thomashw Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 I have Windows installed on two of my hard drives (one IDE and one SATA.) The IDE install is just an old install I only ever use when I have problems with my current install. I recently reinstalled Windows on the SATA drive after formatting the drive, and it changed the SATA drive from C:\ to E:\. For some reason, Windows is using the boot.ini file from the IDE drive (C:\) I tried removing the boot.ini from the IDE drive and using the SATA drive to boot, but it says it cannot boot and just boots to the IDE drive. I have two questions: 1. How can I make it boot from the SATA drive instead of the IDE drive? 2. Is it "wise" to change the drive letters, or is this likely to mess up some things? I would definitely prefer to have the SATA drive as C:\. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asheeown Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Don't delete your boot.ini file...change it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022 And changing the drive letters shouldn't mean a thing at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomashw Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 Don't delete your boot.ini file...change it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022 And changing the drive letters shouldn't mean a thing at all I didn't delete it, I moved it from C:\ to E:\ hoping it would be used from the SATA drive instead of the IDE drive. Instead, it just told me it couldn't boot and ended up booting my old install from the IDE drive. I've read that changing the drive letter of a drive that boots the OS can cause problems resulting in the OS not being able to boot. Anyway, my main annoyance is having the boot.ini read from the IDE drive instead of the SATA drive. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 You can get a *windows 98* boot disk and do a fdisk MBR, that will create a new master boot record and see if that works. EDIT If you have never done this before, it will not display anything, but it will run if fdisk is on the boot disk. DO NOT DO JUST *FDISK* AS THAT WILL DELETE THE PARTITIONS ON THE DRIVE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomashw Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 I'll try switching the boot drive letters around, so if that does screw up my OS booting, I'll have to go into repair on the CD anyway. I shall report back (hopefully!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomashw Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 I've been doing some more reading, and looks like the system drive letter should only be changed if it changed after doing the install of XP. Mine changed during the install. Does anyone think doing a "repair" install of XP would work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 why dont you just go to your bios and change the boot order, or just get rid of the ide drive if you arent using it anyways... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomashw Posted October 3, 2008 Author Share Posted October 3, 2008 why dont you just go to your bios and change the boot order, or just get rid of the ide drive if you arent using it anyways... The IDE drive was the system drive, while the SATA drive was the boot drive. This means that the IDE drive was running the boot-up process, and the XP on the SATA drive was booted. The Windows boot files weren't even installed on the SATA drive for whatever reason. It seemed like I had a ton of things to fix (changing the SATA drive letter to C:\ and making the SATA drive the system and boot drive.) Changing the drive letter would of most likely meant a reinstall anyway, so I did that instead to avoid problems. I backed up the SATA drive, removed power from the two IDE drives (so it wouldn't screw up again,) then formatted the SATA drive and reinstalled Windows. I've plugged in the IDE drives again, and everything is looking perfect. Now I'm in the process of putting some files back on the computer. It's annoying, but I didn't like having the Windows drive as drive E:\. It also meant I would of had to leave the IDE drive as it was booting from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 thats the craziest setup that i have ever seen... with me...i always have win as c:, so i can see why it could annoy you...just habit... so let me try to understand the finished product... 1.)you formatted the sata hdd. 2.)you reinstalled win on the sata? 3.)the ide drives are now just storage? or are they still the system drives? sorry if i seem slow, but whenever i have a new comp, i have one drive w/ all sys files on it and if i have another hdd, it is for storage. what would be the benefit to your setup? just curious, not critical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomashw Posted October 3, 2008 Author Share Posted October 3, 2008 I didn't mean for that setup to happen. I had Windows installed on the IDE, and then installed Windows on the SATA (everything was working fine - SATA was the system and boot drive, and was the C:\ drive as well.) I then had problems with the SATA drive, so I had to format it and install Windows again. When I did, the SATA drive was assigned to E:\, the IDE drive was set as the system drive, and the SATA drive was set as the boot drive. I have no idea why this happened, and my intention the whole time was to have the SATA as the system, boot, and C:\ drive (which it is now.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 oh ok... just a case of the gremlins... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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