Installing SATA HDD on Dell 4600 1

[Dale4j]

I installed a WD 250GB SATA drive. It seemed to work fine. I then used Norton Ghost 10.0 to copy my C drive to the SATA drive using the options to add the boot record and create an active partition.
When I rebooted I got a message that there was no boot record found. I was able to boot again by disabling the new HD in BIOS but even though I reformatted the drive I still can have it active. My BIOS boot setting list only "HARD DRIVE". I think that the system tries to boot from the SATA drive if it's active.
Any suggestions?
Dalej

 

[paparazi]

Was the original hard drive IDE? maybe you need a SATA controller driver installing for Windows to recognise the new drive.
Is SATA enabled in the bios?
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[Dale4j]

Yes, the original HD was IDE. I connected the new one to the SATA port on the motherboard. If I enable the SATA drive the system won't start -- gives the "NTLDR is missing" message. If I disable SATA it starts normally.
When I first installed the SATA drive it booted normally and I could use both drives.
I can't find any SATA drivers on the Dell site but since it worked originally I assumed that I didn't need them.
Dale

 

[CertInProgress]

I was just told by a good friend of mine he had the same exact issue and for some reason the 4600 would not accept the SATA drive AT ALL after it was ghosted. When it did briefly work it was recognized as the master drive and would only boot from that drive, no others. After it was reformatted and booted from, it brought up the "blue screen of death" every few minutes. Dont know if that helps., just thought i'd relay it.

Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork.
-Sam Ewing-

 

[Dale4j]

Thanks, Sam. It does seem to be the same problem I'm having. I did try again, using the HD mfr CD to format and copy the IDE drive to the new one. When I rebooted I disabled the IDE drive and left the SATA active. No messages, just a cursor on the top left of the screen. When I make both drives active same thing. When only the IDE is active it works. I'm going to try again to repair the MBR on the SATA HD using the Western Digital CD. If that doesn't work I'll email WD and see what they can do.
Thanks,
Dale

 

[wolluf]

Dale.

Can I just clarify what I think you're doing?

You have an IDE drive with XP on it.

You've copied the IDE drive to a SATA drive and are now trying to boot from the SATA drive?

If this is the case, then the problem is drivers - you'll need to do a repair reinstall on the SATA drive, pressing F6 at beginning when prompted and supplying the SATA drivers on a floppy when prompted. If you do this make sure IDE drive not connected. Best done with SP2 install CD (assuming you're running SP2 - you can create one if necessary - eg, see

http://www.nliteos.com)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

(second option)

 

[Dale4j]

Yes, that's right.
I have checked the Dell site and have not found SATA drivers for the 4600. How can I find the drivers?
I have started over, reformatting the drive and using a copy utility that Western Digital furnished with the drive. It seems to work until it reaches 96% then says that an error occurred and that not all of the files are copied. Of course, the drive will not boot.
Thanks,
Dale

 

[firewolfrl]

OK...First I do not think you have a driver issue ...for the moment...

What you have is purely a MBR issue

Your SATA is Drive D:\ or above in the MBR now...the Windows clone you made refers to Drive C:\ in the registry

if you had done a direct clone without making the partition and active disk it may have worked....this is not specific to any manufacturer

This is real important...if the IDE has a hidden partition in the front of the drive that contains the recovery partition for the Dell you need to clone that too.

A Complete copy of the IDE to SATA is best in this type of scenario

I have not used Norton Ghost in a long while because I find it not as reliable as the partition magic or the Acronis products

first I need to know if you are using the clone procedure in the Windows or the DOS enviroment?????...and how you did do the MBR??????? DID YOU USE A CD OR FLOPPY?

I know for sure you have to start over on the SATA
download Maxtor's Powermax (it doesn't matter the drive manufacturer)

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Maxtor_Powermax_d1386.html

or you can go to the Seagate page and download the Seatools

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

As on this time I have not really tested or tried the Seatools and I will stay with Powermax till it doesn't work anymore on systems I am working on.

make a Bootable ghost CD or Floppy

disconnect the IDE drive physically ...make sure the IDE cable is not connected

Zero the SATA drive completely

reconnect IDE do not boot to windows

Go into the BIOS and make sure the boot order is for the SATA first (if it gives that option)

load the Norton Ghost CD/Floppy

Do a straight clone of the IDE to the SATA

It will see the SATA drive is empty and do the right stuff

when it reboots turn the machine off before it boots to the windows stage of loading (very important)

unplug the IDE drive

boot the machine and let it find the hardware in windows

if it does not boot to windows you should look into a different clone software

if you Google Hiren's Boot Cd ...that should help you...I will not post the link

I am tired when I typed this but it gets you on a good start

 

[firewolfrl]

LOL...I read through the post some more and think the Zeroing of the drive will help the best

Did you format the IDE or does it still have all its data?

before you clone your data from the IDE to the SATA:
If the drive still has its data you need to load a Windows CD and go to the recovery console
run
CHKDSK /R

it sounds like you have a couple of bad spots that need to be fixed before you do the copy


Just to note ...I think the WD utility for disk cloning is crap

one of the things I keep seeing you do in this post you keep trying to create partitions then cloning

you have a better success rate if you have a completely empty drive with no boot record and no partitions in place

then when you clone the drive it will be an exact copy of the orginal partition including the PID needed so you may not need to reactivate windows

using ghost you should be able to clone the partition without having to create a new partition before you do the clone....the Clone itself will be the new partition


I believe that you are doing is you create the primary partition first then you clone over that partition and that creates an issue in the MBR where it is still pointing to the no longer existing partition of D:\ (example drive letter) and the clone MBR record is reverted to read as the wrong drive letter

NTFS
[Bootsector::MBR:::oint at D:\)]...(cloned windows partition D:\)..[secondary MBR)...(end of drive)

IDE drive refers to C:

you may have multible MBR errors now on the drive

this may help
Beginners Guides: Cloning WindowsXP

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=418&page=1

Radified Guide to Norton Ghost (Symantec) - A Tutorial on How to Clone Hard Disk Drives

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_4.htm

 

[Dale4j]

Thank you so much. I think that you've nailed my problem. I thought that Ghost cloned a drive but it did not copy that hidden partition on the C drive that Dell put in.
Now, you mention "zeroing a drive". I'm familiar with formating and overwriting but I get the impression that you're talking about removing the formating.
How do I "zero" my new drive?
Thanks again,
Dale

 

[firewolfrl]

download the Powermax software

This site will help in making a bootable CD or Floppy

AnswersThatWork's Boot Disk downloads - The best boot disks on the Internet

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_bootdisks.htm

I have used NERO in the past to create a bootable CD from a floppy image...That is needed if you don't have a floppy drive



either way that should help

once you boot up to the Powermax it is self explanatory on the zeroing of the SATA drive...do the full setting


on the WD Utility CD it may be called Low Level format...

I have not used the WD utility in a while so I can't really say....LOL

You really need to read the last 2 links from the previous post about cloning

 

[Dale4j]

Thanks. I have done a low level format and have read the links. I'm ready to start over with much more knowledge.
Dale

 

[Dale4j]

Update -- Everything is working. I think that the main problem was that I formatted the drive before I did the copy.
Thanks for the help.
Dale