second installation...

 

[DL]

Then if chkdsk is run on the new disk it would suggest that possibly the
file structure on this disk is corrupt.
Perhaps you should also try the sata hd manu disk checking utility.
You say you ran a repair installation, with F6, on the new winxp sata
installation, but you stated earlier that the winxp cd doesnt see this new
instalation?

 

[Guest]

Then if chkdsk is run on the new disk it would suggest that possibly the

file structure on this disk is corrupt.

I agree. But it seems to be that it (only) gets corrupted when I try to
boot from it. Last night after such an attempt chkdsk ran for nearly an
hour, listing 70000 'orphaned files' with 'invalid security ids'. So far I
have not found if I've lost anything...

Perhaps you should also try the sata hd manu disk checking utility.

Where would I find this?

You say you ran a repair installation, with F6, on the new winxp sata
installation, but you stated earlier that the winxp cd doesnt see this new
instalation?

No, I didn't run repair. I meant that loading the SATA driver with F6 made
no difference to whether the winxp cd detected the new installation (or
whether the new installation would boot).

The boot is definately able to see the drive. Starting in safe mode lists
the drivers loaded from "rdisk(1)/partition(2)" (as opposed to
"rdisk(0)/partition(1)" for my other drive. But shortly after it's listed
the agp file it reboots.

At the moment I'm considering a fresh xp installation on the new disk. But
surely there must be some way of getting the xp cd to detect the installation
that's already there??

 

[DL]

Re F6
Allthough winxp is supposed to be able to detect sata controlers/drives it
doesnt allways.
The F6 option only works on either a repair installation or a new
installation
If you boot from the wincd and select the repair option then use F6 option
to install raid/sate drivers from floppy are you then able to select the new
win installation to repair?

The hd checking utility is available from the hd manu.web site

 

[Guest]

Re F6

Allthough winxp is supposed to be able to detect sata controlers/drives it
doesnt allways.

I suspect the reason my 1st XP installation handles the SATA drive ok (so
far) is because I ran it with the drive connected. I didn't run the 2nd
installation with the drive attached before I cloned it onto the SATA drive...

The F6 option only works on either a repair installation or a new
installation
If you boot from the wincd and select the repair option then use F6 option
to install raid/sate drivers from floppy are you then able to select the new
win installation to repair?

No. It only lists my 1st (IDE) installation for repair. Can I persuade it
to repair my SATA installation?

PS. I have now found that there are 3500 files in two 'found.xxx' folders
which I originally hoped were undeleted files but unfortunately have been
relocated from their original folders (by chkdsk). It's going to be some
task to reinstate them...

PPS. My 'working' installation lists my SATA device as "82801EB Ultra SATA
Controller - 24D1" wheareas the mobo manual states ""82801ER (1CH5R)" - any
significance?

 

[DL]

I should perhaps have noticed this earlier;
You have cloned your sys to a new hd, you wont be able to boot with this
installation unless this new installation sees itself as C / the boot drive
ie you wont have a dual boot sys
Disconect your old boot hd then see if sys boots.
If it doesnt, try again a win repair, if the win installation is not found
then the clone is corrupt or there is a hd problem.
If not seen use the sata hd manu checking utility

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your continued help. Please bear with me...

The sequence of events was as follows:
- Dual boot system running with XP on C: (1st drive, also contains D:
partition) and F: (2nd drive, also containing E: partition).
- 1st drive starts to fail.
- Bought 3rd (SATA drive) and connected up and ran XP from C:.
- Cloned 2nd drive onto 3rd drive.
- Cloned 1st drive onto 2nd drive.
- Removed 1st drive and configured 2nd drive as master.
- System boots fine from master (IDE) and sees SATA files.
- Won't boot from SATA and xp cd doesn't recognise xp installation on it.
- Attempting to boot from SATA (F:?) appears to corrupt its file system.

The XP CD will let me install XP on the SATA drive (although it doesn't call
it F.

I'm currently backing-up my F: partition (a little late, I know..) and I
suspect a fresh XP install to the E: partition is the only solution (although
the XP CD doesn't call it E:...)