View Full Version : Win XP/SATA Drive/C:Drive
This totally confuses me. I have detected a failing IDE drive (C: drive '0', primary IDE master). I have now cloned this drive to a new SATA drive (as a boot drive), currently drive No 4 in my system and it has the drive letter T to keep it clear of other partitions. XP is NOT installed on the C: Drive but on a D:drive and boots via boot.ini
It is probably blindingly obvious, but since I do need to remove the failing IDE C: drive at some point, how do I tell the system that the new SATA Drive 4 is to be the new C Drive or is the only option to replace the IDE C drive with a cloned IDE?
M.Mouse
3rd Mar 2011, 08:20
See this article. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844)
jimtherev
3rd Mar 2011, 08:23
If I'm not missing something screechingly obvious, you do it in BIOS.
Disconnect the present 'C'
Enter BIOS - hit <DEL> or summat whilst booting,
Navigate to Advanced Options
Make your present 'T' the first drive... since it's cloned C you should have an identical content?
Hit F10, confirm,
Sit back & see if it works.
Obviously the DEL, F10 is on my machine; yours may or may not use different command keys.
MM - thanks, but I'm 'OK' with DLA.
Jim - thanks also. It is always 'screechingly obvious' to those who fully understand DOS/Windows, but as one who teeters around the edge I am unsure. Yes, I'm 'OK' with the principle of the BIOS boot assignment but:
1) Do I need to re-letter the existing C Drive partition (to 'U:', say) before unplugging it and consigning it to the great dustbin of hardware?
2) If I do not, will Windows change all the drive letters itself to re-letter the new boot drive as 'C:'? I am never sure of the significance of the letter 'C:' in the system but I'm sure I recall it has some system significance.
(I have a Hiren boot USB if I do need to 'fiddle around' outside the installed Windows)
Mike-Bracknell
3rd Mar 2011, 10:02
MM - thanks, but I'm 'OK' with DLA.
Jim - thanks also. It is always 'screechingly obvious' to those who fully understand DOS/Windows, but as one who teeters around the edge I am unsure. Yes, I'm 'OK' with the principle of the BIOS boot assignment but:
1) Do I need to re-letter the existing C Drive partition (to 'U:', say) before unplugging it and consigning it to the great dustbin of hardware?
2) If I do not, will Windows change all the drive letters itself to re-letter the new boot drive as 'C:'? I am never sure of the significance of the letter 'C:' in the system but I'm sure I recall it has some system significance.
(I have a Hiren boot USB if I do need to 'fiddle around' outside the installed Windows)
If you've cloned the drive, simply remove the old one from the PC. Then the new drive will perform exactly as the old one. Ensure you have SATA drivers installed if necessary though.
If you left the old drive in the PC, you might find it still tries to boot off it if the motherboard BIOS has a preference for ATA before SATA booting (which is fairly common on older mixed mobos). It is much safer to simply remove the old one.
tony draper
3rd Mar 2011, 10:24
Slightly off topic question gents,how exactly does one clone a entire disk? does it need special software? generally when I suspect a HD is going west I just buy a new one,do a clean operating system/drivers install and then copy the stuff I want from the old hard disk to the new un,cloning sounds much more practical.
PS running xp pro.
:)
MB - that is indeed even simpler! What happens to drive letters, however? I understand you are saying I do not need to change the boot order in BIOS? Obviously I will be removing the IDE before the reboot, but is it now going happily to find NTDLR/boot.ini etc on the 'T' drive?
TD - loads of cloning software around, a lot freeware. I find XXClone to be excellent.
jimtherev
3rd Mar 2011, 11:21
MB - that is indeed even simpler! What happens to drive letters, however? I understand you are saying I do not need to change the boot order in BIOS? Obviously I will be removing the IDE before the reboot, but is it now going happily to find NTDLR/boot.ini etc on the 'T' drive?
Haven't tried it Mike's way, but telling the m/c to boot from your present 'T' should automatically tell Windoze to call it your new 'C'. Has for me, when I've done the same exercise.
You can then go into your disk management to allocate any drive letter to all the rest.... the methodology differs somewhat depending on the flavour of Windoze IIRC.
Thanks,. Jim - I'll try it your way. If you don't hear from me.........................:)
Mac the Knife
3rd Mar 2011, 11:36
XP (and Win7) can get confused
Best to put the boot drive onto the SATA 0 connection
Tell the BIOS to boot from there
You may have to do a StartUp repair (in Win7)
Then progressively add the other drives to the stack.
:ok:
Linux is much easier...
Mac
Well, I'm back and slightly puzzled! Doing it Jim's way and I have the old IDE sitting on the desk but NO C: Drive now. The system boots fine and runs xp but the C drive is now called T.......................... I always thought you HAD to have a C drive:confused:
Mac's post came in too late
Mike-Bracknell
3rd Mar 2011, 15:15
Right-click My Computer, choose 'Manage'.
Click 'Disk Management'.
Right-click the T: disk, choose to change drive letters and make it C:
Reboot.
Oh no, Michael - one cannot change a boot/system drive letter that way. I decided to put on my flippers, hold my nose and dive into the registry/mounted devices and there is my shiny new C Drive which should sort out those badly written install programmes.
So, thanks to Jim (although it didn't quite work the way he expected) I am done.
jimtherev
3rd Mar 2011, 16:45
Sooo much easier when I had 20 Mb and Win 3.1... Mind you, ISTR that the hard drive was almost more expensive, weight for weight, than a gold bar.
