Greetings Peeps! XP Problem when moving HDD

[MaxxGirth]

I'm about ready to drop kick a PC here... Bear with me.
I build a sweet XP Pro load... all the updates, all the good software, utilities, etc... on a Dell GX270.
Once it's all complete, running sweetly, perfectly de-fragged, etc..., I remove all reasonable h'ware from the device mangler, shut down, and save a ghost image of the drive for posterity.
I want to ship this HDD to my old man, to save the hours of phone support needed to walk him through all of the above.
He has a Dell Dimension 4100.
The drive hits his system, and hangs before the XP splash...
Even in safe mode, the last line seen is mup.sys, of course.
Then it simply hangs.
He has sufficient H'ware to run XP... I've run it on FAR less...
I loaded the image I saved to another, Identical, HDD, and tested.
When in the GX270, where it was built, it fires up, finds h'ware, and does its thing beautifully.
However, if I take the HDD and toss it at a Compaq Deskpro,
I get "ntldr missing"
Put it back in the GX270, and it's happy there.
I use ghost all the time at the office, and load Dells, IBMs, etc... this way, with no significant problems.
To wrap it up, I just want to "Finish" a good XP Pro build, and then ship it to my Dad to drop in his Dimension.
Then shake out any driver issues that may arise.
I told him I could make it happen...
Why is there egg on my face?
You guys all ROCK, and any help here is greatly appreciated.



I think it's a shame that entire families can be torn apart by something as simple as wild dogs...!

 

[gpalmer711]

When you are installing XP on the HD is it set as the C: drive? If not this would cause problems as i'm guessing the machine your old man is using only has one HD.

Is the bios on your dads machine auto detecting the HD(s) or is it set to look for the old HD as again this would cause problems.

You can try fixing the Boot MBR by entering the recovery console and running the FixBoot command. You can find more information here

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prkd_tro_bohs.asp

Greg Palmer

----------------------------------------
Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[MaxxGirth]

Yes...
Built as C:
Old mans system picks up the HDD properly (Pri Master)
I tried the recovery console trick here, with the second hdd, and still get the ntldr missing when I try to put it in the compaq.

I think it's a shame that entire families can be torn apart by something as simple as wild dogs...!

 

[jsauce]

How old is this compaq? All newer compaqs within the last year or so are basically made so that they only work with the hardware that was included in them. Compaq installs part of its bios onto a seperate hidden partition and also makes it so the motherboard only works with the hard drive installed with the system. Its terrible and its one reason I never recommend compaqs anymore.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[MaxxGirth]

Yeah, I hear ya about the compaqs...
This one is a deskpro, prolly built in 1999, or 2000.
Should not be a problem.
This is driving me crazy.
It feels like I'm missing something stupid.
This should be quite easy, I would've thought.
But Noooooooo....

I think it's a shame that entire families can be torn apart by something as simple as wild dogs...!

 

[jsauce]

NTLDR is missing can indicate a few different problems. All of them are very annoying.

The most common are that the system is booting from a non-bootable source, corrupt NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM, incorrect boot.ini file, or corrupt installation.

You said that you tried using the recovery console to fix the boot. Did you use the FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands? Have you tried bootcfg /scan to have the recovery console scan the drives and see where the installations are if any at all. The problem could be that even though you have the drive in properly the boot.ini file is pointing to the wrong installation or the wrong physical disk and/or partition. It may be that when the system boots up it scans the C: drive and finds the system but then cannot locate the actual installation. It could also be that the boot files themselves are not there or corrupted.

Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.

Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.

Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.

You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.

Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. If your cdrom drive is E: copy like this:

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:
copy ntdetect.com c:

Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

You could also try inserting the windows xp cd in the drive and running a repair installation so that Windows can try and install it correctly. Although it should work with what you have done.

Thats what happens with these cheap integrated mass produced computers from companies like compaq, dell and gateway. Its just something you have to get used to.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[MaxxGirth]

Thanks, friend.
I will try these ideas this evening.
If I'm not mistaken, I only tried "fixmbr"
I'll post again after trying your advice.
Thanks again.

I think it's a shame that entire families can be torn apart by something as simple as wild dogs...!

 

[bcastner]

jsauce provided advice above, but I honestly think your plan will never work.


Possibly, maybe, but I think you are stuffed on this deal:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/win2k.htm

This would work perfectly for Win98 SE, but I really believe it cannot work for XP.