Lost path to boot drive - Help please

[TimB]

I have a Windows Vista Ultimate system with 4 SATA hard drives
configured to look like IDE drives through an ASUS motherboard.

I had the boot drive set as drive C: with a variety of applications
installed on it. Two days ago I 'cloned' that drive to a new larger
drive with the most recent version of Norton Ghost. That drive showed
as drive H:.

I've been trying to get the new drive to show as drive c:, as all my
applications want to read data or write settings to drive C:. I've
used the disk manager in Vista to change the drive letter assignments,
even swapped the SATA cables between the two and probably some other
settings in BIOS, etc. -- The original boot drive now shows as drive
G: and the 'new' drives shows as H:.

The system is now SO screwed up that although I can “boot” into
Windows it will not bring up any of my applications and simply shows a
light blue background with no toolbars or icons. I can use Ctrl-Alt-
Del to get into the task manager and try to start a management program
but it always shows 'Path Not Found' and references drive H:.

Can anyone make a suggestion on how I get one of the 'boot' drives
seen as drive C: again and boot into Vista? Maybe even to the point
where I can use the Vista DVD to repair one of them?

Thanks for helping an idiot!
Tim

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Tim.

 

[TimB]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the link doesn't resolve anywhere
when I click on it.

Tim

 

[peter]

That usually only happens when you boot with the Cloned drive and
the drive you cloned from still attached.
After a clone you are supposed to shut down, remove the old drive and place the
new drive
in its position then reboot.
did you do that??

peter

 

[TimB]

Thanks, Peter.

I did have them both connected, but just disconnected the original "C"
drive and rebooted.

I got a BIT farther when the light blue windows screen appeared. It
now tells me that it couldn't find the path/file, etc to RUNDLL32.EXE.
I assume that means that the OS paths are screwed up as the CLONE
drive is still set at drive H: and I cannot see anyway to change it to
drive C, which I assume the OS wants.

Thoughts?
Tim

 

[DL]

You must have booted with your origonal c still attached.
Disconnect all drives except the one you want, reboot if it doesnt, use your
win dvd to repair
There is also a vague possibility that your mobo requires the use of a
specific connector for the boot drive.

Thanks, Peter.

I did have them both connected, but just disconnected the original "C"
drive and rebooted.

I got a BIT farther when the light blue windows screen appeared. It
now tells me that it couldn't find the path/file, etc to RUNDLL32.EXE.
I assume that means that the OS paths are screwed up as the CLONE
drive is still set at drive H: and I cannot see anyway to change it to
drive C, which I assume the OS wants.

Thoughts?
Tim

 

[andy]

Connect only the clone drive to the motherboard. Then use MBRWizard
command <http://mbrwizard.com/reference.php>
mbrwizd /disk=0 /signature=0
to zero the disk signature on the clone drive.
Boot from the clone drive.

 

[TimB]

Hi Peter -- I now have only the clone drive attached and Vista REPAIR
says that nothing it wrong but it still shows as drive H: I'm going to
try Andy's solution now.

Thanks for the link and command, Andy. I'm going to try that now.

I assume that with MBRWizard only going to XP won't be a problem on
Vista as I'm only dealing with the raw disk and command line. Seems
that running it off a USB thumb drive or CD will work. Accessing it
through the TASK MANAGER interface to start up a new TASK should be
OK. Sound right?

Thanks again, guys!
Tim

 

[TimB]

THANKS, Andy. I assumed it was just something written into the boot
record or such, but I didn't know how to fix it.

The command didn't work exactly as you mentioned, but close enough
that I got there.

First I tried running the command off a USB drive (seen as C: when I
plugged it in) in COMMAND PROMPT but it failed, likely as the
temporary iexplore desktop wasn't in ADMIN. Then I went back to it,
right-clicked, and selected RUN AS ADMIN. That got me working, but the
command didn't work. I wouldn't except /Signature=0, saying it needed
8 digit HEX number. So I then put in /Signature=00000000 and it
'took'.

It probably hosed something up we didn't plan because I had to boot
off the Vista DVD and do a repair but that went quickly and now
Windows Vista booted with all icons and applications running as
usual!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! Thanks to YOU too Peter as you took the time to
reply with good suggestions.

Btw, it looks like some applications are a bit hosed because, as Peter
suggested, I had both the original boot drive and the clone drive in
at the same time when I booted after the cloning. I'll just have to
work through them and do re-installs where necessary.

Any last thoughts about how I re-introduce the OLD boot drive back
into the system? As its boot record now knows it as G: can I simply
plug it back in? I'd like to re-format it and use it for backups and
storage.

THANKS so much for the help, guys!
Tim