Why isn't this working?

[Questi4110]

I just bought a 160gb WD hard drive to install as my main hard drive for my current comp, which has a 120 gb hd. I wanted to back up some of the files but not all so I installed the 160 while the 120 was still in and in the WD diagnostic tools program I chose the 160 to be an "additional drive." So i formatted it the way I wanted and then copied the files over. I shut off the comp and took out the 120 and started the comp with the windows xp cd in the drive. However, after windows performed all the checks it said that there was no hard drive installed.

So i put the 120 back in and i installed windows onto the 160. I restarted and I was able to select between two versions of windows and both worked, one being the newly installed one. Then I took out the 120 and when I booted up it said "Master 0" not detected.

I have installed hard drives before but maybe i'm forgetting something stupid and simple.

Both hard drives are on cable select and I checked in the bios and both are detected, although only the 120 can be chosen under the "boot sequence" menu (it wont allow me to choose anything other than C drive - the 120, floppy, or IDE CD-ROM).

Also, when in BIOS, under the devices menu, it detects the device as a hard drive and as 160GB so I dont know if the problem is in bios, but it prolly is.

Do I have to uninstall the 120 somehow through windows and tell it that the new primary is 160? If so...how?



THANKS

 

[imported_Kiwi]

You need to have an "Active" Drive on any Hdd that is going to be booted from. I've forgotten where in XP you find that function, however (I really disliked XP!)

 

[frankgomez75]

hmmm.....

I use Partition Magic to format and copy my OS to new larger drives and set it as the Primary Active. Not sure what your problem is though. Maybe its not set as the Primary Drive?

 

[QueZart]

If the Jumper is set to Cable Select AND you have a Cable select IDE Cable

You will need to Place the Drive you want to Be Master On the End of the Cable, the center will always be a secondary or slave drive.

Edit: At least Thast how I read the problem the above posts seem to indicate they think you have a problem with the partition being active, that may be also, just run Fdisk and set the Partition on the new Drive as Active if that is the problem

 

[Questi4110]

Ok, i'll try that QueZart.


Thanks for the quick replies.

 

[Questi4110]

OK, i switched up the cables and still no luck.

It deteced the drive as master in Bios but when it loaded up this is what I got.
-------
Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure

Primary Drive 1 not Found

Error Loading OS

-----------


When I hook up the 120gb drive it still says that stuff except it doesn't say "error loading OS"...it automatically goes to screen where I have to choose the hard drive.

 

[Sunbird]

Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.

Once there go to disk management. There you can reformat your partition if you want.

If you right click on the drive in there, you can also make it active by selecting "Mark partition as active".

Then do what you did again, with the files transfer and the repair of windows, and then you will be happy

 

[Questi4110]

Alright, this was my setup.

C: - 2gigs, for free space, nothing installed - System
D: - 114gigs, for windows and programs - Boot

C and D make up the 120gb hard drive


I: 2gb - for free space
H: 147gb - for windows and programs

H and I make up the 160gb hard drive.

I made I the active drive.

I shut down the computer and started up with just the 160gb hooked up and I got the same
Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure
error


Then I hooked up the 120gb hard drive and I got this error:

"NFTLDR" missing
Press --- to restart


I went into the boot menu and chose IDE disk checker (or something like that) and it said the Master 0 160gb hard drive was fine and the Slave 1 120gb was also fine.

I had to end up loading up with the slave one again.


I don't understand, did I do something wrong?



Do i have to format the 160gb harddrive that I just set to active and then reinstall windows onto it in order for this to work. I am getting confused because the
"Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure" error seems like something in bios and not dealing with windows.



THANKS

 

[Questi4110]

bump

 

[stevty2889]

Why did you make I the active drive, when windows is installed on H:..the active drive needs to be the one with windows on it...

 

[Questi4110]

Cause I cant make H the active drive, only the system drive can become the active drive and I is the system drive.

H would be the boot drive and it cannot become the active drive.

 

[Questi4110]

bump

 

[stevty2889]

I think you are still a bit confused..the boot drive has to be the active drive..if H is the drive windows is installed on and H is the boot drive then H needs to be the active drive..

 

[Questi4110]

But I cant choose the "H" drive to become active and this is the drive with windows on it. I can only choose the "I" drive to become active.



THANKS

 

[Questi4110]

I checked help again and it said that the system drive is the one that needs to be active, not the boot drive.

My system drive is my "I" drive, so I cannot have the "H" drive as active.

