Can I REPAIR Windows XP on a Slave Drive?

[gc11530]

Windows XP doesn't start up and I think it's because I got a virus the other day. The same happened to me once in the past, and I hooked up my hard drive to a secondary PC as a slave. When I turned on the secondary PC, it started a repair process of the hard drive I had attached to it. I then removed the secondary hard drive and placed it back in my primary PC and it worked fine.

Now when I add the affected drive to my secondary PC, I see it and I can copy the data from it but how do I repair it? I don't remember whether the repair launched automatically the other time I did it, or whether I did something to launch it. So, is it possible to somehow repair the Windows XP installed on the secondary drive?

I have Windows XP on both computers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you
AJ

[DaveLembke]

Step # 1 - Clean that drive of virus's using 2nd computer with slave drive setup

Step # 2 - If you want to keep your data, install that drive back into its original box and perform a Windows Repair Installation from the OEM CD. This will repair windows install without formatting the hard drive.

Step # 3 - You will have to reinstall any specific applications that may have been lost through the repair installation to access special data like MS Word documents etc, so install Office or Open Office all over again etc.

[patio]

When I turned on the secondary PC, it started a repair process of the hard drive I had attached to it.

First this should not happen at ALL with it hooked up as a slave drive...you may have forgotten to set the jumpers properly.
When jumpering a drive as slave sometimes it's neccessary to re-jumper the master to master w/slave present.

2nd give more info on exactly what type of XP CD you have before you wind up wiping all your data...

[gc11530]

Before I do anything else, I want to copy everything from the slave drive onto the primary drive just in case I lose data. I have about 80GB. However, when I attempt to make a copy  (right click, copy), it runs for a while then it pops up a message that a file can't be copied, and it stops; so I have only some files copied. How can I copy the entire drive?

[squall_01]

you could connect it to the cd drive cable if there space and have it as a slave then you should see both in windows and move the files that way. 

[patio]

Why didn't you answer the questions ? ?

[gc11530]

I don't know what type of XP CD you are referring to. I bought the machine with XP on it but Hewlett Packard never game me an XP CD or I lost it. A couple of months ago I had problems and they sent me Recovery Disks. Is that what you are talking about? I tried using these to repair XP on my machine but there is only one option which is to reinstall to factory setting and it says it will delete all data so I haven't used these disks. I have no other disks to use.

[squall_01]

I did he wants to move the data seems like the easiest way too.

[gc11530]

you could connect it to the cd drive cable if there space and have it as a slave then you should see both in windows and move the files that way. 

But I'm seeing both drives in Windows right now. The problem is when I right click on the slave drive and try to copy to primary drive, it copies a few files and then stops; I guess there are files on there that can't be copied. Would hooking it up to the cd drive cable make it easier to copy the files?

[dahlarbear]

You can check the "integrity" of the file system(s) of the logical disks on the problem drive.  That might resolve your access problem.  This is one of the "standard" maintenance tasks that you should periodically perform with a Windows operating system.

You may either use the command line tool "chkdisk" or the GUI program accessed from the tools tab on the properties window of the logical disk drive letter.

[gc11530]

I see Error Checking, Defragmentation and Backup under Tools. Are you referring to Error Checking?

[dahlarbear]

Yes, "Error Checking".  Select the "Check Now..." button, a windows will appear with two options (or neither option):

Neither option.  This should check the integrity of the file system in "read-only" mode (reports problems but doesn't fix).

Automatically fix file system errors.  This will check the integrity of the file system and attempt to correct any problems that it finds.

Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.  This will scan the disk surface occupied by the file system looking for "bad" sectors.  It will attempt to recover the data from bad sectors by moving it to another sector and marking the sector "bad".  This option can take a long time depending on the size of the disk volume and should NOT be interrupted.  If it finds problems, it can take a very long time to recover (appears hung...  isn't...  leave it be).

Most people start with just the "Automatically fix file system errors" option to see if that resolves their issue.  Neither options may be used when you think the disk drive logic itself is "hosed" and you don't want to risk writing data to the wrong sector.  Since yours seems to be able to read some of file system OK, this is probably not the case.

Try not to have open files or use the disk while it's being checked.  If the GUI program believes the disk is in use when you request the scan it will probably ask to schedule it at next boot before logon.  This should only be necessary for your boot disk (usually logical drive C:).

If your data is really important to you, you should backup/recover as much as you can before messing with the drive, including what I've proposed above.  (Standard Disclaimer of Responsibility).

[gc11530]

Dahlarbear, I have run the error check with "Automatically fix file system errors" checked but it has found no errors. I checked the disk in case that did something but it's still not booting Windows.

Do you think defragmenting may make a difference? I'm also thinking that before I shut down the computer when it worked yesterday, I had messages about some missing DLL files; I think 2 separate DLL files. If Windows is missing some startup files in needs, wouldn't it be possible to fix this problem by moving my Windows file from the primary drive and copy over the existing Windows file of the secondary drive?

[quaxo]

Best thing to do would be to copy the files you want individually and not the entire drive, then use the restore disks HP sent you. After the system is up and running again, you can copy your files back.

[dahlarbear]

1.  Why are you trying to boot into Windows?  Are you done recovering data from the problem drive or no longer care about it?

2.  If you need the data, you shouldn't "defrag" the file system until you've recovered all you want.  You also should NOT be trying to boot (or be writing to) the drive you want to recover data from.  It should be "slaved" to your working computer, and your recovery diagnostic efforts conducted from there.