HELP! having DRASTIC trouble removing dual boot!

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robothenry

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I have a dual boot system with two of the same copies of SP3 installed on two drives.
One HD is 500GB SATA, with 3 partitions. 2 partitions are just empty space for storage (drive letters C and E). The last partition is my MAIN OS for regular use (letter F).
Other HD is 8GB ATA (letter D set as master on IDE1, has no other device on the ribbon). Has a clean install of SP3. I am trying to dispose of this drive as I am now trying to run a silent PC and this old disk makes a LOT of noise.

I've tried pulling the plug on the 8GB ATA and then running fixboot and fixmbr on the Recovery Console but it has not been successful. Each time I try to boot, I get the message "Invalid partition table".

My suspicion is that the necessary boot files for both OSs are stuck on the 8GB ATA. How can I get my system to work as single boot with the SATA drive? Does the order of the drive letters have importance? Please help!
 
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XP3? Are you referring to XP Media Center Edition by chance or XP with Service Pack now on? For seeing the 8gb drive removed and Windows running as a stand alone on the sata drive remember the Windows installer favors the first primary on a drive and you need to perform either a repair install of XP or see a full install on the first partiition to see C as the Windows drive letter C.

When installing Windows on a second sata drive the installer always looks for the first if any ide drive installed. The boot files and master boot information where placed there explaining the shift of C to F having Windows installed on a separate drive.

The additional shift from C to D was due to probably seeing XP go on the second or third partition of the 500gb sata drive offsetting it further. Your best move now is simply unplugging and removing the ide drive you no longer want and performing a clean install of Windows on the first partition of the larger sata drive first making sure that is a primary not extended type partition seen there.
 
Oh shoot, I meant SP3--corrected. Instead of doing a clean install of SP3 on the first partition (drive C) of my 500GB SATA, is it possible to rearrange the drive partitioning so that my main OS boot (drive F) comes first?

I ask that because I would prefer not to format my C drive as it is filled up with raw video that my video authoring software has built up many shortcuts to. I'd have to go through each file and reroute those shortcuts to new file locations if I move them.

Also, is it possible to restructure a new dual boot without the ATA drive if I install a clean SP3 into the SECOND drive (letter E--I have nothing in that drive at the moment)?
 
In order to correct the boot information with the ide drive no longer seen the current drive letter designations will be effected right from the start. All current shortcuts will be null automatically. Simply reinstalling Windows on the partition XP is currently on will see that happen.

For seeing Windows on the second instead of thirf partition it would be even better seeing the present Windows partition deleted entirely first backing things up to the first if room there or second with more free space to later either resize the second to allow far more space for the then most likely C or D drive then seen or simply create a new third partition and format that to avoid two copies of the same edition further throwing things off.

Just seeing a clean install on the second partition without the ide drive no longer plugged in will see Windows as well as all programs in need of a fresh start. The current jumble of driver letters will then see a rearrangement with Windows then seeing C as the likely result.
 
I turned off the system, unplugged the power to the IDE drive, and booted into the SP3 CD, and I did a clean install on the second drive of SATA (letter E). The system still landed on the message, "invalid partition table", same as before.

My last resort would be to back up files and format everything entirely and do a fresh install, which I don't want to do until I'm sure there's no way to remove the IDE drive.

Would it possibly work to partition the first drive and install on that? It's 60GB with 15GB left open so I have plenty of room. If i partition using the SP3 disk, how can I make sure that the new partition is FIRST and not second out of 4 drives? I THINK it's possible with Norton Partition Magic--not sure. I'll give it a try.

By the way, thanks for coming this far along the process with me. I really appreciate it.
 
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Here's an image of what partition magic diagnoses my drives as.
robothenry-pmagic.JPG

http://server3.uploadit.org/files/robothenry-pmagic.JPG
 
The first thought before unplugging the ide drive still needed to see Window load up for the present moment is actually using GParted live for cd as the better alternative to see the present Windows primary shrunk down in size and then grow the second E partition now pretty empty in order to move all files over from the first C to E then having far more space to work with.

Once all files are moved/copied over from the first you can actually reformat that and then remove the current Windows primary followed by unplugging the ide drive to see a clean install of XP go onto the new C drive primary since Windows loves the first plus being a fresh stand alone install without any further need for the ide drive.

Windows will become C as it should plus having plenty of space for expanding the third if not second storage partition. The ide drive is then gone with Windows then seeing itself as C and still having all files stored on the present first partition safe on the second one.
 
I pulled out the 8GB ATA, and did an install on the C drive. Again, my system did not boot. I guess that botched up the boot files' destination paths. Right now I'm in the process of buying a second SATA disk and putting Vista on it, migrating all my stuff into that from my current SATA disk. I'll unpartition the disk and put it to use as a dual boot with XP.

Thanks for helping me figure this out!
 
Remember once all of the setup files are copied onto the drive you have to return to the bios if you had set the optical drive used as the first and switch that to the hard drive. With only the single sata drive in right now that will be at the top of the hard drive list in another section other then the boot order.

Once you have the hard drive set as the first try disabling the second and third items to force the system to look to the hard drive. The force boot should see the rest of the installation proceed from there once you save and exit the bios.
 
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