Hangups and Boot Problems

[patio]

Seagate on their high end drives still have a 5 year warranty...

Otherwise WD Caviar drives are pretty much bulletproof...( 3 Year Warranty )

[No_Skillz]

I've gotten my new HD (WD Caviar 500g) and used the trial version of Acronis Home to clone it.  I verified that the data was there by booting with my old HD as primary.  However, when I use it as primary I get the message "Error loading operating system."  I booted with my xp disk and tried to repair it (NOT recovery console, don't know what the main one is).  It'll scan the HD, copy some files, save configurations, but then after reboot it goes back to "Error loading operating system."

My old HD is still alive.  However, I accidentally did a repair on this drive and now whenever I do anything, Windows Installer pops up and "prepares to install" something and everything hangs up.  It's almost unuseable.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Did you do this for a Repair Install?
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[No_Skillz]

Yes, I did this:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI

It gets to step #6 and gives me "Pressy any key to boot from CD...(I don't press anything here) Error loading operating system."

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Hmmmm.....Can you try the repair again?
In the mean time, I will do some searching.

[No_Skillz]

I have done it 3x already. 

I once read somewhere that insanity is repeating the same action over and over again expecting a different result. 

[patio]

Try the WD diagnostics tools to clone the drive instead of a trial program...
They are available at the website if your Caviar didn't come with a CD...

[No_Skillz]

I can't clone my old one anymore because I accidentally did a repair install on it.  This happened even though I set my new HD as #1 and the old one as #2 in my bios. (I did the repair thinking that it was going to work on the primary, #1.  Naturally, I was wrong.)

Now the old HD barely runs because "Windows Installer: Preparing to Install..." pops up on every action and hangs everything up.

[patio]

Clean install on the new drive...
Then use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to get settings from the old drive.

[No_Skillz]

Will that transfer over my installed programs too?

[patio]

No.
Files and settings only...
Apps will have to be re-installed.

This is a good time to start considering a regular backup strategy.
I use Acronis True Image but there are others...

[No_Skillz]

  Alright as a last ditch effort I guess I'll go this route.  Thanks for the tips.

[patio]

No problem and good luck...
You may want to read up on FAST first...some people find it confusing.
I've used it with better than average results although it can be quirky...

[No_Skillz]

I've done a full format on the new HD and tried to do a fresh install of Windows XP.  It does the same thing as before, where I boot form disk, choose to install a fresh copy of windows, it copies some files, reboots, and gives me "Press any key to boot from CD...(again I don't press anything) Error loading operating system."

I am running this new HD as SATA and it's the only one hooked up.  It's brand new.  There are no jumper pins in.  It's being recognized in bios.  Am I missing something?

[No_Skillz]

Just a little update (take a deep breath):

I've figured out why the new HD doesn't work.  The access mode in BIOS needs to be set at "Large" instead of "Auto" for reasons beyond me.  I tried this and the HD was finally recognized.  Unfortunately, at this point I had already formatted the HD trying to install XP from scratch.

So I decided to get my old HD working again and hopefully be able to clone it.  The Windows Installer popups I was getting was an old version, so I had to update it at microsoft.  This enabled it to tell me that it had been trying to access Adobe Acrobat Pro all along, and was searching for the CD.  However, I no longer have the CD, I convert most of my stuff to ISO (what else is a 500g HD good for?).  My daemon tools didn't work after the repair install due to SPTD being old/nonexistant.  So I reinstalled that, got my adobe ISO loaded up, and erased that problem.

Keep in mind that the Windows Installer had been popping up upon EVERY action and hanging the system up for 1-2 mins (drove me out of my d**n mind).

I then did all my windows updates, including IE 7.  Big mistake.  After rebooting, it would get stuck on "Setting Personalized Settings for: Internet Explorer."  I restarted in safe mode, disabled IE through Control Panel - Windows Components, which fixed the problem.  (Booting normally, IE7 works fine, which is a mystery to me since I unchecked it in safe mode.)

So, the old HD seems to be working fine again (minus the SMART failure) so I am back at square one, using Acronis Home Trial to clone the HD, this time with the BIOS set to "Large" for the new HD from the start.

Wish me luck.