Weird problems with new hardware.

[Krynn72]

Well, I got my stuff from newegg (**** yeah! I ordered it on wednesday and it got here on friday!) after my comp blew up as described in my other thread. Everything seems to be functioning, but there are some strange problems.

firstly, I had to disconnect my old IDE hard drive in order to get the system to boot. It kept telling me some files were missing, or it couldnt find windows installed on it, so I removed it, and just left a new SATA drive in. This drive is totally fresh, I bought it on accident for an older PC that couldnt use SATA. So I installed windows on it and it works.

Thing is, every time the computer starts up, it asks me to choose which OS to boot, and lists 3 Windows XP Professional installs, and one Windows XP Professional x64 install. My keyboard isnt recognized at this point so all I can do is wait 30 seconds for it to choose the first option.

Now, on my old IDE drive that is currently disconnected, I had set up multiple Operating systems, but ended up just using one. So that raises two questions, the first being why would it recognize so many windows installs if they arnt there, and secondly, why would it still show them after the drive that had them is disconnected from the motherboard?

Also, I need the info on my IDE drive, but it seems like I wont be able to connect it in a conventional manner. So I was thinking of getting an enclosure for it, and using it like an external drive. Will there be any issues with this?

 

[Asus]

Could you simply switch which drive the BIOS wants to boot to first (put the old drive back in)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_sector
Could have the info in the boot sector on one drive but the actual OS on the other.

 

[Krynn72]

I tried switching the boot priority, but it would just bring me to the "select operating system" screen for a second, then immediately give me an error.

How would I go about finding and fixing the boot sector thing?

EDIT: Well, it seems like my drive is shot. I cant get windows to see it at all. I tried plugging it back in, and it didnt even show up in the bios list, and I dont see it being recognized anywhere in windows. I even got an enclosure, and it didnt work. It just kept giving me the Bading! Badong! noises over and over and over again.

Damnit. 250 gigs of data gone... and the ****ing external that I had backed stuff up on is also not working. So I pretty much lost two years worth of personal projects, school work, music files, saved game files, reference images, textures and god knows what else.

Son of a bitch!

Anyways, I would still like to fix that multiple operating systems thing.

 

[function9]

If you had the old HDD in when you put Windows on the new HDD, it will copy any OS info currently in the system to the new Windows install. You need to edit the "Boot.ini" file if you don't want the list of OSes coming up on boot up. Right click on My Computer>Properties>Advanced>Setting Button under Start up and Recovery. Click the edit button under System Startup and it will open up the boot.ini file, you should see something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Under [operating systems] delete whichever line(s) that don't refer to your current Windows install. The newest install will be at the top of the list.

As for the HDD, could be worth a shot. Set the jumper on that drive to Cable Select (CS). When I still used IDE drives I found no matter what configuration I had Western Digital drive(s) in, they always gave me problems unless I set them to CS.

 

[Krynn72]

YOU ARE A GOD

Not only did you fix my multiple OS problem... but you proved me an idiot!

I had pretty much given up hope for my data and my drives, but when you mentioned the jumpers, I decided to give it one last shot, and see what my jumpers were at. The jumpers were fine... but while I checked them, I noticed something else. The power cable wasnt plugged in.

DOY!

So, I plugged that in, and got the fancy idea of smashing open my external drive's enclosure (ie. unscrewing it) and just slapping that in my PC as an internal drive.

Lo and behold... I have ALL my data back. Seems like only the enclosure was actually messed up. Function9, you are my hero.

 

[function9]

Glad I could be of some help sir. And good to hear the old HDD is working, I know it can be a pain not being able to access a bunch of stuff you may need.