adding an ide drive to my sata set up wont work

sare^baw's · 25 Apr 2006 at 15:16

i bought a second hand htpc recently and it came fully set up, i have tried to add my 250gb maxtor ide drive to the pc but i cant get the pc to boot after installing the hdd.

the drives with the pc are a 36g raptor and a sata HITACHI DESKSTAR 160G, if i then install the maxtor it wont boot and i get an error

i dont know anything about raid but i wondering if the raptor and deskstar and set up in some raid configuration because if i unplug one or the other my pc wont boot up so it requires both hdd's to be installed for the pc to boot up. i just cant understand why the maxtor ide drive causes problems.

so can someone tell me what kind of set up i have here and how i go about installing my ide maxtor hdd.

cheers

smids · 25 Apr 2006 at 15:46

First - the reason you need both SATA's installed is that I assume you had both connected when windows was installed - Windows is notorious for being an ass and putting boot files on both drives. No way around this unles you reinstall with just the raptor I'm afraid.

Second - when you plug the IDE in, your BIOS will see this first - IDE is always prioritised over SATA. Plug it in and then go into BIOS. You'll need to set the Boot priority of the HDU's so that the Raptor is first (assuming windows is on there).

sare^baw's · 25 Apr 2006 at 15:55

that is weird i never knew windows would put files on both drives.

if i try to change the drive letter of the deskstar in windows it tells me it is a system disc and i can change the drive letter.

i was experimenting and found the following when changing the boot sequence, seems the 160g deskdstar has to be the first boot device and raptor second, yet windows is installed on my raptor.

DESKSTAR 1ST BOOT - RAPTOR 2ND BOOT - OK

RAPTOR 1ST BOOT - DESKSTAR 2ND BOOT - ERROR - NTLDR MISSING

RAPTOR ONLY - ERROR - NTLDR MISSING

DESKSTAR ONLY – ERROR -WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE OF A HDD CONFIGURATION PROBLEM

smids · 25 Apr 2006 at 15:57

So my point is proven. Boot files are on the Deskstar and the install is on the Raptor.

SiriusB · 25 Apr 2006 at 16:11

smids said:
So my point is proven. Boot files are on the Deskstar and the install is on the Raptor.

Good ole sensible Windows, eh?

Is there no way you can just nab the files off the Deskstar and plonk em in the Raptor?

SiriusB

sare^baw's · 25 Apr 2006 at 16:23

SiriusB said:
Good ole sensible Windows, eh?

Is there no way you can just nab the files off the Deskstar and plonk em in the Raptor?

SiriusB

yeah that would be easrier for now, i will do a fresh install at some point but would prefer a fix for this just now. i dont suppose theres any point trying to ghost windows onto a single hdd.

smids · 25 Apr 2006 at 17:21

sare^baw's said:
yeah that would be easrier for now, i will do a fresh install at some point but would prefer a fix for this just now. i dont suppose theres any point trying to ghost windows onto a single hdd.

You can do it - to do so, go to the root of the deskstar, e.g. E:\ in windows explorer. Tools > Folder Options > View > In advanced settings pane, UNtick 'Hide Protected O/S files (recommended)' and tick 'show hidden files and folders'.

Look for 3 files, ntdetect.com, ntldr and boot.ini.

COPY, YES, COPY, DO NOT CUT AND PASTE - this way if it doesn't work you can still load windows!!!

Copy those files to the root of the raptor e.g. C:\ and then open the file ON THE RAPTOR called boot.ini using Notepad. It should look similar to this:

Code:

[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 Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

If so, shut down, remove everything bar the raptor and try to boot from the raptor. If it works, then delete the boot files from the Deskstar (but KEEP them somewhere just in case!).

I hope this works for you - this is what I had to do a while ago when I had a similar problem. Make sure you don't touch the files on the Deskstar until you are sure the Raptor works on its own

.

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:16

smids cheers for the help but it did not work for me, i got this ERROR -WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE OF A HDD CONFIGURATION PROBLEM blah blah blah blah

so im back to the way i was, did you not need to edit the boot file in any way to do this or was it as simple as copy and pasting the files onto the c:

smids · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:26

If it came up with HDD config problem, then you needed to edit the boot.ini - could you copy and paste the info from your boot.ini here using

Code:

 [ /code] markup? (remove the space in the second set) between the [ and the /.

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:40

Code:

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

ah that took a few attempts, had to remove the quoted text i used from your last post

smids · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:44

Try this:

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW  S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Once again - ONLY on the RAPTOR.

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:15

no joy, i copied all the text into the boot.ini file and saved it, started pc only using raptor hdd

the error i get says this file is missing or corrupt
<windows root>\system\hal.dll.

however i did a search for hal.dll on both hdd's and found it in C:\windows\system32

also i have a hidden folder showing on both drives called 'system volume information' should i have one of these on both drives?

smids · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:23

Yeah, there is usually a system volume information on all drives. The only way is to reinstall I'm afraid - it's looking to be more hassle than it's worth, especially as if you break it, you'll not be able to fix it easily.

ChrisLX200 · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:38

You could try connecting just the Raptor, then boot from the XP CD and 'repair' the existing installation on the Raptor. With a bit of luck that will notice the necessary boot information is missing and replace it...

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:41

smids said:
Yeah, there is usually a system volume information on all drives. The only way is to reinstall I'm afraid - it's looking to be more hassle than it's worth, especially as if you break it, you'll not be able to fix it easily.

ok thanks for all your help, i was looking at replacing the raptor soon anyway due to the noise it makes in my htpc, so maybe ill just replace it sooner and do a fresh install

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:45

ChrisLX200 said:
You could try connecting just the Raptor, then boot from the XP CD and 'repair' the existing installation on the Raptor. With a bit of luck that will notice the necessary boot information is missing and replace it...

is there any risk that i would lose any files doing this or would i need to back everything up?

smids · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:48

sare^baw's said:
is there any risk that i would lose any files doing this or would i need to back everything up?

Not so much a risk of losing files, more a risk of not being able to boot. I would do it personally, but then again I have other computers to help me fix it and I'm pretty experienced with this stuff (XP Repairs etc). However, it might not be worth the risk when your windows works fine without it.

ChrisLX200 · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:59

Like smids said... But a couple of other points:

XP is an arse sometimes and the situation you describe occurs because it creates a logical partition instead of a primary partition on the drive you want to install the OS on. That makes it put the system components on the next drive - the first one with a primary partition. You might check in Disk Management to see what type of partition is on the Raptor. It is possible to convert it to a primary partition if it's logical.

If you boot from the XP CD with only the Raptor, and it does not recognise XP is installed (and does not offer to repair it) then the condition above most likely applies.

sare^baw's · 26 Apr 2006 at 13:44

i tried using the repair feature in xp, when it boots from cd i pressed 'r' when prompted, i then chose c:\windows as the installation i wanted to repair, so i pressed '1' and enter, it then asked for admin password, i dont have this so i pressed enter and nothing happened.

So do i need the admin password, the pc is second hand and set up by the previous owner, i dont use a password or anything to log on.

smids · 26 Apr 2006 at 14:14

Hang on, did you press ENTER and then is just said
C:\WINDOWS>

If so, then there isn't an admin password because if you type the wrong one, or don't type one at all and press enter (and there is one set), it will tell you you have the wrong password. If it goes to a C:\Windows> prompt, then you are in.