XP Home reboots right after the Windows splash screen

[Michael Fanning]

There are 2 hard drives in my computer. Each has Windows ME installed as
well as an XP installation. The first drive isn't used anymore because the
XP installation is beyond repair. Both the system and boot drives are on
the second hard disk. When both disks are in the computer everything works
just fine. When the unused drive is removed and XP is booting, it reaches
the Windows splash screen and reboots in an infinite loop. ME will boot and
run normally, but all drives are reset to "removable". I want to format the
1st drive and use it for backup. The concern is that XP won't boot.
Any ideas?
Thanks, Mike Fanning

 

[Malke]

There are 2 hard drives in my computer. Each has Windows ME installed
as
well as an XP installation. The first drive isn't used anymore
because the
XP installation is beyond repair. Both the system and boot drives are
on
the second hard disk. When both disks are in the computer everything
works
just fine. When the unused drive is removed and XP is booting, it
reaches
the Windows splash screen and reboots in an infinite loop. ME will
boot and
run normally, but all drives are reset to "removable". I want to
format the
1st drive and use it for backup. The concern is that XP won't boot.

I would remove the first drive and replace it with your good second
drive. Be sure you put the currently second drive in the correct place;
i.e., IDE 0 and that the cabling and jumper settings are also correct.
Then set your machine to boot from the cd-rom and boot with your XP cd.
Do a Repair Install. This should preserve your data and programs,
although it is always Wise To Back Up Data first.

Malke

 

[Michael Fanning]

But if I do a repair install won't I need to redownload all the many
updates, including sp1? Also, what is causing the infinite reboot loop?

Thanks, Mike

 

[Malke]

But if I do a repair install won't I need to redownload all the many
updates, including sp1? Also, what is causing the infinite reboot
loop?

Thanks, Mike

Yes, you'll have to reapply all the updates if you do a Repair Install.
I have no idea what is causing the infinite reboot, but I suspect your
boot.ini is messed up at the very least. You could always try first 1)
going into Safe Mode if you can get into Safe Mode and repairing the
boot.ini; 2) if you can't get into Safe Mode, booting into the Recovery
Console and doing fixboot and see if that helps. Maybe it will and you
won't need to reinstall. You could get lucky. You never know. ;-)

Malke

 

[Michael Fanning]

Thanks so much for your help. I was overwhelmed by the number of posts you
get each day in this group. You guys are absolutely invaluable.
In my case the problem was that I had used a different IDE controller when I
moved from the 2 disk configuration to the 1 disk one. By using the same
controller I avoided the necessity to do either a repair install or modify
the boot.ini file.
Thanks again, Mike Fanning

 

[Malke]

Thanks so much for your help. I was overwhelmed by the number of
posts you
get each day in this group. You guys are absolutely invaluable.
In my case the problem was that I had used a different IDE controller
when I
moved from the 2 disk configuration to the 1 disk one. By using the
same controller I avoided the necessity to do either a repair install
or modify the boot.ini file.

Fantastic! Thank you for the "thank you", and also thanks for posting
what the solution was. It's always good to know.

Cheers,

Malke