HDD Booting Problem

xmtg2o7

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I'm new to the forums so if I do anything wrong or anything like that just let me know.

Anyhow, I did a quick search and couldn't find my problem in these forums or online anywhere. Hopefully it's simple and I'm just missing something.

My dad recently got a new computer (can't currently check the specs as I'm not at home), and he wanted to put all the stuff on the old HDD onto the new one. Well I checked out the new computer and found that everything is better except the hard drive (only a 20g compared to his current 80g). So I decided I would just swap HDD's. Everything went well in swapping, and I checked BIOS to make sure it was recognized as master and boot priority 1. Then I let it boot... It goes to a screen asking if I want to "Start my computer normally" with other options such as safe mode, command prompt, last known configuration... When I try any of these it just restarts and goes through the whole process again. I've hooked up the new HDD as the primary and the old one as secondary to see if the drive still works, and everything checked out. So I have no idea whats going on and gave up with trial and error testing, decided to give this a try instead.
 
ive had that problem before . hold F8 during post and the choose the hdd that the OS is installed on.
try that
 
i think you should try my idea first ... it carnt hurt and it will only take 30 seconds.

but i think atomic roosters rite about this you should do repair install if you still carnt boot using F8
 
If you take one HDD out does it boot up using just the other one?

It will boot from the original HDD, not from the other one. And I know both HDD's work. I've set this one up as a slave and can access everything, but I'd prefer to have the computer boot from this drive.

Thanks for your fast replies everyone, cryman; I think I tried what you said and it did nothing for me, thanks though.

Atomic Rooster, although there are multiple warning in this tutorial I still tried it only to realize my xp cd doesn't have the recovery option. If your pretty sure this will fix my problem I will go find an xp cd with the recovery option and try that.

I'm at a loss here, I've done HDD swaps before and have yet to encounter anything like this. Any advice is appreciated.
 
You havent got the same OS on both have you because that would a conflict, also are these IDE drives? if they are just check this guide
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm
Also if you trying to use both drives as OS you need too set up dual booting but I don't think you can dual boot the same OS. I have XP HOME on both my drives but I have my 160g as my system drive and the other as active which I just use for storage, but if I ever want to boot that up I change the the drives booting in the bios.
 
Everything is set up right. I can put the HDD I'm having trouble with back into the old computer and it runs great. I put it in the new one, set up the BIOS, and try to let it go. It will give me the "Start Windows normally" option and then restart. I don't plan on duel booting, I only used the second HDD to see if there were any IDE issues or anything with the new comp.

I think my new plan is to have my dad take any files he wants off the comp and format the 80g HDD. Use the 20g HDD as the primary boot and run windows off that using the 80g as basically another partion than. Would/does that work? If so is there a guide to doing that or is it as simple as I typed it.

Ex - If I run windows xp off the 20g and install a program on the 80g formatted drive will is show on the 20g desktop? Can I run it through that drive?
 
Everything is set up right. I can put the HDD I'm having trouble with back into the old computer and it runs great. I put it in the new one, set up the BIOS, and try to let it go. It will give me the "Start Windows normally" option and then restart. I don't plan on duel booting, I only used the second HDD to see if there were any IDE issues or anything with the new comp.

I think my new plan is to have my dad take any files he wants off the comp and format the 80g HDD. Use the 20g HDD as the primary boot and run windows off that using the 80g as basically another partion than. Would/does that work? If so is there a guide to doing that or is it as simple as I typed it.

Ex - If I run windows xp off the 20g and install a program on the 80g formatted drive will is show on the 20g desktop? Can I run it through that drive?

That should work, I think the reason its not working now is because all the OS on the other drive will have configured itself to your other computer so when you put it into this one the SPECS, DRIVERS are not matched to this system, format the drive then reinstall windows should fix the problem, then you will have the 80G drive as your primary once you set it to first boot, then use the 20G as storage. and yes the other drive will appear in MY COMPUTER it will look something like Cdrive Ddrive
 
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