unable to boot from drive C: when windows XP is installed on C: and E:

[Jim]

I had xp installed on my hard drive but it was called E:
and sometimes when I went to install other software (for
insytance games) they wouldn't install because they looked
for drive C: to install to. SO I put another identical 80
gig hard drive on my computer and made it a master on IDE
1, leaving E: as a slave on IDE 1. From there I used my xp
CD to format C: as C: and put a fresh copy of XP on it. Now
I have gotten all the files and settings I need from E: and
want to remove it from my computer, but when I did, my
system wouldn't boot, coming up with some strange looking
black screen saying I needed a system disk. When I loaded
system tools and did a disk part info search on my
computer, it says that C: is the boot disk, and E: is the
system disk. How can I make C: the boot and system disk so
whem E: is removed, my system will boot into the Windows I
have installed on C:?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Try the recovery console, assuming you
have a retail version or full OEM version of XP as opposed to the
manufacturer's recovery disks that don't have this option though they might
offer their own recover
scenario.

Be sure your system is set to boot from the CD. If you are not sure, when
the system first boots you usually see message about how to enter setup or
something similar and tells you to hit a key, sometimes it's del, sometimes
it's esc, just hit the key. This takes you to the system bios, you need to
navigate to where the boot sequence is set, put the CD-ROM drive first in
line.

Place the XP CD in the drive, save your settings and exit. The system will
reboot and should boot from the CD. If you see a message to hit any key in
order to boot from the CD, do so, otherwise, assuming your system supports
it, the system should boot from the CD on its own as it can't find
an OS on the hard drive.

XP Setup will begin by examining your system, don't worry, just let it run,
it's just copying some files to a temp folder. Ultimately, you'll be
brought to a menu. Choose, "Repair a Windows XP installation using the
Recovery Console, press R.

You will be asked for an administrators password. This is not any of the
accounts you've created for XP. It's a hidden system account for which
users are asked only to create a password during setup. Most leave this
blank. If you left it blank, when asked for a password, just leave blank
and press enter.

At the prompt type bootcfg /rebuild and press enter.

 

[Guest]

then what?

-----Original Message-----
Try the recovery console, assuming you
have a retail version or full OEM version of XP as opposed to the
manufacturer's recovery disks that don't have this option though they might
offer their own recover
scenario.

Be sure your system is set to boot from the CD. If you are not sure, when
the system first boots you usually see message about how to enter setup or
something similar and tells you to hit a key, sometimes it's del, sometimes
it's esc, just hit the key. This takes you to the system bios, you need to
navigate to where the boot sequence is set, put the CD-ROM drive first in
line.

Place the XP CD in the drive, save your settings and exit. The system will
reboot and should boot from the CD. If you see a message to hit any key in
order to boot from the CD, do so, otherwise, assuming your system supports
it, the system should boot from the CD on its own as it can't find
an OS on the hard drive.

XP Setup will begin by examining your system, don't worry, just let it run,
it's just copying some files to a temp folder. Ultimately, you'll be
brought to a menu. Choose, "Repair a Windows XP installation using the
Recovery Console, press R.

You will be asked for an administrators password. This is not any of the
accounts you've created for XP. It's a hidden system account for which
users are asked only to create a password during setup. Most leave this
blank. If you left it blank, when asked for a password, just leave blank
and press enter.

At the prompt type bootcfg /rebuild and press enter.




--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/




.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

It then it supposed to search your setup for operating systems, rebuild the
boot configuration to accommodate and then you should be able to boot.