Booting Problem

[Endahh]

Well, everything installs fine, everything goes fine except for a little detail: windows won't load up unless the xp cd is in the drive, and its driving me nuts!!
I get a "System Boot failure, insert disk and hit enter to continue" error everytime i try to boot the pc without the cd...

I'll tell you how i did he insallation and a bit about my system:
Before doing anything, you should know that there are 2 hard drives, each one has a different windows installation. The fist install was in the older hard drive which i wanted to remove, so i went ahead, copied all my files to the newer one and tried to format it. It wouldnt let me, said format couldn't be completed, so i used the xp cd to do it and it worked well.

Next thing i try is to boot the system with my second install but i get the msg everytime i try: NTLDR is missing. So i disconnect the older hard drive just in case it was something to do with it (btw: older was master, newer was slave), and switch master to the new drive. And it gave me the system boot failure error.

Next thing i try is to repair my install with the xp pro cd, and with bootcfg comand added the install to the the list, still no luck. So i reinstall windows, erase the installation and start from scratch (without formatting the drive, since all my files were there). Everything goes fine until i try to boot without the xp disk, and i get the boot error i mentioned .

Anybody have an idea about how i can fix this? I have thought of transferring my files to the older drive, disconnect it, format the new drive, install windows there from zero, then connect second drive. The problem with this is it is going to take one hell of a time, and there ir probably an easier solution.

 

[Endahh]

for some reason i am not able to edit the post

Somehow i just solved the problem by myself without having to reinstall...
I changed the bios boot sequence to:
cdrom hd0 hd1
deleted some windows files in the old hard drive (as slave now, newer drive as master)
and it magically works...
Funny thing i can't boot up without having the older one hooked. WTF is up with windows? I think im switching to linux from now on... much simpler

this has certainly been my weirdest experience yet with windows...

 

[mechBgon]

Anybody have an idea about how i can fix this? I have thought of transferring my files to the older drive, disconnect it, format the new drive, install windows there from zero, then connect second drive.

That's what I'd do. If your older hard drive gets formatted or fails at this point, your Windows installation is going to be in trouble, so why not head that problem off early in the game

Move your data to the old drive, disconnect it, and run Windows Setup on your new drive. When you get to where it shows the partitions on the disk, delete them all and then press the F3 key twice to exit Windows Setup. Now start Windows Setup a second time, create a partition on the blank new drive, format and you should have a healthy, independent WinXP installation in about an hour, which is just long enough for the pizza to get there (no that is not me in the picture ).

Be aware that without a firewall (either a software firewall or a hardware firewall, or both), a WinXP installation is a total worm magnet. I have some precautionary suggestions here aimed at precisely that situation, if you need it.

Also, when you put your old drive back into the system, you may need to watch that HDD-0, HDD-1 arrangement in case your motherboard gets over which one you want to boot from, and also be aware that you may need to take Ownership of the files on the old drive in order to get them moved over. In my picture there, I'm showing how I would take ownership of the \Documents and Settings\mechBgon folder and its contents (pretending this is the old hard drive). I would put a checkmark in the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects box and then give Ownership to one of the accounts from my new Windows installation, and then I'd be able to work with the directory and its contents.

To get at the Security tab and Ownership panel using the GUI in WinXP Professional, I would to go Control Panel > Folder Options and disable Simple File Sharing. In WinXP Home, I believe this must be done in Safe Mode or you can't get to this stuff.

Hope that helps

 

[Endahh]

I did all you said and now it's working fine , thank you!

 

[Xtremist]

Sounds like your boot.ini might've been screwed up. Doing what you did would probably fix it (obviously lol). But just so you know, you might want to check that file next time if you're able.