Oh man I am stuck and in need of Help!

jarrod1111 · 11-18-2008, 09:18 PM

I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

I was running a SATA drive (Seagate 500GB) and IDE (not important).. I installed XP on the SATA drive used the IDE as backup/storage. I then bought a second SATA drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB and installed Vista on it. Then because XP was i thought obsolete i deleted it.

I then had some issues with booting and i used VistaProBoot to get me to boot into the 1000GB drive first (which was default D:) ... I then ran for a while as if it was C: ... I then changed the drive to C: in the drive manager in vista. (seemed to work fine) until..

All goes well for a while until i need XP again. So i try to install xp on the 500gb hdd (the original C:). I then try to boot and get nothing. So i tried to install windows again and nothing. This is Service Pack 2 Windows. At one point i got a NTLDR is missing (but not the press any key to restart). I burnt some boot cds but to no avail - the computer would not function even to BIOS with the 1000gb hdd plugged in.

So then i power on my system to get only a cursor "_" in the top left corner (not blinking). System will not even boot to BIOS. After some troubleshooting and switching the BIOS jumper (which gets me into BIOS but only results in the same "_" on a black screen after i put it back. I notice that if i remove the 1000GB hdd then i can install windows. So my plan is to install windows and then hopefully be able to remove the VISTA on the 1000GB hdd once i can boot into windows.

Well now i have Vista installed but as soon as i plug the Seagate 1000gb hdd back in i get that same "_" cursor and it won't boot into BIOS.

What I am thinking is that the computer wants to boot but it is not sure what mbr to boot to.

Now that I am running on the one drive (the 500gb) and vista- I want to be able to get some info off of the 1000gb and eventually install XP on a partition on that.

I don't even mind deleting or formating the partition that has vista installed on the 1000gb hdd - if i could get it to be recognized even to dos i think that would be possible - but i can't do this .. any thoughts on how i might?

Any help to getting at least to the bios with both drives plugged in would really help!

Thanks.

Sincerely!

Jarrod.

belfasteddie · 11-18-2008, 11:58 PM

In your Bios is a BOOT PRIORITY option. It is useful when using a setup such as yours. You simply go into the Bios at boot and select which drive you want to boot to. So to install XP onto the IDE go into the Bios priority and select IDE and then install XP.

11-18-2008, 09:18 PM	#1 (permalink)
jarrod1111 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 1 OS: Vista 64	Oh man I am stuck and in need of Help! I'll try to keep this as short as possible. I was running a SATA drive (Seagate 500GB) and IDE (not important).. I installed XP on the SATA drive used the IDE as backup/storage. I then bought a second SATA drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB and installed Vista on it. Then because XP was i thought obsolete i deleted it. I then had some issues with booting and i used VistaProBoot to get me to boot into the 1000GB drive first (which was default D:) ... I then ran for a while as if it was C: ... I then changed the drive to C: in the drive manager in vista. (seemed to work fine) until.. All goes well for a while until i need XP again. So i try to install xp on the 500gb hdd (the original C:). I then try to boot and get nothing. So i tried to install windows again and nothing. This is Service Pack 2 Windows. At one point i got a NTLDR is missing (but not the press any key to restart). I burnt some boot cds but to no avail - the computer would not function even to BIOS with the 1000gb hdd plugged in. So then i power on my system to get only a cursor "_" in the top left corner (not blinking). System will not even boot to BIOS. After some troubleshooting and switching the BIOS jumper (which gets me into BIOS but only results in the same "_" on a black screen after i put it back. I notice that if i remove the 1000GB hdd then i can install windows. So my plan is to install windows and then hopefully be able to remove the VISTA on the 1000GB hdd once i can boot into windows. Well now i have Vista installed but as soon as i plug the Seagate 1000gb hdd back in i get that same "_" cursor and it won't boot into BIOS. What I am thinking is that the computer wants to boot but it is not sure what mbr to boot to. Now that I am running on the one drive (the 500gb) and vista- I want to be able to get some info off of the 1000gb and eventually install XP on a partition on that. I don't even mind deleting or formating the partition that has vista installed on the 1000gb hdd - if i could get it to be recognized even to dos i think that would be possible - but i can't do this .. any thoughts on how i might? Any help to getting at least to the bios with both drives plugged in would really help! Thanks. Sincerely! Jarrod. Last edited by jarrod1111; 11-18-2008 at 09:22 PM.

11-18-2008, 11:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
belfasteddie tech hardware team Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Belfast N.I. Posts: 1,552 OS: Puppy Linux 4.12	Re: Oh man I am stuck and in need of Help! In your Bios is a BOOT PRIORITY option. It is useful when using a setup such as yours. You simply go into the Bios at boot and select which drive you want to boot to. So to install XP onto the IDE go into the Bios priority and select IDE and then install XP.