Vista doesn't start after unplug-replug my SATA drive

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Guest

I've browse thru some solution (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529) but
it doesn't match my issue.

I used to have dual boot with XP and Vista on a seperate hardrive one with
XP another with Vista. Used tobe fine, have a boot menu for getting into
both. However 2 days ago i decided to reload my XP. To reduce terrible
things that might happen I unplug my vista drive(SATA). Purely reinstall XP
on another IDE drive after reboot. THings went okay and i got many things
recovered. Then I plug back my vista drive into my computer to start.

Boot menu is gone. It starts XP straight without asking. Alright I read
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529) trying to get into vista but
wouldn't work. I get back into bios, select the SATA drive with vista
loaded for booting up first. I also have tried to remove my IDE drive the
one with XP loaded and only with the SATA drive the one with vista plugged
into my computer but still getting the same error from my motherboard saying
it couldn't find a bootable disc.

I am confused.
 
HapZungLam said:
I've browse thru some solution (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529)
but
it doesn't match my issue.

I used to have dual boot with XP and Vista on a seperate hardrive one with
XP another with Vista. Used tobe fine, have a boot menu for getting into
both. However 2 days ago i decided to reload my XP. To reduce terrible
things that might happen I unplug my vista drive(SATA). Purely reinstall
XP
on another IDE drive after reboot. THings went okay and i got many things
recovered. Then I plug back my vista drive into my computer to start.

Boot menu is gone. It starts XP straight without asking. Alright I read
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529) trying to get into vista but
wouldn't work. I get back into bios, select the SATA drive with vista
loaded for booting up first. I also have tried to remove my IDE drive the
one with XP loaded and only with the SATA drive the one with vista plugged
into my computer but still getting the same error from my motherboard
saying
it couldn't find a bootable disc.

I am confused.
Click to expand...

You probably have two problems. Others responded with possible solutions
for the boot info problem. This is about the possible drive letter problem.

With your old dual boot system, no matter which OS you booted up into, that
OS could see both drives (I'm assuming only one partition per drive). So
Vista might be installed on Drive C: and XP might be installed on Drive D:.
Vista's registry would have many entries pointing to files on Drive C:, and
XP's registry would have many entries pointing to Drive D:.

When you reinstalled XP, you disconnected Vista's drive, making XP's drive
letter change to C:. During the installation and possibly initial user
bootup, XP's registry was filled with references to drive C:. After
connecting the Vista drive, XP's drive is now letter D:, so all the
registry's references to C: are invalid.

Of course, if your old dual boot system had XP using the C: drive, then this
is not your problem.

-Paul Randall
 
Since you had the proper boot structure when you first installed Vista on
the system with a mix of IDE and SATA, you should be able to run start-up
repair, as stated before, maybe several times and you should be okay.
Since your first install of XP and this install of XP would have both
resulted in it being seen as the C drive from itself, and you are starting
over, everything should be fine there. You should also be okay with Vista
but you should double check to see that the XP drive has enumerates as the
same drive letter it had, otherwise you can change the drive lettering in
Drive Management.
I assume you are not hiding drives or you wouldn't have disconnected the
SATA drive, so you are aware that any time you boot into XP you lose your
restore points and shadow copies.
 
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