Computer HDD problem. Desperate for a bit of help

[Kpnuts]

Hi all, I really hope someone can help as I'm going crazy trying to figure this out. Let me explain the situation:

Computer: Dell Precision desktop, Windows XP.

- I have two hard drives, C (system) and D (files)
- I run out of room on D so buy a new 1.5TB drive, and install it
- I boot up XP, format the drive using Disk Management, and set the partition as Primary
- I restart my computer
- Suddenly, before Windows manages to load up, I get the error message:

"Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM"

I've tried:
- Removing the new empty HDD and switching on again. I get the message: "Drive 1 not found: SErial ATA, SATA-1. Alert! Failed to detect one or more drives during POST. Strike F1 key to continue"
- Removing the empty HDD and swapping the system drive to the other HDD bay, same error message as above but with "Drive 0 not found"
- I've tried booting Partition Magic from a CD, and it didn't reveal any problems.

Can anyone help me?

I get the impression that when setting up my new hard drive in Disk Management, me selecting to have the partition as PRIMARY, may have screwed things up. I'm not sure if two drives can both be set to primary partitions? Then again, I've run Partition Magic from a bootable CD and it seems to show both C and D as primary.

I just don't understand why removing an empty HDD would cause the error message that it is missing. After all, there's nothing on it! Why would the computer care that it isn't in the bay?

Thanks all, any help or insight would be fantastic.

 

[Jamaica Jive]

Kpnuts,

The "Drive not found" and the "Windows XP could not start" errors are independent of each other; each has nothing to do with the other.

The "Drive not found" error is not so much an error as the fact that the computer's BIOS did not find a drive connected to that SATA connector. Most motherboard's BIOS setting for a SATA connector is configured to "Auto-Detect." If a hard drive is connected, the BIOS recognizes the hard drive and uses it. If a hard drive is not connected, the BIOS recognizes that and ignores that SATA connector.

Dell on the other hand, did not make the BIOS setting for each of its SATA connectors have an "Auto-Detect" choice. The setting choices are either "On" or "Off." If you have a hard drive plugged into that SATA connector, you set that connector's BIOS setting to "On." If you do not have a hard drive plugged into that SATA connector, you set that connector's BIOS setting to "Off." If the BIOS setting is set to "On" and no hard drive is connected to that SATA connector, then you get the message, "Drive not found."

Now, onto the "Windows XP could not start" error. That error is exactly as stated, a Windows XP file, on your System drive, is missing or corrupted. Put your System drive back in the first drive bay and put your new empty drive back in the second drive bay. Both drives can be set as primary partitions. This has nothing to do with the error. You can fix the missing or corrupted file by using the Windows XP installation CD. Put the CD in the CD drive and boot up the computer. When it asks to boot from CD, press any key on the keyboard to boot from the Windows XP installation CD.

At the "Welcome To Setup" screen you have 3 options:

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on your computer:

# To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

# To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

# To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

You want to choose "To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER," NOT the Recovery Console option!

After accepting the license agreement you select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, you should END the setup.

Hope that this helps. I remember I had to do this on a computer I had 5 years ago.

Joe

 

[Kpnuts]

Joe thank you so much for your reply, you've been really helpful.

Unfortunately at the moment I saw your message too late, and am in the middle of a CHKDSK /R (although it's going very slowly) via the Recovery console.

I read that it is perhaps a problem with my boot.ini file? I am following these instructions:

http://www.pantz.org/software/windows/windowsrecoverycommands.html

Are you 100% sure that going to Setup Windows XP now, and then pressing Repair, is the way to go?

If you don't mind me asking, did you have an identical problem 5 years back?

 

[Deks]

Wait ...
The way I understood what you wrote is the following:
You have had 2 hard drives (each assigned with it's own letter 'c' and 'd').
Then you replaced the D drive with a new 1.5TB drive and once you entered the XP OS disc, you booted from it and used it's Disk Management to format the new hard drive and set it as Primary?

Well, the 'Primary' hard drive should remain the C drive (where the OS is located).
I think what you essentially did was confused the booting sequence and the system is assigned to look at your new (empty) drive for the OS (which of course doesn't contain it).

What you could have done is to replace the D drive with the new 1.5TB HDD, boot into Windows as usual, and then format the new hard drive (which should have been detected by the OS and assigned a D letter - most likely) from there into an NTFS type, and that's it.

Essentially you complicated a very simple process.


I think your solution may lie in having to repair the boot order.
Using the XP recovery console should do the trick (I think).
Or, the information should be on the net on how to repair the XP boot.
Look it up.

 

[Kpnuts]

Thanks for the reply DEKS, but that's not quite what I did. I didn't boot the OS CD and do anything on there at all. I just plugged the new hard drive in as you said, turned my machine on, went into Disk Management in Windows, and formatted/partitioned the drive there. I made it NTFS, and thought I may as well restart my computer and load windows again.

So all the formatting etc was done in Windows, not via a XP installation CD.

Currently dunning CHKDSK, it's been running for three hours now, saying it's "performing additional checking or recovery". It's up to 74%. Going very slowly.

 

[Deks]

Ah.
My apologies, I must have misread the original post.

Ok ... the fact that the booting is apparently messed up.

Have you tried going into BIOS and looking up how the HDD's are set up there?

Also, try disconnecting the new HDD entirely from the computer and booting Windows in a regular fashion.

Like I said, the boot file might have been corrupted due to installing a new HDD.
Try booting the XP install disc and running the repair option.

 

[Kpnuts]

Thanks Deks, it seems you were right.

My computer seems to be running fine now, I ran the recovery console and repaired the the boot.ini file. It must have gotten corrupt when I partitioned the new hard drive.

I think I'm going to replace my system hard drive anyway and start from scratch with two brand new HDD's. I got a couple of warnings and beeps when I ran diagnostics on my system drive so it's very possible it's failing.

Could I ask for your help one last time, what's the best way of starting from scratch and installing XP? Obviously both HDD's will be empty and new, and I should be able to install XP on one with no problems, but is there anything else I need to do to my computer? Reset the BIOS or anything like that? Any help would be fantastic, many thanks again.