Recently Replaced Hard Drive Not Booting Windows

[HydeTheFormer]

I have a client who wanted a larger hard drive. She upgraded from a 40GB to a 320GB. She went about this by simply copying the contents of the one to the other. She only had Windows XP Pro.
She came to me because her computer, when powered on, told her that it could not find an OS. I realised that the problem was simply the MBR had, obviously, not copied over to the new hard drive.
While I was gathering information my client told me she was also interested in trying Linux, so I solved two problems at once by extending the Windows partition to 300GB, creating an ext3 partition at 19GB, and a Linux swap partition at the remaining 1GB. I installed Ubuntu as-is, and set up Grub for dual-boot.
Now, here is the problem. When the computer is powered on, Grub looks great. I formatted it to simply list Ubuntu and Windows XP, and Ubuntu boots flawlessly. However, upon selecting XP, it shows the XP splash screen (with the animated "working" bar), then hard-resets the computer. This happens consistently. I can't understand why. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Hyde

 

[Freestone]

It MAY be related to 48-LBA.

See

http://www.48bitlba.com/issues.htm

 

[HydeTheFormer]

That is certainly possible. I admit I wasn't aware of this issue. I don't know if that hard drive specifically falls into this category or not (I don't have access to it at the moment). Still, though, wouldn't that affect the installation of Linux as well?
From what I can tell, the problem this 48-bit LBA tech would cause is simply that Windows would not recognise any disk space past 137GB, as odd as that would be. Am I mistaken?

 

[BadBigBen]

If you have the original drive (40gig) still around, then image the drive over to the 300GB partition, using something along the lines of Partition Magic or Acronis...

XP should then boot, and if it should not, you can at least concentrate first upon getting it to function...

and then install Ubuntu on the remaining 20gig...

addendum: the 48bit LBA problem was with the original XP, XP SP1a and above do not have this problem...

alternative: create a boot floppy for Ubuntu, then do a REPAIR INSTALL of XP (you will loose all updates and hotfixes, but data and programs are left alone)...

boot into Ubuntu with the floppy and then repair GRUB...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[HydeTheFormer]

Ok, that makes sense. I think I'll try the last suggestion first, due to the circumstances. Thanks for the help!

 

[Freestone]

I mentioned 48-bit LBA as we don't know the SP level of the XP, though one hopes it is beyond the non-SP level If somehow it is 48-bit LBA related, my thought is that some of the OS may lie beyond the 137GB line and some below. The OS boot starts then can't reach the files needed, reboots, etc. This idea is a reach, I know.

I must have been half-asleep when I read your original post. I now see you say the OS was transfered by "simply copying the contents of the one to the other". If this was simply a file copy then this is likely the cause of the problem.

Ben's idea of imaging is good. Or us Acronis or something else to clone.

 

[HydeTheFormer]

Definitely, it was a good idea, and I appreciate it. It turns out that wasn't the problem, as you said, but I had no idea such a technological hurdle as the one you mentioned had ever existed, so I definitely learned something new at least.
By the way, I did get it fixed, thank you. I ended up just reimaging (thankfully she still had the old hard drive lying around) with Acronis. I think I was hoping there was a simpler way. I have a lot of experience as a Windows power-user, but when it comes down to technical aspects and functional implementation, I am much more knowledgeable about Linux. I wasn't sure if there was simply a way to manually flag a partition as bootable and restore the MBR the way I'm used to.
Thanks for all the help! It's appreciated!

Hyde

 

[BadBigBen]

if there was simply a way to manually flag a partition as bootable and restore the MBR the way I'm used to.[/quote]actually there is, if you had mentioned Linux before hand, I would have given you the following link:

SystemRescueCd

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

a bootable Linux distro with GParted, as well as SFDISK with which you can set partitions as active and fix the MBR...

but still glad to hear that you fixed the issue...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.