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Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/3/2008 7:53:10 AM
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draexo
Posts: 340
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From: Saratoga County, New York
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So 4 years ago we bought a new computer with Windows XP. 2 years ago we bought a 2nd hard drive for it - drive D: Aout 6 months ago I trade up to Windows Vista and installed it on D: and ended up with a dual-boot system with the former D: as C: - the drives switched letters after I installed Vista. Now the original C: drive - which is now the D: drive - is failing. I removed it as I really do not need it but the newer drive will not boot. I asked my bro-in-law who builds computers for a living and he said just take out the d failing drive a reformat the newer drive and reinstall everything.
That would take a lot of time.
Is there an easier way to make my newer drive with Vista - the boot drive?
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/3/2008 2:27:19 PM
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ot4christ
Posts: 185
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From: Beside the Smoky Mountains
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The boot sector was likely on the drive you removed. This doesn't help but may explain what happened.
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/3/2008 3:09:00 PM
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neuronstatic
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From: North Carolina!
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Like the previous poster said, the boot sector was likely on the failed drive. That means you really have no way of "booting" the machine. Yes you may have an operating system on the drive, but when a computer boots, it first loads the "boot loader" which loads an operating system. The BIOS of the machine normally looks for the boot loader in the boot sector on the first (working) drive it finds.
*Maybe* you can use the original Vista install disk to repair the installation. That would be preferred because it may be able to fix this with minimal devastation to the existing operating system loaded on the drive.
Alternatively buy a small cheap hard drive and replace the failed drive with it. Then use the Vista installer to "sys" this new disk. That would put a boot sector and the NT loader on it.
One last thought, you could try booting a Linux live CD and seeing if you can set up the drive for dual boot and load the Grub boot loader on there. This option is maybe overkill, but it should recognise the existing Vista install and just fix the boot sector and install Grub. This *may* work, or it may trash the existing Vista load.
Or just wipe and reload from scratch.
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/3/2008 6:08:09 PM
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draexo
Posts: 340
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From: Saratoga County, New York
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quote:
ORIGINAL: neuronstatic
Or just wipe and reload from scratch.
Hmm... this sounds easiest. It would help clean up all the junk on there also.
I just do not have a lot of time for this right now... in a few weeks I might, but now I am so strapped for time. I might try the Vista repair option. Im going to wait a few days and see what else gets posted.
Thanks!
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TRUTH
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/4/2008 12:23:17 AM
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ot4christ
Posts: 185
Joined: 8/29/2008
From: Beside the Smoky Mountains
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You said the original was failing – not failed, right? If that’s the case, I’d do as neuronstatic suggested and get another drive. I’d copy an image of the old drive, which will include the boot sector, onto it. That should get you up and running.
If you don't have any files on the system that are really important, I'd definitely just wipe it clean and reinstall everything. If you have files you want to save, you can get a USB to SATA adapter (mine was less than $20) and connect the drive to another computer and transfer the files you want to save.
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/4/2008 7:27:03 AM
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draexo
Posts: 340
Joined: 1/26/2007
From: Saratoga County, New York
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No, the drive has not failed yet, but it is not happy. It returns a SMART status of OK, but when I run any of the SMART tests, it fails and on occasion it does not boot up and just sits there going... WHRRRR. I'm thinking I may just get a new drive and format it and start over. I'm gonna try and see what happens when I put the Vista install disk in.
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/4/2008 1:00:43 PM
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figmentPez
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From: TX
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You might try doing an "install-in-place". Boot from the Vista CD, and then install on top of your existing installation. I think that would make the drive bootable, while keeping all your data and programs intact. (You'll have to reinstall security patches, and SP1 if it's not part of your Windows disc.)
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/10/2008 9:06:59 PM
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draexo
Posts: 340
Joined: 1/26/2007
From: Saratoga County, New York
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Is there software I can purchse that will do this? I searched the web and found some - all for a price, but I am not sure if they will do it. Vista is installed on the good drive, but the system boots to the bad drive first. I need to make the partition on the good drive primary, but I can not find any way to do it.
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The truth will set you free!
TRUTH
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/10/2008 11:02:05 PM
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figmentPez
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From: TX
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First, unless you've got your good drive has been partitioned into multiple logical partitions (and I don't know of a reason to do that unless you need more than 4 partitions on one drive), then it should be a primary partition.
If you just want to change the boot order of the drives, then you'll need to go into your BIOS and change it there.
If you want to image the bad drive, there is free software but the only one I'm familiar with had such a horrible user interface that I can't recommend it.
If you haven't already tried it, I still think an "install-in-place" should work.
_____________________________
I make this challenge to all Christians:
Read Daniel 7:13-14
And tell me: Who do you say that the Son of Man is?
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RE: Making 2nd SATA drive primary - 12/23/2008 6:44:45 AM
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draexo
Posts: 340
Joined: 1/26/2007
From: Saratoga County, New York
Status: offline
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I used Acronis's Disk Director software to partition the drive as a primary and then of course the motherboard turned its toes to the daisy's. So I bought an external kit and now I have a 250gb external drive for my laptop until I get a new desktop. They no longer make new socket 478 momboards for P4's so Im upgrading the whole thing... might get away from the whole mid-tower to a micro.
And Acronis' told me there were too many bad sectors on the 80 gb drive for me to turn it into a logical from a primary partition. The money spent on the external case and Acronis I could have bought a new external drive, but I needed the data on the drive.
Thanks everyone for your help!
_____________________________
The truth will set you free!
TRUTH
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