Harddrive problem and XP

MarkW7

MarkW7

MarkW7

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Installing XP on a second HDD

Hi all,

Can i get xp onto my second hdd, ive tried putting it in and booting from the disk but it says NTLRD is missing.
I was thinking maybe i can install xp when its a secondary drive.

Any ideas?

Thanks.




Please ignore the below [problem solved]

I have two harddrives a 40gb and a 10gb IDE.

Both work ok. (did)

I had XP loaded on the 40gb for ages and was using it fine but today i got some parts and decided i want to installed xp on the 10gb so i can test other bits.

So i put it in my pc as a second drive - put the xp disk in and installed. seemed ok.

untill i turned my pc off and put my 40gb back in by itself.
Booted up and it said it cannot read my hardware configuration.

So i thought great!
Tried the 10gb and now that says something is missing press Ctrl + alt + del to restart.

But..

When i put the 40gb and 10gb in together it boots into the new install (10gb) and the 40gb is showing up and i can see all my files ect.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like the master boot record is messed up. I believe you can boot into recovery console and do a fix mbr. Do this with the drive you want to boot from.
 
I can't remember off the top of my head. Best thing to do is search the microsoft support site for 'fixmbr' there should be a guide. I did do this once on a win2000 machine so thats an idea of how long ago i did it!
 
I think what's happened here is that you left the 40GB drive attached (with XP on it) and installed a second version on the other drive. When you do that XP *** up and puts some system files on one drive and leaves others on the existing drive. If you look at boot.ini you can read where the OS expects to see the system fiels, you'll see something drive (0) partition (1)... or whatever. There may be more than one line.

Not sure how much 'damage' has been done, if you can still boot into Windows with the 40GB drive on it's own then the easiest way out is to disconnect the 40GB, and install again with just the 10GB attached. If Windows won't start from the 40GB alone (10GB disconnected) then do a repair install on the 40GB, then disconnect it and proceed as above.
 
it will only boot with them both in and 40gb as master and 10gb as slave.

wont boot any other way -when it does boot it boots onto the 10gb.

How do i repair.
 
MarkW7 said:
it will only boot with them both in and 40gb as master and 10gb as slave.

wont boot any other way -when it does boot it boots onto the 10gb.

How do i repair.
Click to expand...

Yep, I've been there. As described above - disconnect the 10GB drive [important that], insert XP disk and select Repair Console. Use the two commands:
fixmbr
fixboot
That 'should' fix it
Only if the above doesn't work... then start an XP install and point it at the 40GB drive as the target. It should spot that there is already a version of XP on there and offer to repair it for you. It will copy across all the system files, create a new boot.ini and add the ntldr file. It will set the disk as bootable.
Note: don't continue with the last step of the install if it *doesn't* offer to repair the installation (you don't really want to install another copy of XP!).

When you can boot from the 40GB alone then disconnect it, reconnect the 10GB and repeat the XP install. In this case you can safely delete the partition and start fresh.
 
Woo

Fixed the problem but now i have another one.

I can't get windows on the 10gb if its by itsself.
Just says; NTLDR is missing.
 
Yes, if you try and boot from the 10GB right now it will say that (NT Loader is missing - it was part of the system files that were on the 40GB, and you had boot.ini on the 10GB probably). You could repeat the process of fixmbr/fixboot on the 10GB, or just reinstall from scratch - it's a new install anyway so you won't be losing anything. If doing the latter just blank the disk by deleting the partition when WinXP asks you where to instal). Remember - don't have the 40GB connected when you're doing any of this.

You're going to end up with two bootable drives, only one of them will you be using as the OS disk. You'll have to decide what you want to do about that - do you want to keep the data that is on the 40GB drive?
 
I have formatted the 10gb, put it in by itsself and it just gives me, press any key from cd so i hit all buttons on my three keyboards and nothing, underneath this it says -

NTLDR is missing, press ctrl + alr + del to restart which also doesn't work.

I have a wireless keyboard attached, a usb and a p2p one.
still nothing.

thats why i was trying to install it as a second drive.
 
When you connect two drives to a computer one of them will be looked at first to boot from. Some BIOSs do not allow this to be changed. Because of this Windows will place instructions to boot on the first drive that your BIOS will check, even if it's not the drive you intend Windows to install on.

The chances are you can change the boot order.

Personally I disconnect everything but the drive I want Windows on, and the CD drive then install Windows. Afterwards I reconnect the other drives then go into BIOS and make sure the boot order is correct.
 
MarkW7 said:
I have formatted the 10gb, put it in by itsself and it just gives me, press any key from cd so i hit all buttons on my three keyboards and nothing, underneath this it says -

NTLDR is missing, press ctrl + alr + del to restart which also doesn't work.

I have a wireless keyboard attached, a usb and a p2p one.
still nothing.

thats why i was trying to install it as a second drive.
Click to expand...

It's not booting from the CD then. Your keyboard is not being recognised at boot time (don't know why, it should see a wireless KB as soon as it's powered up so make sure it's plugges in correctly - or use a wired KB for the install. Maybe the battery is flat?)
 
tried a wired,

it prompts me to boot from cd when i press 'any key'. it just says NTLRD is missing.
 
beeps and tells me no drive [0] found.
it then starts installing windows, then stops because no hdd was found.
 
Can you change the jumper on the back of the 10GB to make it a Master, swap it's position in the computer with the 40GB (so the cable connector is also changed). Then set the 40GB as a Slave. Still leave the 40GB disconnected. Check the Boot Priority in BIOS that it will now trying to boot from the CD ROM first, and the 10GB second. Reboot and it should then install.
 
Bios-
Cd - 1st
Hdd - 2nd

10gb is master


I dont get it why change the 40gb to slave when it isnt connected.
 
MarkW7 said:
Bios-
Cd - 1st
Hdd - 2nd

10gb is master


I dont get it why change the 40gb to slave when it isnt connected.
Click to expand...

No, the objective was to change the 10GB to a master - the 40GB had to be a Slave in that case (on the same channel) when you reconnect it and I didn't want you to forget. You also don't want the HDs on the same channel as the CD Drive so Slave it has to be.

Have to say this is getting a bit bizarre, it shouldn't be this difficult.:(
 
May of done now.

Put the 10gb as master by itsself.
Keep restarting and hitting keys when prompt come up finally it went into windows setup.

:)
 
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