Waz up I'm having a problem that takes some explaining, so bear with me. I had some trouble with my comp, and was forced to reinstall Windows. I installed a new version without erasing the old one (because I wanted to recover my files). The old version is on a 100 GB drive, and the new version on a 160 GB drive. Each drive has a number of partitions. My system recognized two bootable partitions (obviously), each on a separate drive, so I edited my boot.ini file and removed the old version as an option. The partition is still physically there and bootable, I just made it so you can't choose it. My system boots the new installation from the 160 GB drive automatically; it loads and everything, no problem. Here's the problem; when I enter my BIOS and set the 160 GB partition as the primary boot device, nothing loads and the comp just sits there: I have to choose the 100 GB drive (even though the Windows version that ends up loading is on the 160 GB drive). My question is why can't I set the 160 GB drive as the primary boot device? I'm considering formatting the partition on the 100 GB drive that has Windows on it, but I'm afraid my system won't boot at all if I do. Anybody know how to set this right?
where both hard drives where plugged into the computer when windows was installed onto the second drive?... I've had this problem before, the problem boot sector containing the data your computer needs to start the copy of windows on the second drive, has been written to the first drive (so when you take it out, or change the boot order the computer doesn't know where the OS). You can fix this by doing the following unplug the old hard drive, we dont want it interfering anymore than it already has! boot the computer from the windows install cd enter the recovery console (Instructions here) use the command "FIXBOOT" and answer y this will create a boot partition with the needed details for windows to start off the second drive, you can now select the second drive as the one to boot from (and format the 1st drive if you want to use it for extra storage space).
Thanks man, that's thorough advice and sounds like it should work. I totally forgot about fixboot; I installed Linux on my system about 2 weeks ago and in the course of setting up I came across some references to fixboot (I set it up for dual-boot, and I needed to load the right file in the MBR). It slipped my mind. I was thinking of using partition software to disable the old boot sector, but using fixboot sounds easier. I still need to get the data off the old Windows version before I format the partition though; if I follow those instructions, you think I can reconnect the drive and get the data, or will it get screwed up again?
You will be able to connect the drive back up again no problems, the data in the boot sectors of both drives will let you boot the installation on the 2nd drive. just make sure the 2nd drive is before the 1st drive in the boot order before you format it. If you don't the BIOS will, hopefully, just move onto the next drive... but it will take longer, after I've finished installing any operating system i normally set the hard drive to be first in the boot sequence (means the BIOS doesn't waste time looking on CDs etc) if you believe the problems with your previous installation where virus related, i would make sure your not copying any executables (use the search facility on the folders you plan on copying for .exe and delete any results to be safe, or if you need the files make sure you scan them). At first i was looking for a way to install grub from windows, as i had also forgotten about FIXBOOT...
u can also use vistabootPro. type it into google and it will direct u to something like vistabootpro.com.
Impotence: I tried what you suggested, but it's a no-go. I unplugged the drive, entered the recovery console and used fixboot. Then I changed the primary boot drive in my BIOS and booted: "NTLDR is missing" is the message I get. I'm not sure if this might be related, but I swapped the SATA ports before using fixboot; the 100 GB drive used to be the primary and the 160 GB (which is the one with the Windows partition I want to boot from) was the secondary. Maybe I should run fixboot with the ports as they were, or maybe it makes no diff and something else is the problem...I don't know.
This happens quite alot with windows How to troubleshoot the "NTLDR Is Missing" error message in Windows 2000
