Help - Partition cannot be moved

X

XManSV

Help - inexplicable problem I cannot seem to get around!

I was running two IBM Deskstar (should be named Deathstar) 75GB drives using a
Highpoint IDE RAID controller in mirror mode. One of the drives started to
develop a bad spot on a data partition. I am running multi boot, the drive is
partitioned like so:

98
XP
2K (this is the OS partition that I'm having the problems with and also where I
"live")
2K (another one for experimentation)
Data
Data

There is also another small data drive and a Linux drive.

I disconnected the mirroring so I could pull the bad drive. Much to my surprise
the good drive would not boot 2K. The bad spot appeared to be in a data
partition so I thought I could just use TrueImage (a drive imaging program) and
move a copy of the good 2K partition on the bad drive to the good drive. That's
where the problem lies.

After copying the image over, when I try to boot 2K I just get caught in a cycle
where it says there is no paging file (and instructs me on how to make one) and
"loading your personal settings" - over and over. It won't boot. Also it does
not appear to ever show the "Applying security policy" dialog.

So I thought I would try using the "duplicate the drives in preparation for
setting up a mirror" part of the RAID configuration in an effort to get the
partitions all moved over from the bad drive to the good drive. I ran a drive
fitness test sector repair on the bad drive first so I would not move corruption
across. Duplicating the partition this way did the same thing. Cycles between
"No paging file message" and "loading your personal settings" dialog.

In the initial attempts there was a page file. I have also tried going into the
"source" 2K and setting the paging file to none (double checked that in the
registry and it was blank) then using XP I actually deleted the paging file so
that when 2K boots it would create a temporary one. That works on the "bad"
drive the one I am trying to copy from, but when I run the same partition image
(image with no paging file at all) on the good drive it falls into the same
cycle.

When I used the RAID drive duplication method, before doing the dupe, I used the
Drive Fitness Test utility to wipe the entire target drive including the MBR.

XP runs. 98 does not run but that is related to some other problem.

I guess the crux of the matter is what would cause 2K to get caught in this
cycle "no page file/loading personal settings".

I am at my wits end. It is driving me nuts. I have many man hours into the
setup and config of this 2K partition. The vendor will swap the bad drive with
me, but I have to get this 2K installation running on the good drive and I can't
seem to find any way to move it over that does not result in this "no page
file/loading personal setting cycle". Also like I said it does not seem to ever
show the "Applying security policy" dialog - I think that might be related
somehow.

HELP! HELP! HELP!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,

XManSV
 
X

XManSV

Bjorn, I'll bet you are right. I have got a copy of the page you supplied and
will try the solutions as soon as time permits.

I will post my results and I'm very optimistic. I think this is also probably
related to the fact that my 98 partition also will not boot. Probably a result
of a change made to Linux.

Thanks very much for the info - you have probably saved me 100 hours or more of
work!

Thanks again - you da man!


The reason for this logon loop is that the boot partition has got an
incorrect drive letter. This MS Knowledge Base article describes the
problem, and has five possible solutions:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=249321

Best regards

Bjorn
 

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