OS Not reconized

[JustinCM]

Hi. I installed XP on a slave drive, then took the master out to use for another PC. So i switched the slave to master, but it wont load up. It had a successfull installation of XP but when i boot from HD it says "No OS Found". I went to the "Repair" section of the XP CD, and did the "Bootcfg /repair" but that didnt help.

Whats odd though, the slave's OS does load up when i have it as slave, but when its connected as Master, the motherboard doesnt reconize it's OS. Please Help.

 

[kestrel1]

You will probably need to do a repair install of the OS. The OS has got confused because it wants to boot from the slave & not the master, because that is how it was setup originaly.
I would think a repair install will sort it out.

 

[JustinCM]

The only way i can get the XP CD to reconize the Slave's OS is by hooking up the original master HD, then running the XP CD. Cause the XP CD wont reconize the Slave's OS if it is hooked up as the Master. I could probably do a repair as your suggested, but it would be repaired while its connected as slave. Would that still fix the problem?

 

[kestrel1]

No I don't think it will. You may have to bite the bullet & do a new install. Unless anyone else has any good ideas that I aint thought of, which is very possible. It has been a long week so far.

 

[JustinCM]

I need to be able to do a repair or clean install, while its connected as Master. But thats the problem, i cant get the XP CD to find a OS when its hooked up as Master.


Another way i was thinking is.... Take the slave out of that PC, and hook it up as slave to my main PC (that im using now) and re-install XP while its on THIS PC. Then hook it up as master on the original PC and hope it gets reconized, so that i can re-install it again on THAT PC. What do you think?

 

[kestrel1]

Nope, sorry mate that just wont work. If you do this you will have the same problem.
There is a file that determines the boot options. If the OS is on the first partition of the first drive the default looks like this:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
I think with a slave setup there would be another option thus:
default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
Not sure if this is entirely correct, but that is the general idea. A new install would sort it out as the OS does not need to be recognised, as you can formet the drive & get rid of existing partitions.

 

[Lemon13]

just 2 my understanding
u had a working os (xp) on c: partition, then u did a new install on a slave drive (whatever partition, not c, right?

so, when u now take out the master and change the slave to be the master the slave will get another drive letter, but in registry all paths point still to the old (not c target, so it´s no wonder it cant load.
besides that there are several other issues that prevent the os from booting in that config.+

solution, do a image of the c: drive, make the slave to the master and put the image on it, that´ll work

 

[wolluf]

The first problem here is that both installations were using the boot sector on the master drive - so when you removed that there is NO boot sector - so obviously XP can't boot.

To fix the boot sector, copy the files ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini from the original master to a floppy (if you have a floppy drive). Edit the boot.ini file so it looks like this (if xp pro - edit accordingly if other version, its only a comment):-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin

Boot into recovery console with just the slave connected:-

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654

note what drive it thinks the install is on - it should be the same as its system drive when it was working.

insert the floppy and copy the 3 files to the root of x: - where x: is the relevant drive letter.

Then type fixboot x: - where x: is the relevant drive letter again.

Then reboot normally and it should load. You may have a problem if XP realigns drive letters and makes the system drive c: instead of x: - as then all the registry entries will be messed - but should be ok.

 

[JustinCM]

The original master's XP was not install on the PC im trying to get the slave to work on. I was merely using it as a tool, so that the XP CD reconizes a OS Installation, then installing to the Slave, which is the harddrive i want as master for that PC.

Ok i tried some stuff today. This is what i did... I took out the slave from that PC and stuck it in THIS PC as slave, and installed windows to it. Then i hooked it up as Master on this PC to see if it would boot windows. A message came up "Insert boot disket". So now i think, if i installed it back on the other PC, and insert a Bootable Diskett CD-Rom (i dont have any floppy drives) XP might load up over there.

 

[JustinCM]

kestrel1 (TechnicalUser) 26 Apr 07 4:32

"Nope, sorry mate that just wont work. If you do this you will have the same problem.
There is a file that determines the boot options. If the OS is on the first partition of the first drive the default looks like this:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
I think with a slave setup there would be another option thus:
default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
Not sure if this is entirely correct, but that is the general idea. A new install would sort it out as the OS does not need to be recognised, as you can formet the drive & get rid of existing partitions."



So i need to hook the slave onto this PC and edit it's Boot.ini for this line

default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

and put a 0 where the 1 is next to "disk" ??? Then it will be reconizable and i can clean install?

 

[mainegeek]

JustinCM,
I see only 2 options for you at this point.

1. Print off and do what Wolluf told you.

2. Set your slave in the master position, boot up with the XP CD and do a clean install so that it will create the boot sector on this drive which is needed.

