Can my win xp OS be saved?

L

Lomandriel

New Member
Ok here's the situation:

Two hard drives:

1 - 120 gb, partitioned in two : C drive(small partition formarly for windows) and D drive(the remaining /majority of 120 gb used for storage of wateva)

2- 320 gb new drive, F drive(40 gigs roughly i think?) - installed windows here, I drive - remaining 200 something gigs of the hard drive.

Ok basically Hard drive 1 was giving me problems, either that or the sata connection for that hard drive is bust because data stored on it goes corrupt, images change colour in places, etc etc. Anyway So i wiped the drive clear, then repartitioned it into the same C + d. THen i proceeded to install windows on F drive of hard drive 2.

All has been good, safe and sound. Now i've run out of space on hdd2, so i want to get HDD1 out and replace it with another 320gb which i've bought already.

The PROBLEM:

While i selected HDD 2 to install windows on F drive.. it SEEMS i was meant to disconnect the first hdd during installation. I think some core hidden files are installed on C drive.. when i remove the first hdd the OS doesnt boot up. VIewing the hidden files i see a few mb of data is on that hdd, relating to boot.cfg etc, ntdetect and the usuals.

SO what now? My windows is on F drive, I want the first hdd out, but once i remove it my OS is rendered useless. I tried someones suggestion of d/cing the hdd1 and doing a repair installation of windows, but i have no idea why but the "repair" option doesnt show up.. it only shows the hdd and its partitions asking me to install on one a fresh copy. any reason why i cant repair it? I really dont want to redo all my programs, settings etc(its a pain as you can imagine for those of us who install multiple small process programs everywhere).

How can i save my OS on F drive? please help! or must i re-do a fresh installation of windows again?! =( and wth is windows designed to install files on a hard drive you didnt even select as the install path?!? I selected hdd2 - F drive, not hdd1 - C drive as well grr
 
Was the 120gb an ide model? Most likely. The Windows installer always looks for the first drive in order to place the boot loader and other things there like the boot.ini as well. If the 40gb is a second ide model(most likely) you make that the new master on the primary ide channel for a fresh copy of Windows. But why a 40gb if all three drives are ide? You could easily make the larger 320gb model as the new OS drive if not the 120gb.
 
No all hard drives are sata.

I think your confused, when i said :

hard drive 1 was 120 gb, i meant it was then partitioned into C + d.

Hard drive 2 is 320 gb, and it is partitioned into F(windowS) which is the 40gb space, and the rest goes into I drive. Sorry if that made it confusing.

SO yes i have only "two" hard drives, and both are partitioned into two technically. Both are sata. Hard drive 1 (120 gb) is sata1, and the 320 gb(hard drive 2) is sata 2. My mobo is sata 1 enabled so the 320 gb runs at sata 1 speeds.

WIth that new info in mind anything i can do to save windows/having to redo everything?
 
What happened there was the boot information along iwth the boot.iini, ntldr files went onto the 120gb. With just the first 320gb plugged in and even on the sata primary master you wo options there depending on XP or Vista.

For XP boot from the installation disk to the recovery console and enter "Fixboot" and "Fixmbr". Those will then make the 320 the host when this method creates the new boot.ini and ntldr files there.

With Vista is there is no more recovery console seen when booting up with the installation dvd. Instead of clicking on the install now button look down to the repair tools button on the lower half of the first screen. That will bring you into another section where the automatic repair tool for startup problems is seen along with other tools there. Those include the format and resizing partitions as well as creation and deletion options.

Don't try installing XP on a drive while Vista sits on the first however if you decide to dual boot both. Vista will fail to start up with XP on a second drive seen as the D drive. If configured as a dual boot you also lose the system restore feature in Vista. That's a pair of tips to add in here.
 
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