New Build SATA Drive Problem

[bendrichard]

I recently build a computer with the following components.
Gigabyte GA-MA-8GM-S2H
AMD Dual Core Processor
2G Corsair Memory
Seagate SATA Drive

I installed the SATA drive in my old computer and mirrored the old drive to the new.
I then built the new computer installing the old IDE hard drive on the IDE channel with a DVD burner and the new SATA drive in IDE mode.

Using a WIN XP disk I did a repair of the OS and the new motherboard and drivers were installed and recognized.

At this point the computer worked as I had hoped. During the POST process all drives were detected.
Next, I wanted to remove the old IDE hard drive and put it in a external enclosure to be used as a backup medium.

When I unplugged the old drive and restarted the computer, the POST process hangs at "Verifing DMI Pool Data."
So I reinstalled the old drive, restarted, and I get the same pool data message.
Windows XP (pro) will load but only if I have the OS disk in the DVD drive. The OS disk only spins up during the boot process, it does not need to be in the drive after booting is completed.

In the BIOS the SATA controller is enabled; the SATA drive is listed as IDE channel 2 master.

In device manager both drives are recognized and there are no yellow warning icons.

At this point I don't know what to do next.
Suggestions will be most appreciated.

Richard

 

[KSoD]

First make sure that the SATA drive is set to boot first. That is the drive you have XP on right?

Then repair the XP Bootloader thru the Recovery Console. Use the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

 

[bendrichard]

Yes, SATA drive is first boot device
I was wondering if the MBR was involved in this problem.
Thanks for the reply
Richard

 

[KSoD]

From what i am thinking is that the boot device recognized by Windows is not the one you want it to be. The SATA Drive. Instead it used the IDE drive that you moved.

Just have to fix the MBR for the SATA Drive and you should be all set. If not it is something deeper.

 

[bendrichard]

Hello again;
fix mbr, fixboot didn't solve the problem.
I fixed the problem by making a current image of the Windows partition on the SATA drive and copied that to a USB drive; I then installed a new copy of Win XP (to be sure that the SATA drive was working properly)and then restored the partition image.
I ran into several hurdles along the way including a boot failure message that HAL.DLL was missing.
The whole process took all afternoon but I've got to where I want it to be.

I realise a clean install would of been the "better" way to go but it would of taken days to restore my tweaks and setings plus I had software that I had gotten free in the past that I would of had to pay for this time around.

At least I learned alot.
Thanks for the help and suggestions

Richard