Dgrin is great, but.....

Mitch · June 2, 2005

Hi all,

I am looking for a forum like Dgrin but that is computer related. Anybody know a place that is as friendly as Dgrin that will help with computer problems? I am usually pretty good at fixing what wrong with my machines. Seems like I need a little help.

My problem is I have a 30gb HD that was used the second drive. This was used in a dual boot system with XP Home on the 30gb. The main drive was a 60gb and it crashed. What I want to do is get the 30gb to boot to windows.

I have tried to repair windows using the XP CD. It will just not boot so I think it is the boot sector on the HD that is the problem.

Anyway if anyone know a helpful computer forum please let me know.

Thank,

Mitch

BridgeCity · June 2, 2005

Mitch wrote:

Hi all,

I am looking for a forum like Dgrin but that is computer related. Anybody know a place that is as friendly as Dgrin that will help with computer problems? I am usually pretty good at fixing what wrong with my machines. Seems like I need a little help.

My problem is I have a 30gb HD that was used the second drive. This was used in a dual boot system with XP Home on the 30gb. The main drive was a 60gb and it crashed. What I want to do is get the 30gb to boot to windows.

I have tried to repair windows using the XP CD. It will just not boot so I think it is the boot sector on the HD that is the problem.

Anyway if anyone know a helpful computer forum please let me know.

Thank,

Mitch

You will need to enter the BIOS at startup. Turn off the computer and turn it back on and (depending on your motherboard) you will need to hit delete. Some computers are delete, some are F2... when you first boot up and the computer either counts the RAM or shows a startup screen, you need to push whatever button it is. It should say something like "Push F2 to enter setup" or something similar.

Once there you need to find the Boot order. Should be able to change from Primary IDE to Secondary IDE or something similar. You can also just unplug the 60gig HD and change the pin on the 30gig to be master.

If this is confusing.. then it probably is lol... let me know if you need more help

I don't know how much knowledge you have of the BIOS system, so i might need to go in to more details.

Mongrel · June 2, 2005

Well...
You could try:

www.anandtech.com forums
www.sharkyextreme.com forums

Or search for 'Sysopt' or 'PCMechanic' and try their forums, oh yea, ExtremeTech.com has a forum also. I do go to the above occasionally, but I can't vouch for their 'friendliness' pe se. I usually lurk and try to find what I need without joining up, you can get a feel for how they are by reading over the posts. Most times their pretty friendly with new members so they shouldn't be too rough on 'ya

As far as your problem goes, if I'm understanding you correctly-

You have a dual boot system with one OS on the 60GB that 'crashed' and Windows XP Home on the 30GB that 'didn't' crash.

Now the 30GB WinXP Home won't boot either? Or am I misunderstanding something?

IF-the 30Gb is OK, can you set the jumper to make it the master? As long as the OS on the 30Gb is not damaged you should be able to switch the IDE or SATA cable and the jumper to make it the master HD.

If you can do this, then set the 60GB as a 'slave' and the 30GB should pick it up as a second drive. Then use the 30GB to pick over the data on the 60GB and see if you can rescue what you need.

Perhaps, if I am misunderstanding your situation you could give us some more info and maybe a 'friendly dgrinner' could help you out?

I faced a similar situation recently (which is one reason I've been away for a while actually...). What I did was pick up a new 160GB Seagate IDE hard drive for $60 after rebates, and started from scratch. It was easier and cleaner in the long run, and I was able to pull everything I needed off the drive that refused to boot. You may want to consider something along these lines as storage prices are very reasonable right now.

Hopefully this was of some help, keep us posted...

Mongrel

BridgeCity · June 2, 2005

Mongrel wrote:

You could try:

www.anandtech.com forums
www.sharkyextreme.com forums

Or search for 'Sysopt' or 'PCMechanic' and try their forums, oh yea, ExtremeTech.com has a forum also. I do go to the above occasionally, but I can't vouch for their 'friendliness' pe se. I usually lurk and try to find what I need without joining up, you can get a feel for how they are by reading over the posts. Most times their pretty friendly with new members so they shouldn't be too rough on 'ya

As far as your problem goes, if I'm understanding you correctly-

You have a dual boot system with one OS on the 60GB that 'crashed' and Windows XP Home on the 30GB that 'didn't' crash.

Now the 30GB WinXP Home won't boot either? Or am I misunderstanding something?

IF-the 30Gb is OK, can you set the jumper to make it the master? As long as the OS on the 30Gb is not damaged you should be able to switch the IDE or SATA cable and the jumper to make it the master HD.

