C drive is not first disk...

[Ian R]

Hi

When I first built my system I only had one drive (WD1500) and OS and Apps
installed without any problems.

Its currently configured with C as the primary drive plus extended partition
with three logical drives

I've since added more physical drives (a mix of SATA and IDE).

I later realised that although I thought the WD1500 was my first physical
drive it actually shows up in LDM as disk 3. I think its connected to SATA 3
instead of SATA 1.

Its only a problem now because I want to install a second instance of XP Pro
(to dual boot) and it doesn't see the existing installation. I suspect
because C is not the first physical drive.

If I simply move the SATA connector from 3 to 1 is that likely to cause my
current install of XP Pro to object or would you expect it to carry on as
usual?

I don't want to risk corrupting my current install so thought I'd ask first.

Thanks for any info

Ian

 

[Timothy Daniels]

When I first built my system I only had one drive (WD1500)
and OS and Apps installed without any problems.

Its currently configured with C as the primary drive plus
extended partition with three logical drives

I've since added more physical drives (a mix of SATA
and IDE).

I later realised that although I thought the WD1500 was
my first physical drive it actually shows up in LDM as disk 3.
I think its connected to SATA 3 instead of SATA 1.

From what I read, the SATA HDs have numbering
precedence over PATA HDs. When you included
SATA HDs in the system, the PATA (i.e. IDE) HD's
number got bumped higher.

What does "LDM" stand for?

Its only a problem now because I want to install a second
instance of XP Pro (to dual boot) and it doesn't see the
existing installation. I suspect because C is not the first
physical drive.

What do you mean by "doesn't see the existing installation"?
Do you mean that the installer doesn't include an ARC path
entry in boot.ini that points to the 1st XP?

In evaluating the correctness of the boot.ini entries,
it helps to know that most BIOSes have, in addition to
the device boot order, an ordered list that is the Hard
Drive Boot Order. This HD Boot Order is the ordered
list of HDs that defines "rdisk()" in the boot.ini file's listing
of OS paths. That is, "rdisk(0)" stands for the 1st HD in
the list, i.e. the HD at position 0. This is the HD whose
MBR gets control at boot time. "rdisk(1)" stands for
the next HD in the HD Boot Order, the one at position 1,
"rdisk(2)" stands for the HD at position 2, and "rdisk(3)"
stands for the HD at position 3.

If I simply move the SATA connector from 3 to 1 is that
likely to cause my current install of XP Pro to object or
would you expect it to carry on as usual?

I don't want to risk corrupting my current install so thought
I'd ask first.

The place to ask how to tell the installer in which partition
to put a 2nd WinXP is:
microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
But expect a lot of partially right answers.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi

When I first built my system I only had one drive (WD1500) and OS and Apps
installed without any problems.

Its currently configured with C as the primary drive plus extended partition
with three logical drives

I've since added more physical drives (a mix of SATA and IDE).

I later realised that although I thought the WD1500 was my first physical
drive it actually shows up in LDM as disk 3. I think its connected to SATA 3
instead of SATA 1.

Its only a problem now because I want to install a second instance of XP Pro
(to dual boot) and it doesn't see the existing installation. I suspect
because C is not the first physical drive.

If I simply move the SATA connector from 3 to 1 is that likely to cause my
current install of XP Pro to object or would you expect it to carry on as
usual?

I don't want to risk corrupting my current install so thought I'd ask first.

Well, I would say if it boots, then it should be fine. But better do a
complete backup before. You have backups anyways, right?

Arno

 

[Timothy Daniels]

....although I thought the WD1500 was my first physical
drive it actually shows up in LDM as disk 3. I think its
connected to SATA 3 instead of SATA 1.

You think. Well, which connector IS it? Isn't there an
indication on the motherboard? You don't say whether
your WD1500 is SATA or PATA (i.e. "IDE"). What
IS it?

Its only a problem now because I want to install a second instance
of XP Pro (to dual boot) and it doesn't see the existing installation
I suspect because C is not the first physical drive.

The installer doesn't care what physical hard drive it installs on.

If I simply move the SATA connector from 3 to 1 is that likely
to cause my current install of XP Pro to object or would you
expect it to carry on as usual?

If the WD1500 is the HD containing the boot files, moving it
with other HDs in the system will confuse ntlder because the
"rdisk()" parameters in the ARC paths in boot.ini file entries
will refer to the wrong HDs. Right now, with only one OS
and one HD, moving it will not change the meaning of "rdisk(0)"
in the ARC paths - "rdisk(0)" will always refer to the same HD,
no matter what connector it is on. For the existing WinXP to
be booted, its HD must always be at the head of the HD Boot
Order in order for "rdisk(0)" to specify it.

For an intelligent reply (in this NG or any other), you'll need to
tell us more. How many PATA channels are there? How many
SATA channels are there? Is the WC1500 SATA or PATA?
What is connected to what channel?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

When I first built my system I only had one drive (WD1500)
and OS and Apps installed without any problems.

What are the contents of its C:\boot.ini file?

*TimDaniels*