Two hard drives, one OS problem

Lomandriel · 08-03-2007, 03:19 PM

Hey pplz, I have a problem. Basically I have two hard drives:

Hard drive a : 120 gb Western digital - two partitions : C drive(10 gb ) and D drive which consists of the rest.

Hard drive b : 320 gb WD - Two partitions : F drive(34 gb roughly + windows OS was chosen to be installed here) and I drive (rest of space).

Basically I had some problems back awhile ago, first hard drive a dying, or so it seems, basically I figured out that no matter what I did the windows would corrupt when i installed on hard drive a, images were getting distorted. Moved everything off onto hard drive b at the time since it was new.

Following that I went to reinstall windows through the dos windows setup screen for win xp. I basically deleted and repartitioned hard drive a to wipe the old OS and information off there before reinstalling windows on the new hard drive "b", partition F.

Anyway I basically have a problem now, I forgot the advice of removing hard drive a when installing windows onto hard drive b. I think thats why now, when I remove hard drive a, windows wont boot up. This is despite the fact that window's install path was selected to be on hard drive b: partition F. Removing hard drive a renders the OS unable to boot when i turn the computer on.

Ok so i plug back in the sata cable for hard drive a, wollah OS boots.

I want to know why the comps doing this? I chose hard drive b - partition F, why (i assume)have system files crucial to booting up/running the OS still been placed on hard drive a?

I did clear the whole hard drive a, so does windows install files onto the first hard drive regardless of where the windows installation destination was selected?

Anyway I tried a "view all protected system files" option in explorer, and a few files showed up on partition c of hard drive a: eg: boot.cfg, NTDETEC, MSDOS, AUTOEXEC, System volume information folder(cant access), recycler.

I took it these are what helps the second hdd boot up from dos. I copied them to the same partition as windows(f partition on hard drive b) and removed the sata cable from hard drive a. Booted up the comp and nope, it still doesnt boot up, still says something about missing the system boot thing.

So yeah what can I do to change my computer so that windows is only self reliant on hard drive B/partition F to boot Up? Without reinstalling windows/having to redo installed programs, settings etc... if its possible?

My hard drive b is also running low on space, I really need a new 320 gb or so hard drive. I only have two hard drive sata slots since my comps 3 yrs old. So yeah i needa get rid of the first hdd, but I really dont wanna redo the windows and settings/personalised things, I mean after all the actaul windows core files are all on the hard drive which is staying in the comp... so it would suck having to redo themc os of some minor files on the first hard drive that are required...

Please help!And sorry for the long post!

PC eye · 08-03-2007, 10:33 PM

Bow you see the problem of trying to custom install Windows all over the place. For having the second drive as a stand alone you would first unplug the first drive and install Windows on the first primary partition being the OS partition there. The second would be primary a storage and backup partition if not set aside for a dual boot of another OS. With 500gb ide drives coming down in price using the 320gb as the OS drive and adding a second large drive for storage works much better then installing to second partitions on second drives.

tyttebøvs · 08-03-2007, 11:07 PM

This must be set in order to boot:

1) it must be a primary partition
2) it must be set to active (can be done in disk management)
3) ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com must be present

PC eye · 08-03-2007, 11:16 PM

The msdos.sys and autoexec.bat files point at XP Pro as the version of Windows there. Those would be found at the root of the first primary of the host drive. One fast method for seeing everything working correctly would be to plan on having Windows on the first primary after the 120gb is removed for a clean install there. Since the boot files were originally copied to the 120gb you are going to have to perform a fresh install of Windows to see those installed on the new drive.

tyttebøvs · 08-04-2007, 12:33 AM

you don't need to reinstall windows, to make it boot from another partition

PC eye · 08-04-2007, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyttebøvs

you don't need to reinstall windows, to make it boot from another partition

The mbr, ntldr, msdos.sys, autoexec.bat files are located on the drive about to be removed from the system. A clean install of Windows will be need for the new mbr and boot information when that happens. The only time for installing Windows on a drive other then the boot drive is mainly seen when dual or multibooting different versions of Windows or different OSs along with MS.

tyttebøvs · 08-04-2007, 01:43 AM

when you initialize a harddrive in windows, a mbr is written to the disk. so this already exists. XP doesn't use msdos or autoexec for anything.

ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com can just be copied to the drive/partition you want to boot from, and make this partition active

PC eye · 08-04-2007, 02:00 AM

You have to create a new mbr not simply copy files from the root of one drive to another. The dos system files seen in XP Pro are used for logging onto old Fat based networks explaining why those are seen in that version of XP.

The recovery consolde commands are used to correct problems seen when boot information is lost on the boot drive which seems to be an item considered for removal which would then require a repair install of Windows to see a new working mbr on the 320gb drive to make that the stand alone OS drive.

If you do decide to remove the older 120gb Lomandriel you will want to follow the steps outlined in the article at the link here for performing a repair install of XP to see the new mbr created. This method preserves the files, folders, and programs installed while sometime needing a reistall of device drivers like video and sound. It would be an effective approach to preserve the current installation there. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

tyttebøvs · 08-04-2007, 02:10 AM

as i said, when you initialize the drive, all the nessesary boot strap code is written to the mbr. When the partition is formatted, all nessesary boot strap code is written to the boot record of the partition.

so, copy the boot files, and make the (primary) partition active

Edit: might I say, i've done this a dozen of times

tyttebøvs · 08-04-2007, 02:20 AM

but if you're afraid that they doesn't cotain the corrent code, use fixmbr to fix mbr, and fixboot to fix the partition.

