BleepingComputer.com: Hard Drive Problem

Another problem that I couldn't configure why it is happening.

I have a Maxtor SATA HDD 320GB, Which the windows is installed on it. It name is 'D:' on 'My Computer'

The other HDD is Western Digital, IDE connection and a capacity of 160 GB, which my father was using it on another pc and the hard drive crashed.
Later when it crashed I connected the WD HDD (160 GB) to recover some files, which I couldn't and for some reason it turned to be the 'C:' on 'My Computer'

When I removed the Wsetern Digital (the crashed one) HDD, before the boot screen, this message below was written

Quote

When I connected the Western Digital HDD (the crashed one), the OS booted correctly.

Now I thought that because the Western Digital HDD (the crashed one) was the C: drive and the other one D: drive (where the proper windows installation is), the OS won't load without the C: drive, I am Right?

Should I Change the drive letter, and then I could remove the bad one.

Thanks for reading
Delta

Hello,

When a SATA and a IDE drive is installed onto a computer at the same time, the IDE drive will take priority over the SATA drive, and the SATA drive that was originally C: will automatically become D: and the IDE drive will automatically be the C: drive.


THE SOLUTION:
*******************************************************************************************************
If you want to boot up the computer from the Maxtor SATA drive try the following:

Turn on the computer and enter the CMOS settings (usually by pressing "delete" while the the computer tries to boot up.
Select the "BIOS features setup" or the "Intergrate peripherals" menu.
and select the "boot sequence" or "Boot priority" menu and change the 1st boot device your your 320GB SATA drive.
*******************************************************************************************************

Hopefully this helps

Actually...on my systems, the SATA drives have priority (Disk0) over any IDE devices that might be attached.

A partition with an operating system on it...should not even be able to change the drive letter from C: to anything without doing a repair install. But it does happen.

And a drive without an operating system...should never be assigned the letter C:...if this happened, then the optical drive (since it's the first or second drive recognized by the system) would not start with D:. All drives attached after that should follow right down the line in sequence from D:.

You might take a look at How to restore the system-boot drive letter in Windows - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;EN-US;Q223188

Louis

hamluis, on Mar 20 2009, 03:29 PM, said:

I did exactly as there is in that URL above, and another problem came out.

I swapped the letters of the drives, from D: to C: and from C: to D:.
When the computer starts up, at the logon screen, it will stuck there.
I can't boot in Safe Mode, cause its the same.

What can I do to get my system back as it was?
I need this really quick, cause I have all my data and my father's data of work.

EDIT : I can move the cursor but only the windows xp logo is showing

Hmmm...did you change the boot order in the BIOS? The SATA drive should be the first option.

Well...I would just do a repair install, with only the 1 hard drive (the one with XP installed) and 1 optical drive (to run the XP CD).

That would get the drive letter for the boot drive as it should be.

After that, I would reconnect any other drives...and XP would assign them drive letters based on the order in which they are installed.

One thing you might try...temporarily disconnect all other drives, except for the one with XP installed.

FWIW: I would be concerned as to why the boot drive letter originally changed...that is not a normal event.

Louis

I don't know how the drive letter changed, maybe I have messed something around.

I'll try removing the other drive and repair the windows.

I'll keep you informed with the output I'll get.

And A BIG Thanks for reading my post again and helping me.

When it tries to boot from CD, it will skip it, i've tried both drives and changed boot device in the BIOS.

Can't repair windows !