I have built several computers (including this one) and have swapped out hard drives NUMEROUS times over the years, but this time I need to seek help....I'm stumped!!
I bought this Western Digital about 5 or 6 months ago and used it as a single , Master drive and it worked fine then. Later on, I decided to re-install my old drive (20 gig), set IT as a master drive and use it only for the operating system then delete the OS from my new drive (80 gig) to free up space and use it strictly for data storage.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine needed a hard drive so I decided to give him the old one. I finally got around to backing up all files in my old drive on cd's and dvd's as well as the files on my newer drive. Then I re-formatted the old drive to clear everything off so he could have it. Now I was ready to pull the old one out and connect the new one as a master drive (no jumpers needed when setting as master on this one).
After installing the new drive, I ran the Data Lifeguard hard drive installation CD, then I planned on re-formatting and installing Win XP.
First, I tried booting from my cd rom with the XP cd inserted....[DR DOS], or something like that loads up which eventually gives me an "A" prompt (A:\).
I tried typing in D:\SETUP ("D" being the drive letter to my ROM), but of course it doesn't work because of being in DOS mode.....I get across the screen something like ...Cannot run program in DOS! .
After a long while of trying any combination I could think of, with no success, I used an old computer (with XP installed on its HD) and connected my drive as a slave. Then I right clicked on My Computer, then Manage, then Storage, then Disk Management, then clicked on the drive letter of my new drive, then format. Then I formatted the drive for NTFS file system. Then I ran the Win XP cd then during setup I was able to select the drive letter for the new drive to install to that drive. I rebooted the computer and during bootup, had the option of selecting between the two hard drives (as normal) then, of course, I selected the new one and it ran WINDOWS!!!
I thought I finally had it, but then I disconnected the other drive and tried running the new one by itself and it won't load Windows, I just get the black screen that says "unable to load OS". Again, this was done on an old pc. The other curve ball is that when I try the same thing using my newer PC (the one I actually want the new HD installed on) it won't even work using TWO drives. If I try to boot from the new drive, a blue screen will flash REALLY quick and the pc will automatically reboot. Then when using the new drive by itself, it will do the same as on the other older pc and display "unable to load OS".
It just has me really confused as to why on an older pc am I able to at least get the HD to boot windows with two drives installed , but unable to do this with a newer much faster pc....especially when that's how it was set up before and worked fine when using the new drive and the drive I gave away.
ANY suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!!
Are there boot files that didn't get installed or something.
I bought this Western Digital about 5 or 6 months ago and used it as a single , Master drive and it worked fine then. Later on, I decided to re-install my old drive (20 gig), set IT as a master drive and use it only for the operating system then delete the OS from my new drive (80 gig) to free up space and use it strictly for data storage.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine needed a hard drive so I decided to give him the old one. I finally got around to backing up all files in my old drive on cd's and dvd's as well as the files on my newer drive. Then I re-formatted the old drive to clear everything off so he could have it. Now I was ready to pull the old one out and connect the new one as a master drive (no jumpers needed when setting as master on this one).
After installing the new drive, I ran the Data Lifeguard hard drive installation CD, then I planned on re-formatting and installing Win XP.
First, I tried booting from my cd rom with the XP cd inserted....[DR DOS], or something like that loads up which eventually gives me an "A" prompt (A:\).
I tried typing in D:\SETUP ("D" being the drive letter to my ROM), but of course it doesn't work because of being in DOS mode.....I get across the screen something like ...Cannot run program in DOS! .
After a long while of trying any combination I could think of, with no success, I used an old computer (with XP installed on its HD) and connected my drive as a slave. Then I right clicked on My Computer, then Manage, then Storage, then Disk Management, then clicked on the drive letter of my new drive, then format. Then I formatted the drive for NTFS file system. Then I ran the Win XP cd then during setup I was able to select the drive letter for the new drive to install to that drive. I rebooted the computer and during bootup, had the option of selecting between the two hard drives (as normal) then, of course, I selected the new one and it ran WINDOWS!!!
I thought I finally had it, but then I disconnected the other drive and tried running the new one by itself and it won't load Windows, I just get the black screen that says "unable to load OS". Again, this was done on an old pc. The other curve ball is that when I try the same thing using my newer PC (the one I actually want the new HD installed on) it won't even work using TWO drives. If I try to boot from the new drive, a blue screen will flash REALLY quick and the pc will automatically reboot. Then when using the new drive by itself, it will do the same as on the other older pc and display "unable to load OS".
It just has me really confused as to why on an older pc am I able to at least get the HD to boot windows with two drives installed , but unable to do this with a newer much faster pc....especially when that's how it was set up before and worked fine when using the new drive and the drive I gave away.
ANY suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!!
Are there boot files that didn't get installed or something.