Weird computer problem - HELP !
Posted by: Minky on 29 October 2004
After trying to Ghost clone an 20GB XP system disk to a new 120GB and failing, I removed the new hard drive and XP refused to start. It kept doing scandisk on drive D: (which seemed strange) and then hanging. Tried all the usual MBR repair stuff and after several hours reinstalled with repair option. Now the bugger boots up (after much time and missing file messages) but it thinks the primary drive is D: so none of my apps work.
The primary drive is plugged into the same IDE socket that it was plugged into before I started. I haven't changed any jumpers etc. If I run FDISK from DOS boot disk it shows info for C: but typing c: and then "dir" results in "sector not found reading drive c, Abort, Retry .." and windows XP insists that it's D:.
Once booted everything looks OK (other than the fact that nothing works).
It's 1:30 am and I thought that if I posted this, by the morning someone on the forum might have posted a clue on how to get my lovely old C: back.
Help !
The primary drive is plugged into the same IDE socket that it was plugged into before I started. I haven't changed any jumpers etc. If I run FDISK from DOS boot disk it shows info for C: but typing c: and then "dir" results in "sector not found reading drive c, Abort, Retry .." and windows XP insists that it's D:.
Once booted everything looks OK (other than the fact that nothing works).
It's 1:30 am and I thought that if I posted this, by the morning someone on the forum might have posted a clue on how to get my lovely old C: back.
Help !
I cannot help, I'm afriad. However, I do have a vaguely similar problem so aybe someone can help me.
I have an MSI K8T motherboard with both SATA and IDE hard disks. Everything was working fine with Windows XP Pro installed on the SATA drive as C: and the IDE drive as F: (my CDRW and DVD are D: and E
.
In installed a new CPU cooler and PSU (and so disconnected everything) put it all back together and everything was working correctly.
I then was fiddling with the BIOS, decided I wanted to abandon this and pressed the "Restore Factory Defaults" option. After this if failed to re-boot with the "ntoskrnl.exe is corrupt message".
So I started the Win XP recovery console and find that the IDE drive is now C: and there is no sign of the SATA drive, which explains why it cannot boot Windows. This is despite the fact that the SATA drive seems correctly recognised and configured in the VT8273 BIOS.
I then unplugged the IDE driver from the motherboard. This now recognises the SATA drive as drive C: and boots into Windows and lets me log on. However, almost as soon as Windows has loaded, it hangs and my monitor goes blank (no reboot - just stops). Possibly this is some side effect of the missing IDE drive. There is also some essage from Pinnacle Instant DVD about a driver problem.
So my best guess is that I need to fix my BIOS so that the drives get installed in the correct order and it will boot my existing windows XP installation from the SATA drive on C: However, despite reading my mobo manual, looking at various BIOS options and some extensive googling I am stuck.
Matthew
I have an MSI K8T motherboard with both SATA and IDE hard disks. Everything was working fine with Windows XP Pro installed on the SATA drive as C: and the IDE drive as F: (my CDRW and DVD are D: and E
.In installed a new CPU cooler and PSU (and so disconnected everything) put it all back together and everything was working correctly.
I then was fiddling with the BIOS, decided I wanted to abandon this and pressed the "Restore Factory Defaults" option. After this if failed to re-boot with the "ntoskrnl.exe is corrupt message".
So I started the Win XP recovery console and find that the IDE drive is now C: and there is no sign of the SATA drive, which explains why it cannot boot Windows. This is despite the fact that the SATA drive seems correctly recognised and configured in the VT8273 BIOS.
I then unplugged the IDE driver from the motherboard. This now recognises the SATA drive as drive C: and boots into Windows and lets me log on. However, almost as soon as Windows has loaded, it hangs and my monitor goes blank (no reboot - just stops). Possibly this is some side effect of the missing IDE drive. There is also some essage from Pinnacle Instant DVD about a driver problem.
So my best guess is that I need to fix my BIOS so that the drives get installed in the correct order and it will boot my existing windows XP installation from the SATA drive on C: However, despite reading my mobo manual, looking at various BIOS options and some extensive googling I am stuck.
Matthew
Matthew,
The drives get assigned in Primary master/slave, secondary master/slave order, but Windows can have it's own idea of what the drive letters are, and if this gets corrupted as e.g. part of a clone (I used WCD's Lifeguard which I think decided to reassign my drives) and the clone doesn't finish, you end up with a buggered rig
The drives get assigned in Primary master/slave, secondary master/slave order, but Windows can have it's own idea of what the drive letters are, and if this gets corrupted as e.g. part of a clone (I used WCD's Lifeguard which I think decided to reassign my drives) and the clone doesn't finish, you end up with a buggered rig