boot as master

  • Thread starter Thread starter Russ
  • Start date Start date
R

Russ

Hi,
I have two hard drives: one with Win 98 [Master] (Maxtor
30 GB) and one with Win XP Pro [Slave] (WD 80 MB); As
long as I have this config with my old system, I can
safely boot into either operating system. However, when
I make XP the master (and disconnect the other) and try
to boot up with only the XP drive installed, it doesn't
work. It actually tries to load Win 98 (which doesn't
exist) and fails--leaving me in DOS. Now, I've been
trying to use my XP harddrive with an uprgraded computer
and it doesn't work even in the original master/slave
configuration (gives files not found errors). For now it
looks like I need to use BOTH hardrives in my old
computer (AMD 1.2 GHz 500MB). I've tried the XP recovery
console, but it hasn't changed anything. Any ideas on
how to make this HD with XP boot on its own as master??
-Thanks-
 
You made a mistake when you installed XP with the old 9x partition/drive
in place. Your XP boot loader files are all on the 9x drive, so it can't
be removed. Your XP Windows folder is on the D: or E: drive and 9x is on
C:.

If you swap the XP drive into a new computer, you need to boot the XP CD
and run a repair on the detected Windows folder. Choose "install" and
then "repair". If that drive still won't boot, boot the XP CD and select
the first repair option and run "fixboot", "fixmbr" and "bootcfg
/rebuild" to restore your boot loader. If ntdetect.com and ntldr are
also missing you need to copy them over from the CD:

C:\>copy X:\i386\ntldr Y:\
C:\>copy X:\i386\ntdetect.com Y:\

where X is the CD drive and Y is the XP partition.
 
Back
Top