Uninstalling a slave hard drive problems

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Guest

After installing a second (slave) hard drive to my
computer to load an OS onto it, I have removed it and put
it into another computer. However, on start up, the
computer still asks me which Windows I would like to load
(or which HD). If I select the one that is still there
(the master) it loads fine, and 'my computer' doesnt
display the second hard drive that was removed. However
if I select the second hard drive that isnt actually
there, it wont load as it cant detect it. How do I remove
this question from the start up? BIOS says there is no
second hard drive so why does it ask me which one I want
to load?

Any help would be great!
Thanks
 
use notepad to edit the Boot.ini file and remove the line that refers to the
missing HD
peter
 
Thanks for that. Although I cant find the boot.ini file.
Where should it be located?

Thanks again!
 
Okay now Ive really stuffed it up. Found boot.ini,
deleted the wrong line!

So I figured I just connect the IDE cable differently and
connected the hard drive to where the second one used to
be. This hasnt worked.

Please help!
 
Maybe you have a boot ini backup on your system. Just go to START use the
search or find, in all files and folders and look for BOOT. It won't be
called boot.ini though. Mine is called boot.ini.backup , backup is incleded
in the file name.
Hope this helps,
Donna J.
 
look behind your drive and switch it from master to slav
hope I unterstand your prob correctly
 
Thanks, I would except it wont even load windows now.
Thanks anyway though!
-----Original Message-----
Maybe you have a boot ini backup on your system. Just go to START use the
search or find, in all files and folders and look for BOOT. It won't be
called boot.ini though. Mine is called
Click to expand...
boot.ini.backup , backup is incleded
 
I only have one hard drive in there which should be the
master. If I switch it to slave there will be no master
drive? Is this still correct?

Thanks
 
I can enter BIOS, but after that it just displays the
message that the hard drive is not available.
 
You should be able to get into Safe Mode if you can get into the BIOS. On my
PC I press the F8 key to access Safe Mode , yours might be the same. As soon
as you reboot start pushing the F8 and see if you can find that
boot.ini.backup. I don't know how you got to your boot.ini file before to
delete it, but I go to START, RUN and type in MSCONFIG, you will see a
folder with several tabs at the top, one of them is the Boot.ini. Theres a
button on this page that says "Check All Boot Paths" It will tell you if it
is correct or not. Compare this file with the boot.ini.backup that you
searched for. Just think this out and take your time. It is so easy to make
a mistake. You can do it. They also have a helpfile there in the MSCONFIG
file for you to work with.
Let us know how it goes,
Donna J.
 
Ok
put your HD back in IDE 1 where it belongs.
seeing as you removed the line that tells the system where to look for the OS
you'll have to recreate
********************************************************************************
**********************
Try booting up using the XP CD-ROM and choose to repair. Then choose the
Recovery Console Option...
Choose the number corresponding to your XP version and enter your
Administrator Password (then press enter).

After that you'll see a command prompt...enter the following command:

1..bootcfg /rebuild" command to fix boot.ini.
2... FIXBOOT will fix the boot sector on the boot drive,
3... FIXMBR will fix the master boot record if the NT loader
complains of a missing HAL or unmountable boot volume.

After the process is completed enter the command EXIT to quit (and the
system should auto reboot OK from that point onwards...
DO number1 first that will rebuild the boot.ini file
You should be able to start XP from then on without having to do #2 or #3
let us know!!
peter
 
Oops I forgot something
The reason it did not boot when you moved HD1 to position2 is because when you
installed that 2nd instance of XP onto HD2 it wrote and changed the boot sector
of HD1.When you Changed HD1 into position 2 you also have to tell the BIOS which
HD should be first normally a BIOS defaults to just drive A as 1st boot and
drive C as 2nd boot.....and stops there.It does not normally add HD to the boot
order as you add the physical drive to the system.
peter
 
yes that worked! Thankyou so much.

I did step 1 and it took me to the same select os option,
but instead it had "1" or "Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition". Im not sure how I did that but I went into
boot.ini again and deleted the proper line!

Thanks again
 
Glad to see we got you up and running again
peter
yes that worked! Thankyou so much.

I did step 1 and it took me to the same select os option,
but instead it had "1" or "Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition". Im not sure how I did that but I went into
boot.ini again and deleted the proper line!

Thanks again
Click to expand...
 
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