[anothertensionh]

XP won't boot "Reboot and Select proper Boot device" - bad boot record or HDD?

Recently I took a look at my girlfriend's PC as explorer crashed each time it was booted, even safe mode wouldn't work. I opted to re-install the OS from scratch. The only problem I had was that she needed some files backing up, so I had no option but to plug her HDD into a spare SATA bay I have in my own PC (80GB of data needed to be saved, I don't have an external HDD that big).

Anyhow, I backed up the files to a HDD I have in my computer and then re-installed Windows on her HDD in my own PC. I then put her data back onto the HDD. Everything worked fine in my PC, I was able to boot into Windows XP no problem. Please note I didn't install any drivers apart from any defaults the XP install detected and installed.

After putting the HDD (with the assumedly fixed XP install and recovered data) back into her PC I cannot get it to boot at all. I get the following error message:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

I have tried the following and keep getting the same message:

1. Checked BIOS and set it to default.
2. Removed the system battery to hard reset BIOS.
3. Performed a full repair on the XP install using an XP CD.
4. Executed several commands in recovery console: bootcfg, fixboot and fixmbr.
5. Used chkdsk, HDD appears to be fine.
6. Unlpugged everything, checked connections, etc.

I assumed it was some kind of driver issue from using my PC for the fresh install, but as repair nukes the Windows system files surely this is not the case.

Any ideas? All help is highly appreciated, pulling my hair out here. Thanks.

 

[AlbertMC2]

I would boot with the WinXP cd in her pc with her hard drive. Start WinXP setup, delete the partition on the hard drive and continue installing windows. (make sure you still have that backup!)
It is not a good idea to install Windows on a hard drive meant for another pc. Unless the computers are identical (especially the motherboards) otherwise there is a good chance you will have driver and performance issues.

 

[fooey]

Although you'll encounter BSoD (most likely) when booting your freshly reinstalled HDD on your girls PC(assuming you have 2 separate model computers), I need a little more info...(at least I do)
is the hard drive from your girlfriends machine SATA or IDE? What was your computers setup(sata cdrom + an existing sata hdd too? 1 IDE & 1 SATA? or ... etc) ..& what's the connection setup in your girls comp

edit: after seeing Albert's post as I posted mine, his is the more suggested/full proof method to fix this.

 

[anothertensionh]

The HDD in question is SATA. My setup is:

1. Bay 1: SATA DVD-RW Drive.
2. Bay 2: SATA HDD (with my XP install on).
3. Bay 3: (usually occupied by my other SATA HDD, but used to format gf's HDD).

I had to edit the boot loader on my machine after I put the HDD back into it as it was trying to load a non-existent copy of XP (the one I loaded onto my gf's drive). Just a side thought there.

Her comp is:

Bay 1: SATA DVD-RW Drive.
Bay 2: SATA HDD (the problem drive).

I have never re-formatted using this (odd) method before. I'd usually just back up data to another external drive then re-install. Problem is I haven't got the space to house 80GB on any externals so had to use an internal drive in my machine. I understand this is an odd way of going about re-formatting but I thought repair would sort any driver issues (which I had expected).

Thanks for looking guys, again any help is really appreciated.