Re: Major upgrade problem with hard drive
From: R. C. White (RCWhite_at_msn.com)
Date: 03/04/04
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Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 09:23:31 -0600
Hi, T.J.
Sorry, didn't mean to ignore you. Did you solve your problem while I was
gone? What's the current status?
RC
-- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX rc@corridor.net Microsoft Windows MVP "R. C. White" <RCWhite@msn.com> wrote in message news:%23BST3Dm%23DHA.2480@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl... > Hi, T.J. > > Not enough time to digest this info today, and I have to run now and will be > busy most of the next couple of days. Lots of info there, and your system > is pretty far from typical. > > One quickie observation, though: You said, "I hooked the 120 gb to the > promise and that is when windows stopped booting." And that you were told, > "that xp places 2 files on that Primary Master hd and can then install to > the rest of the files to the drive selected." I'll bet your basic problem > is in these two statements. > > When the computer starts, it's awfully ignorant. All it knows is what's > stored permanently in the BIOS, as amended by the CMOS. It looks for the > first sector on the first physical drive it finds, reads the partition table > and MBR code from there, and uses that to find the "system partition". > Typically, this is the first partition on the primary master drive, which > becomes Drive C:. The first sector of this partition is the "boot sector", > which has just enough code for the computer to find a file named ntldr (no > extension), and the only place it knows to look is in the Root of that > system partition. So, the file must be C:\ntldr, which knows how to load > and read C:\boot.ini, which points to the location of ntoskrnl.exe and the > rest of WinXP. If you read C:\boot.ini (it's hidden, system and read-only), > you will see that it points to the "boot folder" (\Windows, by default) on > some partition, but it does not use "drive letters". It refers to the > partitions by rdisk(#)partition(#), numbering the HDs starting with zero and > the partitions starting with one on each physical disk. If any of this > physical disk/partition configuration changes, then ntldr and > C:\ntdetect.com can't find WinXP, so it can't load Windows and start. And > every time the computer boots, all this starts from scratch, with NO memory > of how things were organized yesterday - or this morning. > > Gotta go now. Think about this and I'll try to get back in a couple of > days. > > RC > > "T.J. Armstrong" <armstrtj@hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:3CDBB28C-8502-4A8F-A06B-8179797269D5@microsoft.com... > > Sorry I didn't think I left out that many details, but I must have > overlooked them. My computer is a custom build, it has a ASUS board (can't > tell you which one exactly, because I do not have the information with me at > this location), it runs an AMD Athelon Thunderbird. It supports up to 8 > drives using IDE and two drives using the promise port. I currently have > the older 40 gb unhooked in hopes of simply installing windows and getting > this beast up and running again. The goal originally was to simply add the > 120 gb hd as additional storage (which is still the 1st choice in this > situation). I did something similar to what you said, doing my best to > match the jumpers to the pictures as they were listed. I hooked the 120 gb > to the promise and that is when windows stopped booting. It would go > through BIOS, get to the same screen everytime that mentions some error > (that I no longer recall since it has been a month and a half without having > it work) and it said I needed to reboot. After rebooting, it would come to > the same screen, it was a big cycle. I tried changing the settings, > thinking maybe I had them wrong, but that didn't seem to get windows up > either. I currently have the 13 gb (which can now be removed completely > from the system with the addition of a larger harddrive) which was set as > the Primary master when xp was originally installed, a dvd-rom drive set as > primary slave I believe, and as of right now my cd burner is set to > secondary slave (which is a problem I know, it is not recognized by bios > because nothing is on the secondary master, but I didn't feel like messing > with the jumper on that because of location in my case). Also, I have a zip > drive that is not set to anything at this time, but it would be nice to have > it plugged in again on one of the ide spots (probably secondary master would > work unless there is a better way to set it up). My 40 gb hd was originally > on the 1st part of the promise drive and has remained there, with the 120 gb > hd being set to the second spot. As of right now, I have the 40 gb unhooked > to see if I could get windows xp to load on the 120, but it freezes every > time regardless (why, I do not know). It is recognizing the both drives on > the promise when they are hooked up. > > > > My windows folder is on my 40 gb hd (set on promise port 1st spot) which > was set as the C drive back in the day that the computer ran. Now, I was > told that since another hard drive was plugged in to the Primary MAster when > xp was installed, that xp places 2 files on that Primary Master hd and can > then install to the rest of the files to the drive selected. I am not sure > of the valitity of this comment, but you may know more. > > > > Also, the recovery disk it is asking for I believe is one you can making > using xp so that if there are any problems, you can insert said disk and it > will recover from a working set of files. This does me no service seeing as > I can not make one of these disks now, but it is a useful note for the > future. > > > > Oh, and also, I tried to use put everything back to where it was > originally and it still wouldn't boot, so I don't know if I have something > in a different place than before or if there is a ghost that haunts my > computer. Any and all help troubleshooting this problem is greatly > appreciated. Hopefully this additional information, though wordy will help > paint a more clear picture. Thanks for helping me fill in some oversights > RC. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Hopefully I answered all your > questions. > > T.J. Armstrong > > > > Also, both the controller and channel are enabled in bios and I am using > brand new 80 wire cables that I purchased after the old ones didn't seem to > be working. (I got bribed into bying them so my buddy would help me work on > this computer, so there are two of us stumped here)
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