The're are handy, if other systems have been installed, so incorrect code is present in mbr or partition boot record

08-03-2007, 03:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
Lomandriel Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 34	Two hard drives, one OS problem Hey pplz, I have a problem. Basically I have two hard drives: Hard drive a : 120 gb Western digital - two partitions : C drive(10 gb ) and D drive which consists of the rest. Hard drive b : 320 gb WD - Two partitions : F drive(34 gb roughly + windows OS was chosen to be installed here) and I drive (rest of space). Basically I had some problems back awhile ago, first hard drive a dying, or so it seems, basically I figured out that no matter what I did the windows would corrupt when i installed on hard drive a, images were getting distorted. Moved everything off onto hard drive b at the time since it was new. Following that I went to reinstall windows through the dos windows setup screen for win xp. I basically deleted and repartitioned hard drive a to wipe the old OS and information off there before reinstalling windows on the new hard drive "b", partition F. Anyway I basically have a problem now, I forgot the advice of removing hard drive a when installing windows onto hard drive b. I think thats why now, when I remove hard drive a, windows wont boot up. This is despite the fact that window's install path was selected to be on hard drive b: partition F. Removing hard drive a renders the OS unable to boot when i turn the computer on. Ok so i plug back in the sata cable for hard drive a, wollah OS boots. I want to know why the comps doing this? I chose hard drive b - partition F, why (i assume)have system files crucial to booting up/running the OS still been placed on hard drive a? I did clear the whole hard drive a, so does windows install files onto the first hard drive regardless of where the windows installation destination was selected? Anyway I tried a "view all protected system files" option in explorer, and a few files showed up on partition c of hard drive a: eg: boot.cfg, NTDETEC, MSDOS, AUTOEXEC, System volume information folder(cant access), recycler. I took it these are what helps the second hdd boot up from dos. I copied them to the same partition as windows(f partition on hard drive b) and removed the sata cable from hard drive a. Booted up the comp and nope, it still doesnt boot up, still says something about missing the system boot thing. So yeah what can I do to change my computer so that windows is only self reliant on hard drive B/partition F to boot Up? Without reinstalling windows/having to redo installed programs, settings etc... if its possible? My hard drive b is also running low on space, I really need a new 320 gb or so hard drive. I only have two hard drive sata slots since my comps 3 yrs old. So yeah i needa get rid of the first hdd, but I really dont wanna redo the windows and settings/personalised things, I mean after all the actaul windows core files are all on the hard drive which is staying in the comp... so it would suck having to redo themc os of some minor files on the first hard drive that are required... Please help!And sorry for the long post!

08-03-2007, 10:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,331	Bow you see the problem of trying to custom install Windows all over the place. For having the second drive as a stand alone you would first unplug the first drive and install Windows on the first primary partition being the OS partition there. The second would be primary a storage and backup partition if not set aside for a dual boot of another OS. With 500gb ide drives coming down in price using the 320gb as the OS drive and adding a second large drive for storage works much better then installing to second partitions on second drives. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

08-03-2007, 11:16 PM	#4 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,331	The msdos.sys and autoexec.bat files point at XP Pro as the version of Windows there. Those would be found at the root of the first primary of the host drive. One fast method for seeing everything working correctly would be to plan on having Windows on the first primary after the 120gb is removed for a clean install there. Since the boot files were originally copied to the 120gb you are going to have to perform a fresh install of Windows to see those installed on the new drive. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

08-04-2007, 02:00 AM	#8 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,331	You have to create a new mbr not simply copy files from the root of one drive to another. The dos system files seen in XP Pro are used for logging onto old Fat based networks explaining why those are seen in that version of XP. The recovery consolde commands are used to correct problems seen when boot information is lost on the boot drive which seems to be an item considered for removal which would then require a repair install of Windows to see a new working mbr on the 320gb drive to make that the stand alone OS drive. If you do decide to remove the older 120gb Lomandriel you will want to follow the steps outlined in the article at the link here for performing a repair install of XP to see the new mbr created. This method preserves the files, folders, and programs installed while sometime needing a reistall of device drivers like video and sound. It would be an effective approach to preserve the current installation there. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

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08-03-2007, 11:07 PM	#3 (permalink)
tyttebøvs Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 235	This must be set in order to boot: 1) it must be a primary partition 2) it must be set to active (can be done in disk management) 3) ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com must be present

08-04-2007, 12:33 AM	#5 (permalink)
tyttebøvs Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 235	you don't need to reinstall windows, to make it boot from another partition

08-04-2007, 01:43 AM	#7 (permalink)
tyttebøvs Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 235	when you initialize a harddrive in windows, a mbr is written to the disk. so this already exists. XP doesn't use msdos or autoexec for anything. ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com can just be copied to the drive/partition you want to boot from, and make this partition active

08-04-2007, 02:10 AM	#9 (permalink)
tyttebøvs Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 235	as i said, when you initialize the drive, all the nessesary boot strap code is written to the mbr. When the partition is formatted, all nessesary boot strap code is written to the boot record of the partition. so, copy the boot files, and make the (primary) partition active Edit: might I say, i've done this a dozen of times

08-04-2007, 02:20 AM	#10 (permalink)
tyttebøvs Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 235	but if you're afraid that they doesn't cotain the corrent code, use fixmbr to fix mbr, and fixboot to fix the partition. The're are handy, if other systems have been installed, so incorrect code is present in mbr or partition boot record

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