Noisy Computer & Window XP Booting Problems

[TexasState]

Yes, I've used the installation disk from Maxtor. Even downloaded the latest version. Many people do not know how to partition and format their HD under DOS, so the HD now come with installation disk. I've reloaded Window, fudge with the Master/Slave pin(now I just left it at the auto setting,) reloaded the installation disk. Formatted/Partitioned/reloaded the 7200 RPM drive a bunch of time. I've messed with the boot file too.

[JasonS]

Maybe I missed it but if you haven't already, make sure your new drive is jumpered for master and and replace the old one on the primary IDE channel with the new.

BTW, I'm new here, great site =)

Jason

[JasonS]

Ok, yeah I missed it, leave it set to master auto jumper settings can be flaky, make sure you are plugged into the primary IDE port (should be where your original drive cable was plugged in at). I will think more on it but that is basically all you can do.

Jason

Also, I believe you can boot directly from the XP disk so if you still have problems you can try doing that with only your new drive installed and re-install windows.

Other things i can think of, if you can access the new drive with the old drive installed then I do not believe it is a driver issue. If you cannot then look at what is displayed when you reboot the machine, right after the RAM count you should see it detecting and listing all you primary and secondary IDE devices. Make sure it see's the drive.

Make sure that if it is chained to any other devices, i.e. CD-ROM on the same cable (same IDE channel) that the CD is set to slave and HD to master.

HTH

[SaltyJim]

Vinh
This is not a driver issue. Drivers only affect the OS, which is not working at this time.

Unfortunately, as you have found out, the boot.ini file does nothing if the computer does not know where to look for it. In your case you will HAVE to reinstall and choose the repair function. This will reinstall the boot sector of the new drive that you want to use. Since you are removing an active booting drive with the boot secor containing boot information, you have to tell the comptuer where it can find the files to boot. I know I have run into this exact situation before with both Windows XP and Windows 2000. You will most likely not have to go through the entire setup process, just the short repair. I hope this helps you, or you *may* need to perform an "in-place" upgrade of windows to get it working again. You can find information about that from support.microsoft.com

Good luck,

Jim

[madmikey]

good evening all,
im a first time caller so be nice
i just have a couple of silly questions?
1) why not set the 5200 drive to be a master and the 7200 to be a slave ,boot the box, reformat the 7200 as d drive, copy the entire contents of c drive to d drive,shut down then remove c, reset the 7200 to master install it in place of c and reboot?

since the 5200 drive is slow it is prolly older and not so big ,the entire contents will fit on the 30 gig including the working copy of xp.
2) could you not install the 7200 drive alone and boot from a floppy boot disk? then reinstall xp. i know its a pain to rerun setup but i think you could do it like that too. iguess that is unless yer box has no floppy drive . does it?

anyway thanks fer listening to me spew awhile and i hope this might help

p.s, jimdbm


best of luck man
madmikey

[SaltyJim]

good evening all,
im a first time caller so be nice

Welcome to MAAST!

the entire contents will fit on the 30 gig including the working copy of xp.

Unfortunately, this will still leave the system in an unbootable state. Unless of course he uses Ghost or something that is able to do a sector to sector copy. * BTW Vinh I have if you need to borrow a copy*

This is just the unfortunate side effect of installing Windows :-D

Jim

[TexasState]

Thanks for the help. I managed to make the new Seagate drive boot up by itself without the present of the old 5200 RPM drive. Along with your suggestions, I found that the booting problem was because of some setting in the Bios. Setting the Primary drive 0 and drive 1 to both on "Auto" in the Bios will prevent drive 0 from booting up by itself. Leaving the Bios settting that way will generate a drive 1 not found error message. The system refused to boot up drive 0 b/c drive 1 is not found. Setting the Primary drive to "Auto" and drive 1 to "Off" allow the new drive to boot up by itself. I would've caught on to this quirk earlier if the Bios had sequenced the drive as 1 and 2, instead of 0 and 1. I installed a fresh copy of Window XP Home edition to hopefully reduce the drags in the system. I still have to find some quieter fans to replace the stock fans. If this system wasn't so cheap when I bought it, I would've made the manufacture eat the cost of the return & refund of the computer system.
I do have one more problem with this system. The computer would completely freeze when I try to use Microsoft Office to open a file in the floppy drive (A: drive.) The freeze is so severe that pressing Ctrl&Alt&Delete will have no effect. Pressing the On/Off button will have no effect. The computer will still stay on when I press the off button. The only way to reset the system is to pull the power cord out from the wall. I don't know why opening a file in the floppy drive would cause the system to freeze.