If you can do this, then set the 60GB as a 'slave' and the 30GB should pick it up as a second drive. Then use the 30GB to pick over the data on the 60GB and see if you can rescue what you need.

Perhaps, if I am misunderstanding your situation you could give us some more info and maybe a 'friendly dgrinner' could help you out?

I faced a similar situation recently (which is one reason I've been away for a while actually...). What I did was pick up a new 160GB Seagate IDE hard drive for $60 after rebates, and started from scratch. It was easier and cleaner in the long run, and I was able to pull everything I needed off the drive that refused to boot. You may want to consider something along these lines as storage prices are very reasonable right now.

Hopefully this was of some help, keep us posted...

Mongrel

:dgrin

Mitch · June 2, 2005

BridgeCity,

Thanks for the reply. I've pulled the 30 out of the box it was in and put it into another. BIOS is set correctly. HD will just not boot. I think it is because the 30 was put in as a second drive and never setup to boot from. I tried repair on the XP cd but no go. I may be wrong but I think I need to put a boot sector on the HD. The funny thing is I do not get the error message that says put something bootable in and hit any key.

Thanks

Mitch

John Mueller · June 2, 2005

Hi Mitch,
This is the best forum that I have found and has helped me with many problems.

http://forums.techguy.org/index.php?

BridgeCity · June 2, 2005

Mitch wrote:

BridgeCity,

Thanks for the reply. I've pulled the 30 out of the box it was in and put it into another. BIOS is set correctly. HD will just not boot. I think it is because the 30 was put in as a second drive and never setup to boot from. I tried repair on the XP cd but no go. I may be wrong but I think I need to put a boot sector on the HD. The funny thing is I do not get the error message that says put something bootable in and hit any key.

Thanks

Mitch

Well if the dual boot information was contained in the 60gig and the 30gig was simply setup as extra storage, then you will not be able to boot from it. It is possible to create another partition, install windows, and recover whatever is left on the HD, but it sounds to me like it will be difficult to do.

Mitch · June 2, 2005

There is some software on the 30gb that I would like to keep. The problem is I have no idea what I did with the key code.

I can stick the HD into an externial case and pull everything off of it and not loose any data. In fact I have done that with with both the 30 and 60 so I know both still work. I just copied every thing on both drives, pulled the 30 out, fdisked the 60 and re installed windows not thinking that the 30 may not stand alone.

Mitch

BridgeCity · June 2, 2005

Mitch wrote:

There is some software on the 30gb that I would like to keep. The problem is I have no idea what I did with the key code.

I can stick the HD into an externial case and pull everything off of it and not loose any data. In fact I have done that with with both the 30 and 60 so I know both still work. I just copied every thing on both drives, pulled the 30 out, fdisked the 60 and re installed windows not thinking that the 30 may not stand alone.

Mitch

The 30 sounds like it was just added for extra space. Sounds like you have all that you need, just sounds like you had a currupt boot sector or something..

Mitch · June 2, 2005

Windows XP was insalled on the 30 as a dual boot. Yes the 60 was used as the boot disk and the dual boot info was on it, but XP is installed on the 30.

Mitch

Mongrel · June 2, 2005

If XP is installed on the 30GB I can't think of any reason why it will not boot-UNLESS the jumper is installed wrong, it is not installed on the cable properly, or XP is corrupted (on both drives).

I have never heard of a 'partial' install of an OS, where the MBR (master boot record) or other 'boot necessary files' are on one hard drive and the 'rest' of the OS is on another. You can setup a dual boot using one hard drive and TWO partitions, but that doesn't sound like that's it in your case.

Did you double check your jumper setting and cable on the 30GB?

tlittleton · June 2, 2005

Mitch wrote:

Windows XP was insalled on the 30 as a dual boot. Yes the 60 was used as the boot disk and the dual boot info was on it, but XP is installed on the 30.

Mitch

Here's a question:

What OS was installed on the 60GB. You say XP was on the 30. Did you have something else on the 60? Linux perhaps?

Also, on a dual boot system, even if you install the OS to a second physical hard drive, there are hidden system files that tell the PC what OS to boot. If that file was on the 60GB drive, then the computer will not know to boot to the 30GB drive even though there is a viable OS on it. That could explain why the XP CD con't repair the install, because the files it's looking for are on the drive that crashed.

I've dealt with this at work, but I have multiple images for our PCs and I just reload a fresh hard drive.

Dgrin is great, but.....

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