Repair XP installation

[Guest]

Hi,
While installing a new DVD my PC has suddenly lost one of the two XP
installations (on separate HDs) I have on my PC. I can access my backup one
but not my primary one (i.e. the one with all my data). When I use the backup
one I can see all of the data (on the primary HD). When I use the XP disk to
try a repair installation I have two options:
a) Jump into Recovery Console and then I don't have a clue what to do.
b) Reinstall XP onto the primary HD but the system warns me that I will lose
all data in My Documents.

Surely there must be some way of reinstalling Windows while keeping my data
and settings (cookies etc.).

thanks,
Montreal

 

[Jon Erlandson]

Try booting into Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key before windows loads. I
sounds like a driver issue. You can update it from there.

 

[Ken]

Check your jumpers on your drives. Master, Slave, Cable Select. Adding a new
drive may have changed things on the IDE's

 

[Guest]

Hi,
Thanks for your help so far. But I think I have given the impression that
my primary disk is unaccessible. That is not the case.
I should have been more clear. I can access the new drive but not boot up
from it. Before I started the system gave me a choice of the two
installations. Now however it goes directly for the backup one. Once I boot
up with the backup OS I can use Windows Explorer to see (and copy) the data
from the primary drive. I take this to mean that he cables etc. are all fine.
What I would like is that I could repair the primary OS installation so
that I can boot from it (without losing settings etc.).
I look up the recovery console info on the MS website and it implies that
you should just use the two commands:
copy drive:\i386\ntldr
copy drive:\i386\ntdetect.com

Is this really all to it? I would have thought that somehow the boot
information on my primary drive is damaged.

thanks,
Montreal