I'm an idiot...

[Guest]

My computer has 2 hard drives. I just bought a new one with more memory, and
wanted to replace one of my smaller ones. I checked the contents of the
drive to be replaced and it appeared to be empty. I swapped out the drives,
now I cannot get Windows XP to boot. I tried to put the other one back in,
but am told that a file is missing or corrupt, and Windows will not boot. I
have an XP disk and would not be totally against getting rid of my old data
on the existing drive, but would prefer to install XP onto the new hard
drive, and use the one that is still in the computer for storage. Is this a
possibility, or do I need to erase everything and start over?...Furthermore,
I do not know how to do any of the above. Please advise...any help will be
greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
T

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

My computer has 2 hard drives. I just bought a new one with more memory, and
wanted to replace one of my smaller ones. I checked the contents of the
drive to be replaced and it appeared to be empty. I swapped out the drives,
now I cannot get Windows XP to boot. I tried to put the other one back in,
but am told that a file is missing or corrupt, and Windows will not boot. I
have an XP disk and would not be totally against getting rid of my old data
on the existing drive, but would prefer to install XP onto the new hard
drive, and use the one that is still in the computer for storage. Is this a
possibility, or do I need to erase everything and start over?...Furthermore,
I do not know how to do any of the above. Please advise...any help will be
greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
T

If you want XP on the new drive then remove or disconnect the other
drives, boot from the CD and allow windows to install to the new drive,
do your updates and install your software.

Put your old drives in as slave to the new drive or on the second IDE
channel, copy your data over to the new drive. Once the data is copied
over and all is well you can delete the stuff on the old driv/s and
reformat them.

Make sure you have your prodct key handy as well as any motherboard
drives, video sound card drivers etc. etc.

How to install or upgrade to Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316941

 

[Guest]

You need to check the jumper for selecting the drive type, ie master slave
and or master with slave present, if you had both hd's set as master, then
you messed up your primary hd, insert your xp install disc in, and try to run
a repair install.
if two hd's are installed on the same cable, one has to be master, one has
to be slave. if you put it on the secondary cable, then you might have to
set it as master/slave depending if the cd drive is also on that cable.
as you want to start fresh, remove the old drive and set the jumper for
slave, install it, then set the jumper on the new drive as master and
install, boot to your install cd, and you should be good to go, with your old
data still intact, I would suggest you run a scan disc on the old drive when
you get windows up and working.