Sata boot problem after IDE drive wipe.

[greysaber]

OK Gents. Here's my *censored*.

I had two windows installs on my desktop. 1 on a SATA drive, (D:) which I used. Also connected was an IDE drive with two partitions. (C: and E:)

Now, D: was my used install of windows XP. C: read out as a system disk, but I thought this was left over from wayback, and E: had my old copy of windows.

As a result, I really screwed myself by wiping my whole IDE drive to clear up space. Shouldn't do anything bad, since I'm only running off my SATA...............or so I thought.

Now, I can't boot. (Well, I can, but only because I reinstalled XP on the IDE drive as a short term help. Not the boot I want. )

I need to get back onto my SATA drive install of windows, and I'm not backed up since my backup external flat died on me.

When I tried to boot, (prior to reinstall of OS on IDE drive) I got "NTLDR is Missing"

I can't afford a wipe  and reload on my SATA drive. Too much important documents I need to back up. (*censored* my backup drive for dieing on me.)

So I tried telling the thing with the F8 boot menu to boot off the SATA drive. When I do that, I get black screen with flashing cursor. I've also tried booting with the IDE drive disconnected.

I tried running recovery console's fix boot, but it didn't help.


So.............HELP!!!!

[Computer_Commando]

...I got "NTLDR is Missing" ...I tried running recovery console's fix boot, but it didn't help...

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

[dahlarbear]

It sounds like you need to edit (or reconfigure) the boot.ini file which should be in the root directory of your system drive (C:).  By default its file attributes are "hidden", "system", "readonly"; so don't be alarmed if you don't find it right away.

You'll need to add an additional line under the "[operating systems]" section that points to the Windows directory of the appropriate partition of the SATA drive.  This will give you a dual boot system to either of your windows installations.

All three files needed to boot Windows XP (NTLDR, NTDETECT, and boot.ini) are placed in the root directory of the system drive (C:\) during installation.  So when you wiped your IDE drive containing the C: volume, you lost the ability to access the installation on the SATA drive.

There's more than one way to access and correct the "boot.ini".  See the references below:

     http://www.vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/bootini.htm

     http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000492.htm

[Computer_Commando]

This should do it:  How to rebuild the Windows boot.ini
Enter the Recovery Console as you did before, type: bootcfg /rebuild

[patio]

And do the above with the IDE drive disconnected and out of the loop...
Depending on how you actuallu installed these OS's the boot files may well exist on the IDE drive...

If you are unsuccseful in this attempt here is the info for retrieving your data from the SATA drive.
Here...

[greysaber]

This should do it:  How to rebuild the Windows boot.ini
Enter the Recovery Console as you did before, type: bootcfg /rebuild

Not working. It claims it can't find a windows installation. Strangely, it is saying this from inside the windows directory.

[Computer_Commando]

Try this:  http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[BC_Programmer]

Now, D: was my used install of windows XP. C: read out as a system disk, but I thought this was left over from wayback, and E: had my old copy of windows.

From the sounds of the above, it would appear the boot loader- NTDETECT, NTLDR, as well as boot.ini - resided on the IDE drive.  Thus, NTLDR is missing, as well as the other files (NTDETECT, BOOT.INI, etc) and likely a few other files that are used to identify drives with windows installations.

Solution? Repair Install. Thankfully CC has provided a useful guide on that process in the post immediately before mine.

[Computer_Commando]

This happened to me once.  Cloned an IDE to a SATA, changed the boot order from the IDE to the SATA.  The SATA drive was identified as "E" after the first boot with both drives attached.  Cloned again and removed the IDE before booting.  Never connected the IDE again.  Windows XP does strange things when 2 WinXP boot drives are connected simultaneously, regardless of the BIOS boot order.

[patio]

You hit the nail on the head CC...

A Repair install as suggested above would be my method of choice...
Also make sure the SATA drive is on slot 1 or 2 and the IDE is completely out of the loop...