issues with trying to make SATA drive with XP installed the main bootable drive

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:59 pm

I was just copying files right from my c drive (which contains 2 defunct windows folders that the pc doesnt use.. I had no clue what i was attempting to do years ago with this install.) onto my e drive which is the primary drive. i am going to reformat the c drive to install windows 7.

Now what happened is that i went to disconnect the one drive to make 100% certain the windows folders on c are not in use (im sure theyre not since they havent been modified in years) but ran into an error on bootup where the system couldnt find the file ntldr. I had to burn this fix from my laptop onto a dvd and then run that and it fixed it. What happened was that in the root c drive folder was the ntldr file (and a few others apparently) that i moved into a folder on my e drive in my attempts to preserve everything from the c drive for after i format it.. I moved all those little files back to the root c drive. I checked in the root e folder and those files arent there. I was expecting there to be copies of them at least.

I then copied those files from the c: root dir to the E: root dir. I then unplugged c and booted and i get the "error loading os" or "os not found" i forget the exact error message... This may have something to do with e: being a SATA drive and c: being an IDE drive however.

Anyway, for whatever reason, the pc will not recognize the e drive on the SATA as bootable. I read that if I boot from the xp cd and choose repair on the e drive, it may fix the issue. Wondering what you all think of that?

All i want to do is be able to boot from e for now until I make the c drive the win 7 install / bootable main drive. If anyone could explain the easiest path to take to accomplish that at this point, that would be swell.
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Faust · Post by **Faust** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:34 pm

ok, let me be the first to say..... ya lost me.

lets take a different tac. where are you now, and what do you want the end result to be? should be a fairly simple matter when it comes to getting it to boot properly.

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:40 pm

you might need to enable "show hidden files and folders" along with "show operating files" or "protected system files" something like that. either way there are 2 types of files being hidden and you need to unhide them to show them. then you can copy away to your hearts content. the boot files for the windows installs are not being copied because there hidden by default and not being copied

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 3:51 pm

Faust wrote:ok, let me be the first to say..... ya lost me.

lets take a different tac. where are you now, and what do you want the end result to be? should be a fairly simple matter when it comes to getting it to boot properly.

Sure, lets start with a picture of my drives:

OK long term goal is to simply format that c drive and use it as my new windows 7 bootable drive. Right now, if I unplug the c drive and try to get the system to boot from e (which does have a windows install on it and contains the windows folder that is always in use -- the c drive has 2 defunct windows folders not modified in years according to the OS) i get the error message of "error loading OS". So for whatever reason, the E drive -- even though it does have a windows install on it -- will simply not boot. This probably doesnt mean jack I'm sure if I'm simply going to reformat C and it's going to be the boot drive anyway, but regardless, it's an issue, and I'd just like to learn to overcome it.

Now as I mentioned above about those files that were missing when i transferred them to a temp folder out of the c" root directory that caused me a bit of a hassle..From what I've read, simply transferring those files that are necessary for booting from the c drive to the e drive (to try make the e drive bootable) wont work due to the method that the OS uses at setup when creating these files. It's like the files were written for only the IDE to understand and the SATA wont understand those files. The c drive in my case is an IDE drive and the E drive is SATA.

So... What I'd like to do is to somehow make that e drive bootable. From what i've read elsewhere, the only way seems to be run a windows repair on that drive an I guess hope it recreates those files needed to boot.

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 3:52 pm

morbidpete wrote:you might need to enable "show hidden files and folders" along with "show operating files" or "protected system files" something like that. either way there are 2 types of files being hidden and you need to unhide them to show them. then you can copy away to your hearts content. the boot files for the windows installs are not being copied because there hidden by default and not being copied

no they are unhidden and copied to the e drive root, the issue is that the hard drives are different and apparently when the install created those files on the c drive, those files are non transferrable between hard drive types. C is IDE and e is SATA.

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:30 pm

velvta wrote:no they are unhidden and copied to the e drive root, the issue is that the hard drives are different and apparently when the install created those files on the c drive, those files are non transferrable between hard drive types. C is IDE and e is SATA.

There are no files that cannot be copied from one HDD to the other because of interface type.
Why not just use Ghost?