 

[JustinCM]

Wulluf you said copy ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini onto a floppy. Thats 1 thing i wish i could do -- use floppies. I cant. I have no working floppy drives. If i could somehow create a Bootable CD-Rom with those 3 files.

 

[Freestone]

Why are you spinning your wheels installing XP on a slave drive rather than doing as mainegeek suggests above and set the drive as master on whatever PC is to be its home and do a clean XP install?

 

[firewolfrl]

When xp was setup originally on the slave drive ...When you booted to the OS what drive letter did it say?????

the boot.ini fix will not work if the registry refers to as an Example D:\ and you have the drive setup as C:\

your best bet is to save the data and do a fresh clean install after you use the harddrive manufacturer's Low Level Format or Zero Utility.

wolluf is wrong in the respect that there is no boot sector on the slave drive....The MBR points to the boot sector on the slave drive. The boot sector is only a pointer and refers to the original primary on the other drive the way it used to be setup.

this is why you need to zero out the MBR. sometimes on just a format there is still a reference to the old setup and that just creates headaches

 

[mainegeek]

Zero Fill? Why not simply remove the partition and create a new one with the xp cd?

 

[firewolfrl]

mainegeek,
the way the NTFS file system is setup even if you format the first part of the drive (MBR) and a copy of the MBR (at the end or middle...depends on the MFT) holds the boot configuration. When you format the data is not removed. So what happens is you can possibly receive errors after the first screen has done the format and installed the system files. The computer will reboot and you get an error in the MBR with the old data and the new data that is overwritten the old data in the MBR. I sorta call it MBR ghosting errors.

nine times out of ten it will work fine....its that one time that is the headache....sometimes it creates a no boot scenerio...Sometimes it just makes a flaky OS install


the side benefit of a zero fill is that you know for sure that you have a clean drive and the zero fill process checks the drive integrity. Some software give an option to do a zero fill of just the MBR/boot sector parts of the drive and only take about 5 to 7 minutes to complete

There are more benefits than downers from doing a zero fill

I would love to hear an argument where there is maybe misinformation or corruption in the MBR/boot sector that there is not a reason to zero fill...the only one I would have is it is more labor intensive and time consuming....and that is not good enough of an argument for me .....LOL


Even the fixmbr command does not remove all the data in a MBR...and some software such as the Intuit sofware install their copy protection in the empty end portion of the MBR.

You can fool the MBR when you are using the install CD by removing the partitions then recreating the partitions. This seems to have OK to good results...I still prefer the zero fill and scratch setup

 

[kestrel1]

I would agree with firewolfri. A zero fill & total fresh OS install is the best option. That way you know you have a nice clean hard drive. Windows aint the best at formating any how. I normally use a third party solution for this. Often the drive manufacturers tools are good for the initial setup of the hard drive, but I normally use Partition Magic.

 

[mainegeek]

I was refering to partitioning not formatting.

 

[firewolfrl]

Just straight partitioning I use Partition Magic after the OS is loaded. Out of habit no matter what the drive size is when I install windows I just install one partition on the drive. Then I make the logical partitions when the OS shows that it is working OK and loads up OK

on the side note I install a third party defrag tool...that zero fills the empty space on the drive...This is especially useful on a repair/reinstall scenario.
most of the good defrag tools out there can do this

There are some scenarios that you would need to reduce the size of the OS partition on install...Raid drives over a terabyte and 500 gig drives...I like to have my OS partition only 60-100 gig at the most. any bigger than you are dealing with cluster size and some slack space. This holds true and you use lose even more room dealing with allocations with the MFT (the larger the partition the larger the MFT)

With that note all I do is create the ONE partition with the Windows install CD and leave the rest of the drive empty to create the Logical after windows is up and running.

here is an example of how I have the current computer I am typing on now.
NOTE all are NTFS unless noted as FAT32

Onboard IDE Primary & Secondary controller:
drive 0 10,000 RPM 80 XP@60 gig- data@14 gig- XOSL(boot manager) 54 meg (FAT32 and DOS bootable at the end of the drive)
drive 1 DVDrw
Drive 2 CDrw

Onboard Raid IDE controller (in non raid mode)
drive 0 300 gig partitioned equal 3X
Drive 1-3 setup the same
one of the drives also has My Documents allocated to it along with my email and banking info...data is synced to another computer

Onboard SATA controller
drive 0 500 gig 60 gig OS (Clone of the IDE 60)- the rest is just data logical partitions
drive 1 300 gig Ubuntu OS

Hope this gives you some Ideas

 

[firewolfrl]

The clone is a working backup that I make once a week