Hi. I just bough brand spanking new Hard Drive. It is Maxtor, 250 Gig, 16 MB (!) Cache. I have original that came with PC, Western digital, 250 Gig HD, with 2 MB Cache. After using , Maxtor's software to quickly set up my HD as NTFS, I used Norton Ghost to Clone my original HD to new one. This way I can have better transfer rate with new HD, since new cache is bigger, and then just use the original as backup.

BUT, the darn PC will not boot. I did switch Master/Slave, Etc. What am I doing wrong?

P.S. The PC I am installing this HD on is Windows XP Professional MCE 2004.

This post has been edited by bigdog1100: Jun 30 2005, 12:24 PM

Try disconnecting the original hard drive for diagnostics. Perhaps the computer sees two installations of XP? Also, check your boot order in BIOS.

Johanna

try putting both hds to cable select

Did disconnect harddrive. Also, what about boot order? What am I checking for? Thanks.

make sure that it is booting to the right drive in the boot order

You mean Drive C: or something else.

the new drive...do you have them both hooked up? which one is the last one on the ide cable? the new one or the old?

I unplugged the old drive and plugged new one as old one. And it didnt boot.

does anything come up on the screen? any error messages or just black? does it go through post?

I think it tries to do something but doesn't. Also, its SONy VAIO. What they did is they partitioned HD in three, Diagnostic, C:\ and D:\

you gotta be a little more descriptive.

when you power up the system:

Do all of your fans turn on?
does the normal boot process start and then stop?
if so where does it stop?
are there any beeps?
is there just a black screen and no boot process what so ever?



i assume "they" means sony. are you talking about the original drive? being partitioned into 3 parts?

Yes Original drive as it came from the factory. I did clone so it cloned exactly as it was on origianl. What we did is plugged old pone back and it works. But new one doesn't. I will be unable to tell you what is happening, since it was another person who physically did it. I was on the phone assisting. So, what do you think may be an issue? It seems like BIOS order or maybe it is looking for a particular harddrive as a maste, even if the new one is set as master?

um....are you sure it cloned all 3 partitions? most cloners will clone the active partition. you may need to flash your bios (something i am not familiar with completly) also try unplugging the thing and holding the power button in (with it unplugged) and taking the little battery out of your motherboard and putting it back in.


i'll ask again since i haven't gotten an answer to this one...does the pc go through POST at all?
(Power On Self Test)

I don't know exactly what that is? Is this a period when the SONY VAIO appears and before windows begin to load? Also, I don't know. There was a situation when I was doing something but windows wouldn't load as well as there was a situation when No Bootable Disk error occured. I shall start writing everything down. And Norton Ghost let's you choose what it is you want to clone. We chose entire harddrive.

ok....so it came up and gave you bios information and all that jazz that it usually does BEFORE it gets to the Windows splash screen right? then you get no bootable disk press something to restart?