[willytel]

I hope you can help me understand what may have happened. First, I have a 2 disk drive system which I thought I had as seperate drives C and D. The C drive was to be the main drive with the OS on it and I used the D drive as storing all other files and minor software programs. My D drive crashed so I removed it thinking that I should be able to start my computer for the C drive. Apparently, the system boot up got placed on both drives as if it was a RAID setup, but I know I never set it up that way. Now the OS won't start up. In fact during the post up the message says it cannot find the primary IDE drive enter F4 to skip. Yet BIOS sees the drive. There are several files I do not want to loose on this drive. Is there a way to fix the boot sector without loosing the data? How can I get the PC to startup? The HD is set up on the jumper as the primary, it is connected to the end of the IDE cable (the D drive was connected to the same cable but on the middle connector), and I am running Windows XP pro SP3. Can you help?

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Try this.

Boot with the XP installation CD.

When prompted, press R to repair a Windows XP installation.

If repairing a host with multiple operating systems, select the appropriate one (XP) from the menu. If you have only one operating system, enter 1 to select it.

Enter the administrator password if prompted.

To fix the MBR, use the following command:

fixmbr


This assumes that your installation is on the C:\ drive. You will be presented with several scary warning lines the reading of which will make you want to say no. Microsoft is exceptionally vague regarding the conditions under which fixmbr can cause problems although they are clear about the consequences (losing all data on the hard drive), so use this at your own risk.

Type y and ENTER to fix the MBR.

Type exit to leave the recovery console and reboot.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Try this.

Boot with the XP installation CD.

When prompted, press R to repair a Windows XP installation.

If repairing a host with multiple operating systems, select the appropriate one (XP) from the menu. If you have only one operating system, enter 1 to select it.

Enter the administrator password if prompted.

To fix the MBR, use the following command:

fixmbr


This assumes that your installation is on the C:\ drive. You will be presented with several scary warning lines the reading of which will make you want to say no. Microsoft is exceptionally vague regarding the conditions under which fixmbr can cause problems although they are clear about the consequences (losing all data on the hard drive), so use this at your own risk.

Type y and ENTER to fix the MBR.

Type exit to leave the recovery console and reboot.

SRX660

[Philip Kingsley]

looks like the drive u removed was primary device and the one u have it installed is secondary. Try changing the jumper settings of the hard disk. now u shd boot fine...

[willytel]

OK everyone, thanks for the responses but I resoveld the issue. Let's close this case. Here is what I found.

This model of WD HD 80 gig has the option of Cable detect, Master w/Slave and Slave. I had never seen the option Master w/Slave before, only Cable, Master or Slave. This drive was optioned as Master w/Slave. When I removed the faulty Slave drive, the primary drive did not see a Slave anymore and would not operate properly. I changed the option to Cable detect and the PC started up with no issues or problems. Go figure....... Thanks everyone for any assistance you provided.

Bill.