Edited to add:
If it makes you happier, the way to do it in XP is via Control Panel > Admin Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management, then right-click on the ‘T’, and Robert is your father’s brother.
Me? I’d probably leave it as it is: working!
Jim - a nice idea but as per MB, it will NOT work on the 'T' drive in my system - which is (was) the boot drive - Windows does not allow letter change for this via Disk Management, (so Robert remains MY brother:rolleyes:). It has to be done via the Reg. If either of you, or anyone else wants to know how, post.
jimtherev
3rd Mar 2011, 22:04
Blessyercottonsox, BOAC, I think I'll pass. I try not to mess with the reg any more than I'm forced to - and in any case you can pretty-much guarantee that W7 will have some subtle difference which will lead me up some creek or other.
But glad you gottit fixed!
Jim
Mr Optimistic
5th Mar 2011, 12:56
isn't there a hard drive priority selection under 'boot' in the bios, maybe making the sata first on the list ? I sympathise as I have one system which boots from 'h' and I never did sort out why (perhaps something to do with which SATA connection is used on the mobo.). However, if what was 'c' is now 't', wont that thoroughly mess up all the registered programs ?
Mr O - sorry to be late on the scene, too busy blessing Reverends....................
See post 15 if it is a problem and I can share the way round it with you. It depends on what you mean by 'boots' - the 'boot' drive needs various files like NTDLR on it, but you tell the BIOS where to find it. If that drive has 'boot.ini' to select OS that is a 'boot' drive but if you simply have the one OS on a different drive that is another issue. As long as the machine knows 'where' to find the OS (and 'boot.ini' etc) all is well. If the 'C' drive has another drive letter, yes it can cause problems for poorly written installs that default to the 'C' drive.
I am booting' satisfactorily now from the new SATA 'C' drive, but having removed an IDE 'C' drive now I no longer have a 'Drive 0' in BIOS, although my remaining IDE (Drive 1 in BIOS) is sorted into 'Drive 0' in Windows Disk Manager. I could swap around the SATA drives to make it Sata Drive 0 but cannot be bothered as it all works. Confusing innit?:)
I may well be forced to upgrade my d/top soon anyway as, although it matches my personal 'declining speed', it is also starting to show its age and I suspect the processor will not handle a high-speed broadband (20+) if we manage to secure that.
FullOppositeRudder
8th Mar 2011, 05:32
I experienced a somewhat similar result when I changed to a larger (first) SATA drive in one of my other XP machines about twelve months ago. The bios assignment of the newly cloned and bootable SATA drive when compared with the previous IDE drive was confusing (to me), and not what I expected or really wanted. However I was unable to really change it, and because I didn't have the time to persevere, I left it as it was intending to sort it out later. After all, the machine booted from the required drive, and I was able to assign the desired drive letters within XP, even though the bios saw things differently. Strange, but it's a computer after all .... ;)
Over twelve months later I realise that it's turned out to be a reliable system, and I had virtually forgotten about the matter until I stumbled upon this thread a couple of days back.
I think that if you can live with the apparent anomaly, and you assign the drive letters which you require within the OS, the machine will probably continue to do all you require of it.
FWIW
FOR
FOR -as you can see I have 'restored' the letter 'C' to the correct drive. As you say, the machine WILL operate correctly without but there are still some less-than-perfect install routine that 'automatically' install to the 'C ' drive and you may find difficulties with these. I can remember installing some assembler-type stuff a while back that just stuffed things onto the 'C' drive (without any choice) and in those days the 'C' drive was the 'C' drive:). In your case, I guess best left alone, but the facility to change is there if you need it. The only drive letter you cannot 're-assign' in XP normally is the system/boot drive.
Mac the Knife
8th Mar 2011, 09:00
You need to understand the syntax of ARC paths
BOOT.INI and ARC Path Naming Conventions and Usage (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102873)
and Windows XP ARC Naming Conventions - TRCB (http://www.trcb.com/Computers-and-Technology/Windows-XP/Windows-XP-ARC-Naming-Conventions-1432.htm)
Mac
FullOppositeRudder
8th Mar 2011, 09:29
BOAC, thank you for that. This machine doesn't get a lot of 'new' requests these days - 'tis largely used in a routine and somewhat unadventurous role. I'll watch out for the points you have raised however, few things are more unpleasant than the prospect of re-installing the OS and programs. I have always stored data and My Docs on the second physical drive so - in theory anyway - they should be safe.
Thanks again, this 'forum' is exceptional in the breadth of experience available and the accuracy of advice offered. :ok:
FOR
Not sure if that was for me or FOR, but
You need to understand the syntax of ARC paths - convince me:)
No RISC, No SCSI and no problems directing the system to the OS? First para on x-86 already fully 'understood'.
Mac the Knife
8th Mar 2011, 16:24
"Theoretically, this syntax could be used to start Windows NT on any drive in the system. However, this would require that all drives are correctly identified through the standard INT 13 interface; since support for this varies from disk controller to disk controller and most system BIOS only identify a single disk controller through INT 13, in practice it is only safe to use this syntax to start Windows NT from the first two drives connected to the primary disk controller, or the first four drives in the case of a dual-channel EIDE controller."
To avoid tears put Windows :yuk: boot drive on the first SATA socket (SATA 0)
:ok:
Mac
Booglebox
9th Mar 2011, 01:53
Agree with Mac. Tis usually a different colour to the others. :8