X
x-eyed-bear
Apologies if this seems like a daft question; I don't actually think it is.
1. My current mobo is an ASUS A8V (Socket 939). It supports the usual 2
IDE channels as well as 2 SATA channels.
2. I had a working Windows XP Professional system, using 2 IDE channels
only:
1ary: Master = 60 Gb hard disk; Slave = Lite-On DVD RW
2ary: Master = 40 Gb hard disk; Slave = Lite-On DVD ROM
3. I wanted to move to this configuration:
1ary IDE: Master = 60 Gb hard disk
2ary IDE: Master = Lite-On DVD RW
SATA Channel 1 = 250 GB
SATA Channel 2 = 250 GB
The 2 SATA drives will be configured into a RAID-1 (Mirroring) Array
4. AS an intermediate step I got the system working to expectation with
both IDE drives and both SATA drives installed. That is I had a C:, D:
and E: (SCSIO) drives showing in MY Computer.
5. In this configuration I was able to copy all the data from the D:
drive to the E: drive (and by heck its quick to read off the E: drive
too - I chose RAID for security, not performance; the performance is a
great surprise to me).
6.To remove the D: drive I uninstalled it in Device Manager then
physically removed it. Now the system will not boot to Windows. After
about 5 minutes or so of disk activity Windows announces to me that
HAL.DLL is missing or corrupt and that I should re-install this file.
There are plenty of MS knowledge base entries about this, but they don't
make sense to me. The implication is that Windows cannot load because
the entries in BOOT.INI do not match my hardware configuration. But when
I examine BOOT.INI there is no reference to anything other than my boot
drive - the C: drive. How can removing the D: drive alter the loading of
Windows in any way? The page file is on the C: drive.
If I reinstall the D: drive the system boot without problem.
Not so easy to remove a hard drive, is it?
Any of you experts out there got any advice?
(Also posted on Windows.General)
1. My current mobo is an ASUS A8V (Socket 939). It supports the usual 2
IDE channels as well as 2 SATA channels.
2. I had a working Windows XP Professional system, using 2 IDE channels
only:
1ary: Master = 60 Gb hard disk; Slave = Lite-On DVD RW
2ary: Master = 40 Gb hard disk; Slave = Lite-On DVD ROM
3. I wanted to move to this configuration:
1ary IDE: Master = 60 Gb hard disk
2ary IDE: Master = Lite-On DVD RW
SATA Channel 1 = 250 GB
SATA Channel 2 = 250 GB
The 2 SATA drives will be configured into a RAID-1 (Mirroring) Array
4. AS an intermediate step I got the system working to expectation with
both IDE drives and both SATA drives installed. That is I had a C:, D:
and E: (SCSIO) drives showing in MY Computer.
5. In this configuration I was able to copy all the data from the D:
drive to the E: drive (and by heck its quick to read off the E: drive
too - I chose RAID for security, not performance; the performance is a
great surprise to me).
6.To remove the D: drive I uninstalled it in Device Manager then
physically removed it. Now the system will not boot to Windows. After
about 5 minutes or so of disk activity Windows announces to me that
HAL.DLL is missing or corrupt and that I should re-install this file.
There are plenty of MS knowledge base entries about this, but they don't
make sense to me. The implication is that Windows cannot load because
the entries in BOOT.INI do not match my hardware configuration. But when
I examine BOOT.INI there is no reference to anything other than my boot
drive - the C: drive. How can removing the D: drive alter the loading of
Windows in any way? The page file is on the C: drive.
If I reinstall the D: drive the system boot without problem.
Not so easy to remove a hard drive, is it?
Any of you experts out there got any advice?
(Also posted on Windows.General)