Incorrect Drive Mappings After Failed Restore

[Guest]

The primary hard drive in my computer was only 60GB, so the other day I
installed a second hard drive of 120GB as a slave.

I transferred the system to the new 120GB drive using Maxtor MaxBlast.

I then made the new 120Gb hard drive the master and the old 60GB drive the
slave and Windows Explorer correctly showed in My Computer:-
Local Disk ( C: ) as the 120GB drive, and
Local Disk ( F: ) as the 60GB drive

Everything worked fine for a few days and then I had a problem after trying
to install a new program.

I attempted a system restore but the last restore point was before I
installed the new drive and the restore failed with 'System Restore has
encountered a problem and needs to close'

Now the drive mappings are all wrong and programs like Wordpad, System
Restore, Word 2003 etc. do not work any more. Trying to run them now leads to
'....has encountered a problem and needs to close'

The system boots but Windows Explorer now incorrectly shows in My Computer:-
Local Disk ( C: ) as the 60GB drive, and
Local Disk ( F: ) as the 120GB drive

Also incorrectly:-
My Documents location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents
My Albums location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents\My Albums
My eBooks location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents\My eBooks
My Music location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents\My Music
My Pictures location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents\My Pictures
My Received Files location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents\My Received Files
My Videos location is now F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents\My Videos

As I cannot run System Restore to undo the failed restore, does anyone know
what I can do to return my system to normal.

I am running Windows XP Home SP2

 

[Unknown]

Cruel as it may sound the safest is to do a complete new install. You may be
finding troubles for the next six months if you don't.

 

[JS]

If your 60GB drive still has a bootable copy of Windows on it then I would
do the following:
1) Backup any new data files (Docs, Photos, Music, Etc.) you have created
from the 120GB to the 60GB drive.
2) Remove the 120GB drive and verify (using only the 60GB drive) that you
can still boot, logon and use any and all your applications.
3) If you are able to meet the requirements in step 2 above, then remove the
60GB drive.
4) With the 60GB drive removed connect the 120GB drive and use either
MaxBlast (if you can boot MaxBlast from a CD) or your Windows CD to wipe the
120GB drive and reformat.
5) Now with the 60GB drive still connected add the 120GB drive and use
MaxBlast to once again transfer the files (Windows, Apps, Etc.) from the
60GB to the 120GB drive.
6) Remove the 60GB drive and verify (using only the 120GB drive) that you
can boot, logon and use any and all your applications. If so then delete all
the old restore points and create a new System Restore Point.
7) Don't re-connect that 60GB drive just yet. Try installing that app that
gave you a problem, run the PC for a week or two and if all is well ( If you
run into problems you still have that bootable 60GB to fall back to) then
re-connect the 60GB drive, reformat and go.

Note: Make absolutely certain (using Disk Manager) that you are reformatting
the 60GB drive.

JS

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies

Further information for JS:-

I unplugged the slave, which meant I just had the 120GB drive as the master
and rebooted. The first Windows XP screen loaded (the one before the user
sign on screen) and then nothing else happened. All I could then do then was
switch off.

I then tried the same thing with just the 60GB drive as the master and this
time I got the 'Windows did not start successfully' screen. I chose 'Start
Windows Normally' and it rebooted and came back with the 'Windows did not
start successfully' screen again. No matter which option I chose it just
rebooted back to this screen again.

I have returned back to the new 120Gb hard drive as the master and the old
60GB drive as the slave, so that I can reply to you, but the drive mappings
are still incorrect.

 

[JS]

See if this MS KB helps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913702/en-us
Note that in the example they reference drive D.
Use Disk Management to see which drive is identified as the 'System'
partition.

JS

 

[Guest]

Disk Management shows drive F: as the 'System' partition

However in My Computer:-
drive F: is the 120GB drive which is configured as the master and therefore
should be C: and drive C: is the 60GB drive which is configured as the slave
and therefore should be F:

In other words drive C: and F: have been changed round somehow.

 

[JS]

In Disk Management which disk (60 or 120GB) is shown as Disk 0

Can you list (post) the contents of your boot.ini file and on which drive is
it currently located?

JS

 

[Guest]

In Disk Management Disk 0 is the 120GB drive labeled as F: and Disk 1 is the
60GB drive labeled as C:

I would have expected Disk 0 to be the 120GB drive but labeled as C: and
Disk 1 to be the 60GB drive but labeled as F:

I have a boot.ini file on both drives C: and F: and they are both exactly
the same:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /FASTDETECT

I hope this gives you some clue as to what is going on.

 

[JS]

What you posted looks OK for a normal PC. It's the fact that Disk Management
shows F as the 'System' partition that bothers me.

Please check for the location of the following files (they normally would be
on the C: drive, but in your case...).
1) In the root of both the C and F drives do you see the following files:
NTDETECT.COM and ntldr
2) C:\Windows\System32\HAL.DLL
3) F:\Windows\System32\HAL.DLL

JS

In Disk Management Disk 0 is the 120GB drive labeled as F: and Disk 1 is
the
60GB drive labeled as C:

I would have expected Disk 0 to be the 120GB drive but labeled as C: and
Disk 1 to be the 60GB drive but labeled as F:

I have a boot.ini file on both drives C: and F: and they are both exactly
the same:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /FASTDETECT

I hope this gives you some clue as to what is going on.

In Disk Management which disk (60 or 120GB) is shown as Disk 0

Can you list (post) the contents of your boot.ini file and on which drive
is
it currently located?

JS

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply JS

1) I have the files NTDETECT.COM and ntldr in the root of both the C: and F:
drives
2) I have the file C:\Windows\System32\HAL.DLL
3) I also have the file F:\Windows\System32\HAL.DLL

Following further investigations, I have some more information which may
help you to identify what the problem is and hopefully suggest a cure:-

If I go into Command Prompt it takes me to F:\Documents and
Settings\<username>
If I then type 'set' followed by <Enter> some of the environments variables
are shown as:-

ALLUSERSPROFILE=F:\Documents and Settings\All Users
APPDATA=F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application data
CLASSPATH="C:\WINDOWS\Syatem32\QTJava.zip"
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
ComSpec=F:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
HOMEDRIVE=F:
HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\<username>
Path=F:\WINDOWS\system32;F:\WINDOWS;F:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
QTJAVA="C:\WINDOWS\System32\QTJava.zip"
SystemDrive=F:
SystemRoot=F:\WINDOWS
TEMP=F:\DOCUME~1\<username>\LOCALS~1\Temp
TMP=F:\DOCUME~1\<username>\LOCALS~1\Temp
USERPROFILE=F:\Documents and Settings\<username>
windir=F:\WINDOWS

I have checked this same thing on a friends computer and all his environment
variables begin with C:

I have also checked my registry using 'regedit' and find that some of the
paths begin with F: when I would have expected them to begin with C:

Cheers John

 

[JS]

Comes as no surprise, but I can't say for certain that if you changed the
environmental variables from F: .... back to C: .....
and any registry entries from F to C what the results would be.

JS

 

[Guest]

Just to let you know that I have given up trying to correct the situation.

I have now done an over-the-top re-install of Windows XP.

All is working well now.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[JS]

You're welcome.
I did not want to suggest a Repair or Clean install except as a last resort.

Good luck
JS