More problems then you can shake a stick at!!

[Ben_JH]

Hi lads & lasses, first time posting =]

 

I've got a string of problems at the moment spread across a few different operating systems, however I have a suspicion they could all be related to each other so it's very hard to put this in a definitive topic area.

 

First of all let me list my set up:

 

Desktop:

 

Hard Drive 1 - SATA Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB (Windows 7 64-bit)

Hard Drive 2 - SATA Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB (Data, Music, Videos etc)

Hard Drive 3 - SATA Seagate ST312006AS 120GB (Windows XP Pro 32-bit)

 

Laptop:

 

Hard Drive 4 - SATA Toshiba HDD2D60 120GB (Windows Vista Premium 32-bit)

 

The first 3 hard drives have been working fine in my custom built PC since August 09.

First of all I started out with the Seagate HD with Windows XP. I got a Western Digital HD to store all my non-OS data on. In October I purchased Windows 7 64-bit and had this installed on another Western Digital HD. All 3 HD's are connected to my motherboard and have been working absolutely perfectly until about two weeks ago.

 

What happened? Well not content with the 120GB Seagate (as it's starting to get on a bit) I decided to clone it to yet another Western Digital HD using Mirray's HD Clone program since my XP installation disk was shattered when I moved out of my parents house. As it happens, now neither XP HD will boot due to "missing NTDLR" - however if I use a boot disk to get windows up and running it works fine. I suspect a corrupted MBR but naturally I'm unable to use the Windows recovery console since I no longer have the flaming disk.

 

What does this have to do with Windows 7 you say? Well heres an interesting issue I ran into whilst trying to run my laptop hard drive to transfer some files. I disconnected the XP based hard drive and plugged the Toshiba in. Try to boot Windows 7 and *BAM* blue screen of death on loading and the PC restarts. Very odd. Put the XP hard drive back in - no problem, Windows 7 starts fine.

 

I go on and test this a little further - I keep the Windows 7 HD in and the XP HD in, but remove the Data HD. Windows 7 starts loading - blue screen of death again. Same again when I remove the XP HD (with Data HD connected or not).

 

Just what the hell is going on here!? I've been using PC's for years and have never heard of anything like this been made possible - surely the HD I installed Windows 7 is independant of the other drives?

 

Anyway, if anyone can explain whats happening and give me a way to resolve this I would be greatly appriciative. Also, I'm also willing to learn so don't skimp out on details! =P

Oh, and if anyone can point me in the right direction with fixing my MBR for XP that would be grand. I have a friend with an XP installation disk coming down in a few weeks but I'd rather not wait that long!

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

This is most likely because it is a dual boot configuration. The one HDD is looking for the other HDD when booting.

 

You can also try using Ultimate Boot CD to repair the boot problem

 

Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

[Ben_JH]

So just to double check, I would need to run a boot manager from the CD? And do what exactly? Sorry its just this is the first time I've come across something like this!

[Plastic Nev]

It could also be down to how the BIOS is configured, it may well be looking down it's list of start up options, when all drives are present it can carry on, but if you have physically disconnected one of the drives, the BIOS can't find it, gets confused and shuts down.

Have a look at how the BIOS is configured and if possible show us the start up list.

Nev.

[Ben_JH]

This is what I have displayed in my BIOS menu:

 

My HD Boot Priority in BIOS is showing up as:

 

1. Ch2 S. : Western Digital (Windows 7)

2. Ch3 M. : Western Digital (Data)

3. Ch2 M : Seagate (XP)

 

This is what it shows in Advanced CMOS features:

 

IDE Channel 0 Master: [None] (just noticed this - my second DVD drive is no longer showing up!)

IDE Channel 0 Slave: [DVD RW]

IDE Channel 2 Master: [seagate]

IDE Channel 2 Slave: [Western Digital] (Windows 7)

IDE Channel 3 Master: [Western Digital] (Data)

IDE Channel 3 Slave: [None]

 

Just a note, upon removing the Data HD Windows 7 will boot. On removing the XP HD Windows 7 still will not boot. I'm guessing the first time I removed the Data HD it was just a fluke.

 

I have the Ultimate Boot CD already but what should I be using? Your gonna have to excuse me with this, I've never had to get into boot issues before so I'm a bit thick on this subject!