Hi, I have an old (AMD K6-2 350) computer running Windows 98, added a second hard drive some time ago. Recently decided to do new install of Windows, but wanted to keep my original boot drive as is until made sure everything is working, so removed it, left other drive in and made it "single", and installed Windows98 onto it. Installation went fine, booted up and looked OK, so I then made this drive the "master", put my original drive back in and set it to "slave", and computer will NOT boot up, just hangs in the middle of loading Windows. It will boot in Safe mode, have tried MSconfig to disable all startup files, with no luck. I can disconnect the second drive, set the first back to "single", and it still boots up fine. Only thing I see that I'm not sure of, when running fdisk, both drives show to have "active" partition, is this a problem and if so, how do you turn it off (only option in fdisk is to set it on)? Thanks for any help.
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Boot problem with 2 hard drives
- Thread starter chaztex
- Start date
Perfectly normal for both drives to have active partition - should cause your problem. What happens if you reverse the drives (so original is master again - but new one is connected as slave)? If this works, you could try reversing the boot order in the bios - so new one boots - to see if that worked - or use a third party boot manager (I use - free for personal use) to get the one you want to boot first.
Also, if you put them on separate IDE channels (so one is with the CD/DVD?)
Don't really know why this should have happened - from what you've said I'm presuming both drives jumpered correctly(btw, what are the 2 drives - interface - eg, PIO, ATAnn, size)?
Also, if you put them on separate IDE channels (so one is with the CD/DVD?)
Don't really know why this should have happened - from what you've said I'm presuming both drives jumpered correctly(btw, what are the 2 drives - interface - eg, PIO, ATAnn, size)?
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks for the reply. This has really gotten bizarre. I reversed the drives as you suggested, putting them back as they were originally, and when I turned it on it was running in the middle of the Windows setup! After that finished and it tried to start, it gave error messages about some system files missing on D: drive that the registry was referring to, but the drive running and booting from was actually C:
Tried booting several times and always got this result, after the above error messages it would then say something about "problems running gdi.exe, must reinstall Windows", and shut down.
Figured the registry had gotten hosed since it was referring to system files on D: instead of C:, so restored the registry, then it would boot, but will not bring up the windows screen or taskbar, just a blank screen with the mouse pointer. Booting to safe mode brings up the screen with "safe" at the corners and the mouse pointer, but no icons or task bar. Must have lost one (or more) system files but I've no idea which ones they'd be.
The drives as far as I know are EIDE, the original is a Fujitsu MPC3064AT, 6GB (came with computer), the one I added is a Western Digital WDC AC34300L, 4GB. Never had a bit of trouble when I originally installed it as a second drive. And the bios detects both of them correctly. I also tried your suggestion about reversing the boot order in the bios, acts the same as when I physically swith them. The WD will still boot if I make it single, but will not if it's master and Fujitsu is slave.
Tried booting several times and always got this result, after the above error messages it would then say something about "problems running gdi.exe, must reinstall Windows", and shut down.
Figured the registry had gotten hosed since it was referring to system files on D: instead of C:, so restored the registry, then it would boot, but will not bring up the windows screen or taskbar, just a blank screen with the mouse pointer. Booting to safe mode brings up the screen with "safe" at the corners and the mouse pointer, but no icons or task bar. Must have lost one (or more) system files but I've no idea which ones they'd be.
The drives as far as I know are EIDE, the original is a Fujitsu MPC3064AT, 6GB (came with computer), the one I added is a Western Digital WDC AC34300L, 4GB. Never had a bit of trouble when I originally installed it as a second drive. And the bios detects both of them correctly. I also tried your suggestion about reversing the boot order in the bios, acts the same as when I physically swith them. The WD will still boot if I make it single, but will not if it's master and Fujitsu is slave.
Are you adjusting the jumpers on the WD when booting with fujitsu as slave (WD drives have different settings for sole masters and dual master/slave setups) -
- Thread starter
- #5
Yes, I have been adjusting the jumpers on both drives as required, the jumper data is on the label on both drives, plus I have verified this data on their respective web-sites.
My original configuration was FJ as master, WD as slave, worked fine. After switching this to WD master, FJ slave, it has never worked correctly, and now will not work even switching back to the original configuration. It looks to me that somehow while installing Windows on WD, it somehow corrupted something on FJ. I know I am beating this to death but would like to understand what could have happened and how to prevent it in future.
Thanks
My original configuration was FJ as master, WD as slave, worked fine. After switching this to WD master, FJ slave, it has never worked correctly, and now will not work even switching back to the original configuration. It looks to me that somehow while installing Windows on WD, it somehow corrupted something on FJ. I know I am beating this to death but would like to understand what could have happened and how to prevent it in future.
Thanks
Totally puzzled!
Check out the msdos.sys file on the WD drive - does it look like ones here Or are there D rather than C entries?
Check out the msdos.sys file on the WD drive - does it look like ones here Or are there D rather than C entries?
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