 

[Bozo Galora]

For chrissake man - you just cant play musical chairs with drives and O/S
The boot.ini file no longer represents what your config is, and is missing on one drive.
If I read this mess right, you eventually dual booted 2 XP installs spanning two drives on same cable - HDD 0 (master primary active) and HDD 1 (Slave, non active). Then you pulled HDD 0 which had the correct boot.ini and ntldr and ntdetect (there is only ONE set)

WD additional drive means, not partitioned active

And WTF is this "C" drive of 2GB free space?????
You say it has SYSTEM, but you say WINDOWS is on D
Um. I thought windows was the system.
Why would you ever skip first drive letter for O/S use???
Then you say I is 2GB free and H is Windows
But you know I comes AFTER H, so this is opposite what you said of C and D partition sizes.


First jumper the 160GB drive as master
DO NOT USE CABLE SELECT. Period.
Then, if you can boot to XP CD by setting first boot at CD in bios, and if it STARTS, then a repair install of XP OVER the old should fix things.
And you still dont get it = the BOOT drive partition MUST BE ACTIVE = so the O/S must be ON the bootable active primary, HDD jumpered as master.

If you span O/S to dif HDD, either across cable or prim/sec ports and you want to alter HDD's install, save data and start fresh.
Make first partition on O/S system as "C" 4.7GB Windoes XP ONLY so you can back it up to a DVD, or easily to another partition.

Nah, disregard the above.
Take out both HDD, beat them to death with a 10 pound sledge, then go buy one of those 200GB seagates on sale in Hot Deals for $49.95 and start again.

 

[Questi4110]

To answer your first couple questions: The drive that windows is on is called the boot drive. Also, I have 2gb free space on C for Virtual Memory Space.

I doubt switching to just master and then booting up windows installation will work. I tried that before and after windows checks and starts to install it says that a HDD could not be found (this is after I only boot up with the 160gb and I have the 120gb removed).

THANKS

 

[QueZart]

Quest, Heres The Deal

OK When windows Installs It sets certain Files to Boot the System, These Files are and always Must be On the 1st partition of the First HDD, with this 1 set of files it will Boot however many different windows Installs you have on any HDD's and Any Partitions( if done right )

The first time you did the Install the 120 was the First Drive, Therefore the BOOT drive

Altho there is a Windows Install on the 160 Drive it Is UnBootable even if you make it the First drive.

To get this the way you want it this is What you need to Do

Plug the 160 into the End of the Cable and the 120 in the center, Insert your windows Disc
Repartition However you want to, Then Install Windows on the 160 Drive, Then if you want a second windows setup on the 120 Run the Install Again. This will Make the 1st partition on the 160 the Boot Partition, notice Windows Does NOT have to be installed on the Boot Partition. However the Boot Partition Must be the First partition on the First Drive

Good Luck Man

 

[Questi4110]

Thanks a lot for the replies.

Let me see if I get you right.

Keep both plugged in, and plug them how you said. Boot up with CD-ROM With windows installation before windows starts.

Format the 160 (you didn't say that but i'll do it) and then set up the partitions on it, then install windows onto it?



THANKS

 

[QueZart]

Well you have to Partition first then Format but the windows Install will do the formatting for you.

 

[bwnv]

Ugg! Boot drive = active partition, needs to be the first partition on the master drive. Make a less than 132GB, more than 4 GB partition on that 160 GB drive (XP won't see more than 132GB unless it has SP2 slipstreamed on the cd) as the First partition.....
Take out the other drive and reinstall XP. Should be good to go after that. After reinstalling the OS you can put in the other drive or not, as you see fit.
GL

BW

 

[Questi4110]

Alright, it didn't work, here is what I did:

First, before trying any of your things, I opened the Western Digital Tool Disk.

I decided to make the new 160gb a boot disk, and what this does is format the drive and copy everything from the current boot drive to the new boot drive and then make it a boot drive.

Then I shut off the computer, and unplugged the 120 and started up with the 160...it gave me the error:

"Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure "

At this point, I am thinking that I am right in saying that it is a hardware problem.


Instead of immediately putting the 120gb back, I decided to boot into windows installation. In the installation I formatted the 160gb and installed windows on it. After it had completed and the comp restarted, i got the same error:

"Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure "

So now I plugged the 120gb hard drive back in to load into windows and post this message.

Bios correctly shows that the 160gb is hooked up so I dont know why I keep getting that error.

Also, I tried many different jumper settings for the 160: the master setting, the setting with no jumper, and the cable select setting, all three times with the black end of the wire hooked into the drive (the very end of the cable, not the middle) and still no luck.


Please help



THANKS

 

[Questi4110]

Ok, i just read somewhere that the 0 drive is my floppy drive, I'm going to check teh connections on this.

 

[Questi4110]

Ok, I fixed it myself, I disabled the floppy and everything worked fine. It would have been much easier if you guys had told me this from the beginning because I always suspected it was a hardware issue. Nevertheless, thanks for all the help.