XP Install on SATA Drive

C

Craig

I just built a new computer with a SATA Drive. The
motherboad has an Sil Log 3112A controller. I did a
clean install from my XP Home disk and laoded the Si3112A
driver during the install process. I had an IDE disk
from my old computer with data (not an XP boot disk)
installed in the machine when I did the XP install. All
went well, BUT... XP labeld the SATA drive "E:" and the
old IDE drive "C:". The system will only boot when both
drives are installed. Disk Manager says the E: drive is
the Boot drive, but the C: drive (IDE) is the System
drive. It will not allow me to change the drive letter,
and I can't seem to make the E: drive a system drive.
How can I get the E: drive to be the "C:" drive? Do I
need to install from scratch again without the IDE drive?
 
B

Bob Harris

The surest fix is, unfortunately, is to remeove the IDE disk, format the
SATA disk, and re-install from scratch. The attach the IDE disk. Then
(maybe) run fdisk form a floppy and be sure that the IDE disk is not active,
meaning not bootable.

Otherwise, there is a trick that might allow you to boot without the IDE
disk (no gurranteees): (1) Look on the root of C:\ for file like:

ntdetect.com

ntldr


boot.ini



These are essential to booting into XP. However, a requirement of the
process is that they be located on the first boot device, not on the
partition containing XP.

If you copy these files to a floppy disk, and if your PC is set to boot from
a floppy before a hard drive, then you should be able to boot into XP
without the IDE disk. Note that this is not a DOS boot disk. Rather it is
simply a boot manager or OS selector.

However, pay particular attention to the contents of the file BOOT.INI. My
file looks like the following:

[boot loader]

timeout =15

default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect


Note the multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1). This translates to the frst
partition on the first hard drive. Further, no SCSI, no RAID, and no
spanned disks are used. In short, this means good old "C:\" in my case.

In your case, you should see something different, proably containing
disk(1), meaning the second hard drive.

Now, if you leave the hard drives alone and boot from your floppy, your
current BOOT.INI should work fine. But, if you then remove the IDE disk and
try to boot, it is possible that the SATA disk may become disk(0) instead of
disk(1).

Since BOOT.INI is a simple text file, you can edit it with an editior. If
you have a second PC, use Notepad. If not, make a standard DOS boot floppy
and be sure to include a files called EDIT.COM. If you do not have a DOS
floppy, download one (free) from www.bootdisk.com.

Now, if all this works so far, the next step is to copy the contents of the
boot disk to the root of the SATA drive, first partition, and then try
rebooting without the floppy.

Good luck.
 
R

R. C. White

Hi, Craig.
I had an IDE disk
from my old computer with data (not an XP boot disk)
installed in the machine when I did the XP install.

The terminology here is counter-intuitive. :>( MS didn't start the
terminology, but they've stuck with it. As so many writers have pointed
out, "We BOOT from the SYSTEM partition and keep our SYSTEM files in the
BOOT volume."

A couple of possibilities could have resulted in your current dilemma.
First is that your computer BIOS was set to boot from IDE, even though SATA
was enabled. Second (and more likely) is that the IDE drive's first (only?)
partition was a primary partition, not an extended partition, and it may
have been marked Active (bootable), even though it was never meant to be the
boot device. When WinXP Setup ran, it found that partition and assigned it
C:. Something else (your CD drive?) was assigned D:. Then Setup created
the new partition on the SATA drive, assigned it E: and formatted it.
Finally, Setup put the 3 "system files" (ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini)
into the Root of the System Partition (C:\) and all of the other WinXP files
into the newly-created "boot folder", E:\Windows, on the "boot volume", E:.

As I'm sure you know, Disk Management can reassign "drive" letters EXCEPT
for the "system" and "boot" volumes. Almost the only way to change these is
to reinstall WinXP. (Watch out for the subtle name change; "Disk ManagER"
was the utility included in WinNT4, but it is much less capable than Disk
ManageMENT, introduced in Win2K.) For some guidance, see:
HOW TO: Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307844

But note that it says, "Changing the drive letter of the system volume or
the boot volume is not inherent to Disk Management.

You might also want to see:
HOW TO: Restore the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;223188

But note that it is for Win2K; I don't know if it works in WinXP.

My suggestion is to "bite the bullet". Unplug (or disable in the BIOS) the
IDE drive and enable the SATA drive. Boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and run
Setup from scratch (using F6 again to install the SATA drivers). After
WinXP is fully installed (with C: now on the SATA drive and now the "system"
partition), then reinstall the IDE drive and use Disk Management for any
further organization you want to do. (You could do an in-place upgrade, but
that takes as long as a fresh install of the OS, although it would preserve
installed applications and data.)

RC
 

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