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:32 pm

i dont think theres any real reason to repair the install. can just work from recovery console.

my understanding is that as it stands, the "c" drive's data is expendable (sounds like you did a mass copy/paste to the other drive) sp lets go ahead and disco that for the time being.

make sure your BIOS's boot order is set correctly to include the drive interface type for the "e" drive.

boot to your XP disc and get into recovery console.

from the recovery console's command prompt (it will probably ask for admin pass first), run FIXMBR. after that, run FIXBOOT.

the idea here is to at least get the system to boot up, and from that point you can either edit the boot.ini file manually or use msconfig to write a new one for you. we'll cross that bridge when we get there. getting it to boot will be the first priority.

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:39 pm

morbidpete wrote:There are no files that cannot be copied from one HDD to the other because of interface type.
Why not just use Ghost?

sorry i meant interpreted, not simply transferred. While googling around trying to fix the "ntldr is missing" debacle I ran into a forum post where someone was having an issue sort of relating to mine, and a knowledgable poster talked about how when an OS is put onto a system it makes these files needed for boot up, but they are not compatable between drive types. Yes you can transfer them, but you cant just take them like i did and move them to another drive and load that drive as the first one to boot in the bios and then expect it to work, because it's like that drive is trying to read those files in a language it cant understand.

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:40 pm

Faust wrote:i dont think theres any real reason to repair the install. can just work from recovery console.

my understanding is that as it stands, the "c" drive's data is expendable (sounds like you did a mass copy/paste to the other drive) sp lets go ahead and disco that for the time being.

make sure your BIOS's boot order is set correctly to include the drive interface type for the "e" drive.

boot to your XP disc and get into recovery console.

from the recovery console's command prompt (it will probably ask for admin pass first), run FIXMBR. after that, run FIXBOOT.

the idea here is to at least get the system to boot up, and from that point you can either edit the boot.ini file manually or use msconfig to write a new one for you. we'll cross that bridge when we get there. getting it to boot will be the first priority.

ok willl try that after i get some food

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:01 pm

Can you see the ntldr file in the root of c: ? if not you still need to enable the hidden system files option

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:42 pm

morbidpete wrote:Can you see the ntldr file in the root of c: ? if not you still need to enable the hidden system files option

yeah, ntldr and a few others i had a hunch played a role are the ones i moved away from c initially then moved them back after i applied thr quick fix to get me back in the system then I copied those files over to e and tried booting e first and still no go, i got the os not found error.

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:48 pm

Faust wrote:i dont think theres any real reason to repair the install. can just work from recovery console.

my understanding is that as it stands, the "c" drive's data is expendable (sounds like you did a mass copy/paste to the other drive) sp lets go ahead and disco that for the time being.

make sure your BIOS's boot order is set correctly to include the drive interface type for the "e" drive.

boot to your XP disc and get into recovery console.

from the recovery console's command prompt (it will probably ask for admin pass first), run FIXMBR. after that, run FIXBOOT.

the idea here is to at least get the system to boot up, and from that point you can either edit the boot.ini file manually or use msconfig to write a new one for you. we'll cross that bridge when we get there. getting it to boot will be the first priority.

OK would you believe that no option is coming up to repair? its just saying to click which drive you want to either delete or make a partition or run windows seyup on.

if I click to run windows setup on the e drive, is that when this screen will show up or should it appear before then?

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:49 pm

Try using ghost to image the c to the e ( i sound like a rapper :P )

24giovanni · Post by **24giovanni** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:55 pm

morbidpete wrote:Try using ghost to image the c to the e ( i sound like a rapper :P )

Should we call you Master MP then?

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:05 pm

24giovanni wrote:Should we call you Master MP then?

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 6:55 pm

velvta wrote:OK would you believe that no option is coming up to repair? its just saying to click which drive you want to either delete or make a partition or run windows seyup on.

if I click to run windows setup on the e drive, is that when this screen will show up or should it appear before then?

argh!! im sorry bud, i would drop by and check the forum but kept seeing morbidpete as the last poster (just bustin' yer chops, MB

), making me think you hadnt replied yet. my bad.

if i recall correctly, the screen you posted should come after the screen to repair. and yep, the red box is what we're after. only item of any worry is, if theres already an install of windows on the disk, you should get the (non-recovery console) repair option. this disk did have at least 1 working XP install on it beofre, ya?

i would try the recovery console bit first. worst case is it wont work.

and, MB is correct in that imaging your c drive to the e would work, as long as you have whatever data you wanted to keep backed up.

really, thats one of the problems with mass cut/copy & paste from one "live" drive to another... the carryover of unwanted system files can cause some confusion in the target drive's OS environment.

velvta · Post by **velvta** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 9:17 pm

thanks faust ill try and get to this over the weekend