hdd crashed. Need to boot C: only

[nelljack]

I have 2 hdds. I need to boot to c: only but XP home will not allow it. Or setup won't. I went into setup and neither of the hdds were listed. So I quit w/o saving.

Each hdd's cables were detached and booted but the PC will NOT boot with either hdd alone. Why is this?

Can someone tell me what to do to get only the C: drive to boot so I can get the 2nd hdd replaced?

I did get a chance to get them to boot up and then copied all of my data files over to C:. Hopefully when I get the new hdd I only have to copy data back to the new hdd.

Your help will be appreciated.

 

[linney]

Is this a dual boot system? It sounds like you have the boot loading files on one drive and XP Home on the other. Or possibly the files are missing or corrupted. More information on your setup would help here.

You can try this to boot to your XP Home.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

 

[Bobnz]

C: will be on drive one which should have the active partition. If you have a multiple boot option then some times this will not work if both drives are not present otherwise fdisk has an option 'fdisk/mbr' which should restore/fix the master boot record.

 

[nelljack]

My PC only has XPH on it with 2 hdds. I did a search and copied boot.ini.backup, ntldr, and Ntdetect.com to a formatted disk. I removed the ".backup" from the boot.ini file and then opened it to see if it is supposed to boot to XP Home and it showed it would. I did not try to boot using the disk. At least not yet.

Why is the PC not allowed to use only the C: drive? Why do both hdds have to be connected to run? This is stupid.

 

[JuanH]

Did you ask mother Microsoft's permission? I heard that because of WPA and friends that if you change your config in a way that MS doesn't like that it will refuse to boot unless you (seriously) call them and explain it to them.

This is why some people bought Pro and turned it into Pro Corp.

 

[nelljack]

Well, I'm going back to 98SE anyway. If I have to get permission to change hardware when it fails then Mother F MS is a monopoly. Those brain washed users who think MS is great need to get some councelling.

thanks for your helps anyway. I won't be back for awhile til I get new hardware and OS.