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Problems making new partition bootable

Spike

Spike

Diamond Member
Well, I am having some difficulty. I just used partition magic to copy my 40gb hard drive (current windows drive) onto my new 200gb drive. I then partitioned the remaining 160gb. I made sure to select primary and active, but I can't seem to boot off the drive.

I shut down, unplugged my old 40, changed my 200 to master, and restarted but startup could not find the os. I tried running windows XP repair with the CD and it found the windows, but it claimed it could not repair because the drive was not a proper windows xp drive or something like that. Any thoughts on how I can get my new hdd to be my bootable one?

thanks!

-spike
 
Did you make the new partition your active partition, using Partition Magic?
You need to do that.

Edit:
Sorry, I see that you did!
How about the drive letter?
Is the drive letter for the new partition the same as the one for the old one? It needs to be.
 
Is the partition number the same?
I mean if the original XP partition was the first partition on the old drive, is the new partition also the first partition on the new drive?
It needs to be for the old (copied) boot.ini to work.
 
the one thing I have not done is change the letter, when I tried it gave me warnings. Is there a way to change it back if it screws up?

 
well, I went ahead and changed the letter anyway using partition magic, but no luck. When I tried to boot off of just the new drive it did not work, said something about needed a system disk. I plugged my old drive back in, and now I believe I am booting off of drive P, while drive c is my copied, but still not working, drive
 
Originally posted by: Spike
the one thing I have not done is change the letter, when I tried it gave me warnings. Is there a way to change it back if it screws up?
Click to expand...

We may have a problem. The copying process should be done in such a way that the drive letter ends up being the same. If you have to change it, it means trouble!

One thing that you should do is to backup your data first. Playing with partitions is a risky business!


Is the partition number the same? Is XP on the first partition on the old drive and did you copy it to the first partition on the new one?

You may want to use fdisk to create a master boot record (MBR).
http://www.microsoft.com/resou...n-us/prkd_tro_ldau.asp
 
Well, I am not so worried about loosing data as I am working primarily with the new drive which just has a copy of the old stuff. I tried the fixmbr command, no luck there. I am going to give up for tonight and try it again from scratch tomorrow.

-spike

EDIT: now I am having problems loading my computer... bummer, gonna try and see if I can change the old drive back to c:
 
Turn off the PC. Remove the new HD. Connect the old one and make it master. Boot to the Partition Magic floppies. Make the partition active. Reboot. Hopefully, you can boot to the old drive.

I am assuming that there is only one partition on the old drive and it is drive C?

1- Turn off the PC again.
2- Connect the new drive (another channel or slave).
3- Boot to the PM floppies.
4- Make the XP partition on the old drive hidden and apply.
5- Delete everything from the new drive so that it is all unalocated space and apply.
6- Copy the hidden drive from the old drive to the start of the new drive.
7- Turn off the PC.
8- Remove the old drive.
9- Connect the new drive to be master.
10- Start the PC and go into the BIOS; Add the new drive to the boot priority list.
11- Boot to the PM floppies.
12- Unhide the copied partition and apply.
13- Make the copied partition active if it is not already and apply.
14- Reboot and cross your fingers!
 
First off, what are the partition magic floppies? I just borrowed the CD from my Dad and have no floppies. Second, now I can't get anything to work, let me explain my situation and see what you think.

I reformatted the 200 gb with windows setup (though it said it was only 130gb...) and installed XP fresh on that drive. Windows loads fine from that drive, but the hard drive shows up as I:, not C:. I reconnected my old drive as a slave (both cable connect and jumpers set that way) and the computer still tries to boot off of the old drive.

Let me regress for a second, I tried a repair installation of my original windows xp, but I still have the same problem now where windows loads, and just sits at the blue welcome screen.

Now, whenever I have the old drive connected, I simply go and sit at the blue welcome screen. To make maters worse, I tried connecting my file sharing drive (250gb maxtor) and when that is connected it gives me a "NTLDR missing" error, I think the computer is trying to boot of any drive but the new one. *sigh*
what do you think I should try next?

-spike

EDIT Yes, my old drive is only a single 40gb partition. If I need the floppies, is there a way to make them? My parents are about 250 miles away...

