Was the drive in question the slave in some other machine at the time XP was
installed on it? If so, then three key files were probably placed on the
master drive in that configuration:
ntdetect.com
ntldr
boot.ini
These must be on the first hard drive in a system, independent of where XP
is installed. If your new PC has only one hard drive, then they must be on
it, specifially on its first partition, commonly called "C:".
The first two get the boot process going, and then BOOT.INI points to where
XP is installed. BOOT.INI can also be used to point to multiple version of
XP, such as safe mode or recovery console, or multiple operating systems,
like XP, 2000, 98.
Anyway, find these files and copy them to the drive with XP on it. Then,
look carefully at BOOT.INI and decide where it needs ot be modified to point
to the current XP installation. Or, run the recovery console form the XP
CDROM and use the BOOTCFG command to rebuild BOOT.INI. Links about recovery
console:
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm (near bottom)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm
Further, if the hardware of the new PC is different than the old PC (almost
100% chance it is), then plan on performing a "repair" installation of XP
from the XP CDROM. Unlike win98, XP loads some drivers that are very
hardware specific, and if you change the motherboard (i.e., new PC), these
will be wrong and the PC will not boot. In fact, the repair might also fix
the NTLDR problem and any associated BOOT.INI. Links about repairing XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=23979,00.asp
Finally, if possible, think about re-installing XP from scach on the new
drive after it is installed in the new PC. That would be the surest way to
get it right. Of course, that would mean losing all programs and data on
the drive. But, programs can be re-installed, and data can be saved (in the
old PC) and then copied to the new PC (e.g., CDs, USB hard drive, ZIP).
Finally, setting can be trasnferred via the programs and setings trasnfer
wizard. Personally, I would only use it for Miscosoft product setting like
Outlook Express.
