2 drives needed to boot - how to fix

[John66]

I'm running XP pro and things seem to be fine. I thought I was being 'smart'
by adding a second hard drive to my system as a backup. I cloned my primary
hard drive and have dutifully backed up changes to the cloned drive thinkng
that should my primary drive fail I would be prepared with an up-to-date hard
drive I could immediately use.

Obviously I don't know what I'm doing because I just happened to disconnect
my cloned drive and my system won't boot. After some trial and error, it
seems my system wants both hard drives to be able to boot.

Any suggestions on how to repair my master drive so it will boot by itself?
Am I having issues because there are 2 XP system folders that could be found?
I did notice an error message of sorts flash by that said something about
NTDetect - but thats all I see before it reboots itself.

If you have any suggestions on the best approach to backing up data and well
as the entire system --- I am all ears.

Thanks,
John

[Andrew E.]

When a 2nd hd is added to the pc,sometimes the new hd will get selected
as 1st boot priority device,to change,open the BIOS,set to original C: If
thats
what you want.....

[Andy]

First, determine what's going on by running XP's Disk Management to
see the status of the partitions, i.e., on which disks the system,
boot, and paging partitions are located. This is primarily for your
edification.
The easiest way to fix the problem is to zero out the disk signature
on the primary disk by booting with a Windows 98 emergency boot
diskette, and executing fdisk /mbr.

[Pegasus]

"Andy" <1@2.3> wrote in message
news:usc473973uj034gfq...@4ax.com...

> First, determine what's going on by running XP's Disk Management to
> see the status of the partitions, i.e., on which disks the system,
> boot, and paging partitions are located. This is primarily for your
> edification.
> The easiest way to fix the problem is to zero out the disk signature
> on the primary disk by booting with a Windows 98 emergency boot
> diskette, and executing fdisk /mbr.
>

Running fdisk /mbr won't "zero out" the disk signature. It will
rewrite the disk's Master Boot Record. In the case of the OP
this won't do any harm but I suspect that it won't do any
good either.

[Pegasus]

"John66" <Joh...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:575E0461-15FD-448A...@microsoft.com...

Some questions:
- How exactly did you clone the system partition?
- Which is your primary master disk - the old or the new disk?
- Is the system partition on the old disk still marked "active"?
- How far does the boot process go when booting with a single disk?
- What message do you seen when the boot process stalls? Press
the "Pause" key to freeze the boot process, and Enter to unfreeze it.
- What is the contents of the hidden file c:\boot.ini?
- What exactly do you mean with "2 XP system folders"?

[John66]

Thank you all for your suggestions!

In answer to the questions asked by Pegasus:

If I can remember correctly, I think I made a clone of my disk using
xxclone. I remember I tried a couple of different ways to clone the entire
hard drive (4 partitions) and had problems doing all 4 at once. I had to do
them one at a time. I just don't remember exactly what I did - it has been
too long.

If I can get the system to boot fro the master (original) disk I can try an
clone things again and then keep the clone updated - any suggestions on doing
this? Is a clone/backup not the best thing to do?

Disk 0 is my primary (master) drive. Disk 1 is the cloned version which I am
using for my backup. So my old disk is my master disk.

I checked out disk managment and found that disk 0 has a partion that says
'system' and another partition that says 'boot'. On disk 1 (the clone) there
is a partion that says 'active'.

When I tried to boot the master disk by itself, it really didn't get very
far. I only saw a black screen that flashed white text with 'NTDetect.......'
error message and then the PC would reboot. I will have to get back to you on
the exact message - I apologize as I realize this would help a lot. I need to
wait for another process to complete before I can reboot ( a backup in case I
make a mess of this).

The boot.ini file says:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

My hard drive setup is a bit weird in the way it was originally set up, so
partion 3 really is where the OS is located.

What I meant by 2 XP system folders is that if I have a clone of my master
drive then I have 2 system folders. One on disk 0 and another on disk 1.

Thank you so much for your help,
John

[Pegasus]

I don't know xxclone but I wonder if it played around with
your active partition. Run diskmgmt.msc from the Run box
to set the boot partition of disk(0) active. This will probably
fix your problem. If it does not then you may have to restore
the Master Boot Record, either by using the method suggested
by Andy or else by booting the machine with your WinXP
CD and following these steps:
- Select "Repair"
- Select "Recovery Console"
- Log on
- Type these commands:
fixmbr
fixboot

When cloning a disk with a cloning program then you must
avoid having both disks connected during the first boot after
the cloning operation.

"John66" <Joh...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:C9C8749D-0223-41C7...@microsoft.com...

