Master Boot Record, et. al

[Guest]

Though complicated I'll try and keep it short.

IDE 0, C:\drive 19.1 GB, primary
IDE 1, D:\drive 4.1 GB, slave

Through circumstances, I ended up with a corrupted (by Verizon DSL & Zone Alarm update) Windows ME (upgraded from 98 2nd Ed) on the Primary C:\drive. So I installed (a borrowed - temporary) Win 2000 Server onto the D:\drive.

Only a temporary situation, I then (a few months later) purchased Windows XP Upgrade and reformatted the C:\drive.

I installed Windows XP as a new install, successfully on the C:\drive. Then I proceeded to reformat the secondary d:\drive in order to yank it out and use it on another older computer.

That's when I noticed the problems. I couldn't reformat the d:\drive because of "system files in use".

So, I tried physically disconnecting the D:\drive. After doing so I couldn't boot into Windows XP.

I get the following Errors:

"NTLDR is missing" and
"Boot Record not found on IDE-0"

It appears that when I installed (and spent two weeks setting up and loading programs) Windows XP, because Win 2000 was the default boot-up OS and on the D:\drive, and because I reformatted the C:\drive - Win XP defaulted to the D:\drive for boot-up - but installed on the C:\drive as directed and as desired.

Q: How do I create the Master Boot Record on the primary C:\drive and whatever else is needed - so I can remove the D:\drive which is now so intricately tied to WinXP on the C:\drive??? ({sans a clean install, and redoing setup and installs.)

Amended by jaydpiii:
Appended: I tried changing the BIOS to boot to the CD-Rom first, then IDE-0, and removed IDE-1. Then I physicaly disconnected IDE-1.

Rebooted to XP CD-Rom. Went into the XP Recovery Console - and tried fixboot c: and tried fixmbr /harddisk0

Then removed XP install CD from CD-Rom and tried rebooting. Same result.

By the way the NTLDR file and the NTDetect.com files are in the d:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\I38 folder - only and nowhere in the C Drive (XP).

I may have to physically re-disconnect the D:drive and re-install XP and reload everything, again??? sans the D:drive connected - then XP Upgrade CD should properly configure the C:\drive??? Or can I skip the XP R-Recovery Console on the Win XP and let it just repair the OS? But will that NOT fix the MBR?, and since the OS is just fine - as long as the D:\drive is connected, then I am back to clean reinstall???

Remove the "-removethis" from my listed e-mail address to prevent spam hunters

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Though complicated I'll try and keep it short.

IDE 0, C:\drive 19.1 GB, primary
IDE 1, D:\drive 4.1 GB, slave

Through circumstances, I ended up with a corrupted (by Verizon DSL & Zone

Alarm update) Windows ME (upgraded from 98 2nd Ed) on the Primary C:\drive.
So I installed (a borrowed - temporary) Win 2000 Server onto the D:\drive.

Only a temporary situation, I then (a few months later) purchased Windows

XP Upgrade and reformatted the C:\drive.

I installed Windows XP as a new install, successfully on the C:\drive.

Then I proceeded to reformat the secondary d:\drive in order to yank it out
and use it on another older computer.

That's when I noticed the problems. I couldn't reformat the d:\drive

because of "system files in use".

So, I tried physically disconnecting the D:\drive. After doing so I couldn't boot into Windows XP.

I get the following Errors:

"NTLDR is missing" and
"Boot Record not found on IDE-0"

It appears that when I installed (and spent two weeks setting up and

loading programs) Windows XP, because Win 2000 was the default boot-up OS
and on the D:\drive, and because I reformatted the C:\drive - Win XP
defaulted to the D:\drive for boot-up - but installed on the C:\drive as
directed and as desired.

Q: How do I create the Master Boot Record on the primary C:\drive and

whatever else is needed - so I can remove the D:\drive which is now so
intricately tied to WinXP on the C:\drive??? ({sans a clean install, and
redoing setup and installs.)

Amended by jaydpiii:
Appended: I tried changing the BIOS to boot to the CD-Rom first, then

IDE-0, and removed IDE-1. Then I physicaly disconnected IDE-1.

Rebooted to XP CD-Rom. Went into the XP Recovery Console - and tried

fixboot c: and tried fixmbr /harddisk0

Then removed XP install CD from CD-Rom and tried rebooting. Same result.

By the way the NTLDR file and the NTDetect.com files are in the

d:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\I38 folder - only and nowhere in the C Drive (XP).

I may have to physically re-disconnect the D:drive and re-install XP and

reload everything, again??? sans the D:drive connected - then XP Upgrade CD
should properly configure the C:\drive??? Or can I skip the XP R-Recovery
Console on the Win XP and let it just repair the OS? But will that NOT fix
the MBR?, and since the OS is just fine - as long as the D:\drive is
connected, then I am back to clean reinstall???

Remove the "-removethis" from my listed e-mail address to prevent spam hunters.

I would probably do this:
- Make sure that drive C: is the active partition.
- Check for the hidden files c:\ntldr and c:\ntdetect.com.
I know that you think they are not there, but then they are hidden!
- Check the contents of the hidden file c:\boot.ini.

All three tasks can be carried out by booting the machine with
a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com) and running ntfsdos.exe
(www.sysinternals.com).

If the two hidden files are missing then there are means and
ways of getting them there, even if drive C: is an NTFS
partition (which you did not specify).

 

[Guest]

Thanks!
Yes, C:\drive is NTFS.
Can I just copy the NTLDR and the NTDETECT.COM files from D:\ to C:\
If so, where do I place them?
If not, how do I get them onto C:\drive so MBR/BIOS knows that they're there?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks!
Yes, C:\drive is NTFS.
Can I just copy the NTLDR and the NTDETECT.COM files from D:\ to C:\?
If so, where do I place them?
If not, how do I get them onto C:\drive so MBR/BIOS knows that they're

there?

As I said in my first reply, the two files are in the root directory of c:.
This is what "c:\ntldr" means! You can get them there in several ways:
- Using the Command Console
- Temporarily installing the disk as a slave disk in some other WinXP/2000
PC
- Booting the machine with a Bart WinXP boot CD
(http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download)