Double EDIT About the old drive being drive c.... well, the one time I was able to start up on my old drive last night I used partition magic to change it's letter back to C as it somehow got changed, now I can only get to that welcome screen.
 
What version of Partition Magic is it?
After you install PM (I have PM7), it gives you the option of creating rescue disks (on 2 floppies) under Tools. Those rescue floppies can be used to run PM without needing windows.

130GB limit:
What motherboard do you have?
Has it been updated to the latest BIOS?
What version of XP do you have (SP1, SP2 or pre-SP1)?
http://support.microsoft.com/d...x?scid=kb;en-us;303013
 
the version of XP I am installing from is pre-sp1. I have pm 8 and just created 2 rescue diskettes but when I try and boot from them I get an error after it loads up the partition magic screen.

Currently I am reinstalled a fresh copy of windows on my 200 gb drive on a 30GB partition. Once I have that complete, hopefully I will be able to start up in it as my main c: drive and access my old drive. I am going to delete the boot.ini off the old so windows does not try and load it.

Let me know what you think of my current options.

Thanks a TON for all the help, I am usually pretty self-sufficient but boot records and partitions are not something I play with much,

-spike

EDIT My motherboad is an Abit NF7-S, rev 2.0, and the BIOS is not very new, though it has been updated as off 6 monthes ago. If you need any general info on my setup, it is in my sig. I forgot about the 137gb limit pre-sp1, thanks for the reminder.
 
It sounds like you have another computer since you are posting.
If that was the case and I were you, I would download SP2 and slipstream it with my XP CD.
http://www.microsoft.com/downl...B5A&displaylang=en

http://www.windows-help.net/Wi.../winxp-sp2-bootcd.html
This is just an example of slipstreaming instructions. I have not used it. I have just included it so that you see what it is in case you don't already. You can search and find more guides.

I would also update my BIOS to the latest while the PC was powered by a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).
Then, I would remove all hard drives and temporary drives except the new one from the PC and add the new drive to the boot priority list in the BIOS.
Then, I would install the XP SP2 from the slipstreamed CD.
This should give you a healthy XP on the C drive on the new drive.

Then, I would worry about transfering data from the old drive.
But, let's go one step at a time.
 
I have been using my wifes laptop as my server is currently down for repairs (but thats another matter)

I all-ready installed a fresh copy of XP and am going to work from there as creating the slipstream requires a burner that I don't have on this laptop. If this does not work I will use a friends comp and do what you suggest. Thanks for that, I am tired of going one step at a time and not knowing another course to take should my attempts fail.

All I am worried about is a clean XP on the new drive, getting data from the old should be relativly easy as there are no problems with it from a hardware standpoint.

I will keep you apprised of my progress. Thanks again for all the help.

-spike
 
Well, at the momeny my latest reinstall seems succesfull, I am currently getting the mirad of updates for windows, after that I get the new mobo drivers, then graphics card, etc...

Anyway, lets assume all that goes well (the the 30gb partition on my new drive labled C!!!! no more I) what would the steps be for accessing my old drive? Just delete the boot ini and access from windows?

thanks again for all your help on this...

Oh, randome additional questions, now windows is constantly trying to checkdisk my 250gb file drive and when I allow it to, it loops a commad constantly about replacing a file or something, are there other tools for checking a drive that I can run in windows?

-spike
 
To access your data from the old drive all you need to do is to connect it to the PC. But, you have to make sure that the bios does not put it in ahead of the new drive in the boot priority. The problem you reported suggests that your bios does that. So, after connecting the old drive and turning the PC on, make sure to go to the bios and check the boot order.

As long as the new drive is ahead of the old one in the boot priority, you don't have to worry about the boot.ini file on the old drive.

The old drive will be given a drive letter other then C by windows. You will be able to copy your files in windows.

I'm sorry I don't know anything about the checkdisk problem that you are having.
 
my BIOS does exactly what I tell it to... unfortunatly I temporarily forgot computers start counting at 0 instead of 1 so some of my more minor problems stemmed from my boot order.

The checkdisk is running now and doing all sorts of "recovering orphaned file" stuff, dunno what that is about but it worries me a little. Anyway, back to fixing the machine

-spike
 
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