New Hard Disk Problem (!!!!!!!)

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tomsega

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I got a new hard drive today, and I've already installed XP on it.

When I have the old disk set to 1st boot device and the new one set to 2nd, it says at startup that there are two operating systems to choose from, and when I choose the new disk, it works fine.

However, if I try and set the new disk to 1st boot device as well as primary (so that it shouldn't ask me and goes straight to the XP on the new disk), it says 'Boot device error'!!




Why would it run okay when it is the secondary boot device and it is SELECTED as the operating system to run, when it doesn't run okay when it is the FIRST boot device and it should run automatically?!?!
 
tomsega.

What menu are you booting from - the motherboard menu or the Windows boot menu?

Covenant
 
Its the Windows boot menu, I think.

The same one that asks if you would like to boot from safe mode.
 
< set the new disk to 1st boot device as well as primary>
Sorry but I don't quite understand what you are doing here or how you are going about it. Are you setting the device as the primary from within the bios?Apologies for being a little dense.

Assuming you can boot from either device why not try altering the boot.ini file.

Covenant
 
At the moment my old drive is physically set to secondary with the jumper, and the new one is set to primary. In the BIOS, the boot device order goes

1. HDD
2. HDD
3. CD-ROM
4. REMOVABLE

Then in the hard disk boot order menu it goes

1. Seagate (Old drive)
2. Deskstar (New Drive)
3. Removable (n/a)

As this stands, when windows starts the OS selection menu appears, showing the copy of windows XP that is on both disks. Either can be selected, and the new drive works fine when it is.

However, if I place the hard disk boot order so that Deskstar appears FIRST, it says 'boot disk error' before getting to the OS selection menu, regardless of the fact that it is set to primary.



How do I access the boot.ini file, and will it be useful?
 
Boot.ini is the Windows boot manager and is a hidden file in the root directory on the C drive. After having a quick think, you could try using msconfig and check the boot paths.

Covenant
 
Ahaa!

Tis fixed now.

Thanks for reminding me that MSconfig existed! It helped me get rid of some unwanted startups, and pointed me in the right direction of what eventually solved the problem.

Basically I just had to go into the boot.ini file and delete the second line that showed the second operating system on the old disk.

Also, by going into system settings/startup and recovery/ you can simply select how long the OS Selection screen sticks around for, so even if I couldn't solve the problem, setting it to 3 second or something would have been helpful.

Cheersies.
 
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