OS not loading

fane · 10-06-2006, 01:27 PM

Hello everyone,
Last December 26th we purchased a new 250 Gb. WD hard drive. Haven't really gotten around to installing it until now. My dad said he installed it but it would only load Windows ME.
(We had Windows ME and upgraded directly to XP, it would prompt when the system booted up and you would just have to press enter)
Only now, Dad has installed the drive and there is no prompt; it just takes you right into Windows ME.
He installed the 250gb drive by removing the 30gb drive (The 30gb drive had ME installed on it, but he copied the files over the drives. Not sure how he did that..) He says if we put the 30gb drive back in and swap out the 250gb, it runs fine.
We also have an 80gb drive, and a 120gb (Its partitioned into two 56gb drives) drive installed on the computer, so there are no free slots.
The only thing I can think of that seems wrong is that he didn't use their cord, but he says it won't matter because he has the same one. It says on the instructions, make sure you use the cord that comes with it, but Dad says the old one is identical.

Thanks for listening, I'd appreciate any suggestions, as I'm typing this from my terrible computer and I'm unable to use the other one at all.

dai · 10-06-2006, 02:23 PM

you should be using a 80 wire ide cable.the plugs are different colours compared to the old 40wire
the jumper settings are diferent on a wd drive to most other drives
single master=jumpers removed
master with slave= jumper in that position
slave=jumper in that position
master goes on the end of the cable and slave in the middle plug
when you installed xp did you run the m/b setup disk afterwards and install the drivers for xp

**hwm54112** · 10-06-2006, 09:24 PM

It sounds like you had 2 partitions on the 30 gig drive, one with me and the other with xp for a dual boot system OR more likely, a parallel install with both xp and me in the same partition. When the drive was changed, your dad probably did a fresh install of xp only or he copied the xp partition to the new drive first and then copied me but did not copy or change the boot.ini file- the file responsible for the boot menu (prompt as you call it).

So did he do a fresh install of xp only on the new drive or did he try to copy the old drive to the new drive?

On the new drive, are there 2 partitions OR two windows folders on the same partition?

If xp and me are in separate partitions, look in the root directory of both for the boot.ini files. They are text files that can be opened with notepad. Post them

I’m guessing that you want the boot menu back so that you can choose between ME or XP. If that’s the case, it may be a simple matter of editing boot.ini but we would need to know the answers to those questions for starters.

fane · 10-08-2006, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hwm54112

It sounds like you had 2 partitions on the 30 gig drive, one with me and the other with xp for a dual boot system OR more likely, a parallel install with both xp and me in the same partition. When the drive was changed, your dad probably did a fresh install of xp only or he copied the xp partition to the new drive first and then copied me but did not copy or change the boot.ini file- the file responsible for the boot menu (prompt as you call it).

So did he do a fresh install of xp only on the new drive or did he try to copy the old drive to the new drive?

On the new drive, are there 2 partitions OR two windows folders on the same partition?

If xp and me are in separate partitions, look in the root directory of both for the boot.ini files. They are text files that can be opened with notepad. Post them

I’m guessing that you want the boot menu back so that you can choose between ME or XP. If that’s the case, it may be a simple matter of editing boot.ini but we would need to know the answers to those questions for starters.

Dad ghosted the old C drive onto the new one, which had ME installed on it. XP was installed on the partitioned 120Gb drive, but that drive was not touched at all.

Here's the boot.ini from Windows XP:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows"

ME was actually a clean install that we upgraded into XP with, we didn't put any drivers for it or anything. I can't find a boot.ini for it, either.

We've put the old 30gb C drive back in, the one that contained ME, and the computer is running like it always did.

10-06-2006, 01:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
fane Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2 OS: Windows XP	OS not loading Hello everyone, Last December 26th we purchased a new 250 Gb. WD hard drive. Haven't really gotten around to installing it until now. My dad said he installed it but it would only load Windows ME. (We had Windows ME and upgraded directly to XP, it would prompt when the system booted up and you would just have to press enter) Only now, Dad has installed the drive and there is no prompt; it just takes you right into Windows ME. He installed the 250gb drive by removing the 30gb drive (The 30gb drive had ME installed on it, but he copied the files over the drives. Not sure how he did that..) He says if we put the 30gb drive back in and swap out the 250gb, it runs fine. We also have an 80gb drive, and a 120gb (Its partitioned into two 56gb drives) drive installed on the computer, so there are no free slots. The only thing I can think of that seems wrong is that he didn't use their cord, but he says it won't matter because he has the same one. It says on the instructions, make sure you use the cord that comes with it, but Dad says the old one is identical. Thanks for listening, I'd appreciate any suggestions, as I'm typing this from my terrible computer and I'm unable to use the other one at all.

10-06-2006, 02:23 PM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 53,599 OS: vista 32x 64x ultimate retail	you should be using a 80 wire ide cable.the plugs are different colours compared to the old 40wire the jumper settings are diferent on a wd drive to most other drives single master=jumpers removed master with slave= jumper in that position slave=jumper in that position master goes on the end of the cable and slave in the middle plug when you installed xp did you run the m/b setup disk afterwards and install the drivers for xp __________________

10-06-2006, 09:24 PM	#3 (permalink)
hwm54112 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 2,233 OS: WINXP	It sounds like you had 2 partitions on the 30 gig drive, one with me and the other with xp for a dual boot system OR more likely, a parallel install with both xp and me in the same partition. When the drive was changed, your dad probably did a fresh install of xp only or he copied the xp partition to the new drive first and then copied me but did not copy or change the boot.ini file- the file responsible for the boot menu (prompt as you call it). So did he do a fresh install of xp only on the new drive or did he try to copy the old drive to the new drive? On the new drive, are there 2 partitions OR two windows folders on the same partition? If xp and me are in separate partitions, look in the root directory of both for the boot.ini files. They are text files that can be opened with notepad. Post them I’m guessing that you want the boot menu back so that you can choose between ME or XP. If that’s the case, it may be a simple matter of editing boot.ini but we would need to know the answers to those questions for starters.