[Anna]

"Pegasus" <I....@fly.com> wrote in message
news:OCUc3i0r...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>> Some questions:
>> - How exactly did you clone the system partition?
>> - Which is your primary master disk - the old or the new disk?
>> - Is the system partition on the old disk still marked "active"?
>> - How far does the boot process go when booting with a single disk?
>> - What message do you seen when the boot process stalls? Press
>> the "Pause" key to freeze the boot process, and Enter to unfreeze it.
>> - What is the contents of the hidden file c:\boot.ini?
>> - What exactly do you mean with "2 XP system folders"?

"John66" <Joh...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:C9C8749D-0223-41C7...@microsoft.com...

"Pegasus" <I....@fly.com> wrote in message
news:uWWg%23U4rH...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>I don't know xxclone but I wonder if it played around with
> your active partition. Run diskmgmt.msc from the Run box
> to set the boot partition of disk(0) active. This will probably
> fix your problem. If it does not then you may have to restore
> the Master Boot Record, either by using the method suggested
> by Andy or else by booting the machine with your WinXP
> CD and following these steps:
> - Select "Repair"
> - Select "Recovery Console"
> - Log on
> - Type these commands:
> fixmbr
> fixboot
>
> When cloning a disk with a cloning program then you must
> avoid having both disks connected during the first boot after
> the cloning operation.

John:
Pegasus's questions were the right ones and it's good you responded to
them...

First of all, you were indeed "smart" to add a second HDD to your system
which you plan to use as the recipient of the cloned contents of your
day-to-day working HDD, i.e., the "source" disk. It's a most desirable thing
to do and with a decent disk imaging/disk cloning program you'll never be
sorry you embarked on that course.

Perhaps your initial problem was using that xxclone program. I recall
experimenting with that program some time ago and we ran into so many issues
(read "problems") with it that we soon discontinued using it. And the
feedback we received from other users paralleled our experience. Perhaps
it's been improved; I don't know.

Frankly, I think the current partitioning scheme on your primary HDD is a
source of problems now & in the future. With that in mind, if the following
is at all practical depending upon the programs you have currently installed
on your "source" HDD...

1. Could you, in effect, start over by making a fresh install of the XP OS
onto that source drive? Unless you have some special multi-partitioning
needs, why not just create a single partition comprising the entire disk? In
recommending this fresh install of the OS, I'm assuming a number of
things...

a. Your user-created data is now available on the "cloned" HDD or some other
source (or you can copy whatever data you need to the secondary HDD when
both drives are connected and you're able to boot) so that you can copy that
data back to your newly-installed XP OS., and,
b. You can install all the programs you desire since you have the
installation media for those programs, and,
c. You don't mind installing all the MS critical updates since SP2. (I'm
assuming if you go ahead with this fresh install of the XP OS it will be
undertaken with a XP installation CD including SP2 - or if SP2 is not
included on the CD, you will subsequently install that service pack.)

Anyway, assuming you go this route or using Pegasus's latest suggestion or
through some other means you're able to get your present system back to some
functional state, consider in the future using one of the more
tried-and-true disk imaging/disk cloning programs such as Acronis True Image
or the Casper 4.0 program (the latter my current favorite) for your disk
cloning needs. You won't regret it.
Anna

[John66]

Thank you for suggestions. I will try your suggestions in a few days - I
just got a little side tracked with another project (car problems).

Thank you once again for your help. It was very much appreciated!!!
All the best....

[John66]

Anna,

Thank you for your addtional suggestions. After getting my system to boot
off one drive I will try the True Image program you suggested.

When I need a challenge I will pursue setting up my partions etc. in the way
you suggested. I just dread the thought of having to reload all my software
etc. But, as you said I'm probably asking for problems if I don't do it.

Thanks again,
John

[Lil' Dave]

"Anna" <myn...@myisp.net> wrote in message
news:%23YM5ho4...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

Just don't try the seagate rendition of TI. Its cloning of a seagate 250GB
SATA II to 2nd identical hard drive left the 2nd one unusable, and the 1st
one with can't find or corrupted hal.dll after the copy. Recovered with DI
7.0, and used Partition commander to make the partition copies to the 2nd
hard drive.
Dave

[John66]

Pegasus: I tried to change my disk (0) partion to active. However, the
option of 'mark partion as active' is greyed out. I am unable to activate or
de-activate anything. Is there something I must do to enable this option or
is there a certain procedure to follow?

Thanks again.

[Pegasus]

I observe the same on my own machine, presumably because
I use a non-Windows master boot record. I recommend you
start by restoring the MBR with one of the two methods
I previously mentioned.

"John66" <Joh...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:F263CF34-42EB-4408...@microsoft.com...