WinXP SATA system image problems

[dsc]

Hi guys,

some of you might have stumbled upon this problem, so I thought I would ask.

Recently I bought two SATA drives which are both working fine, WinXP sees them and I can access them without any problems. Because my main IDE drive is not working properly and sometimes won't boot (it's a hardware problem) I made an Acronis image of the system partition and moved it to one of the SATA disk partitions. This worked well and now I have the whole system copied on the SATA. The next step was to boot from the SATA and use that instead of the original IDE, but here's where the troubles begin. When I set the boot priority in BIOS and choose the SATA drive as the first one the system won't boot and gives me this message instead:

Missing NTLDR file (or something like that)

I've googled this and apparently it's because the boot.ini file isn't pointing to the right drive. Acronis site says you should boot from the system CD and do a bunch of steps to fix the boot.ini. The funny bit is that when I try to boot from the WinXP CD it doesn't see the SATA drives so I can't do the fix. I tried making a floppy with the SATA drivers on it (download from Asus website which is my mobo manufacturer) but that also doesn't work as it crashes the WinXP CD boot procedure showing something like this:

File ######.## [which is the SATA driver] caused an unexpected error (4096) in the WinXP boot program. Press ENTER to continue.

So I thought perhaps I can manually modify the boot.ini file in WinXP, under the IDE installation? anyone ever did that? Any suggestions are more than welcome:)

Regards,
dsc.

[GreenBean]

Oh dear, if I was Irish I would say that if I was to fix a Windows XP problem I would not start from here!

I have not read your post thoroughly but I think you have not loaded the SATA drivers correctly. Have a look at:

http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/000867.html

Hope that helps.

[dsc]

Hi GreenBean,

nah it's not that easy:) I tried the trick with the floppy but that's what causes the unexpected error in the WinXP Boot CD application (the blue screen that allows you to load SATA drivers, access Repair Console and install a fresh system). Normally I don't have to load anything as the XP sees the drives when it loads, it's just the WinXP CD that fails to see the disks.

Regards,
dsc.

[bruceb]

From a normal, vanilla XP cd you cannot access an SATA drive unless you load the SATA drivers for your disk. XP offers this possibility while starting. It's a pain. I created a Windows XP installation disk (I actually have it on a USB stick) with the SATA drivers using a special program. The program also lets you install all the fix packs and patches up to the most recent on the disk so you don't have to go through the whole update mess when you reinstall. Unfortunately, I can't give you much info on the program I used because it was from a German computer magazine, but I'm sure if you Google around a bit you'll find something similar.

[dsc]

Hi Bruce,

yes I'm aware a fresh XP CD doesn't have SATA drivers and you have to load them, but the problem is I can't as it simply crashes the boot facility. The SATA drivers floppy was created using Asus SATA drivers software which copies all the required files into floppy. I used it after booting from the XP CD and even though the system sees the SATA drives on the floppy, for some reason it cannot handle them properly which causes the error. It might be a floppy error though as I heard that an error code starting with 40## means there's something wrong with the FDD.

Regards,
dsc.

[CakeBoy]

Is your installation disk just XP or does it include a Service Pack as well? Have you tried slipstreaming a Service Pack/the SATA drivers with the XP installation disk?

I think you can also sort it using nLite.

http://www.digitgeek.com/how-to-slipstr ... nto-xp-cd/

[motoman]

Before you do anything you should update the bios as well as the latest sata update for your mobo. Remember that if you are using the 64bit version there is little or no support from manufacturers. If you do slipstream, make sure it is the latest SP3.

[dsc]

Hi guys,

thanks for all the tips. I finally managed to force the WinXP boot application to see the SATA drives. Turns out that there was something wrong with the floppy and after making another one manually (coping the drivers manually) it actually works. Of course the problem doesn't end there:)

So I can now choose which WinXP installation I want to log in when in the Recovery console. I tried messing with the new 'cloned' installation by using the following:

- coping NTLDR and NTDETECT to the new SATA system partition

- running Bootcfg /rebuild to look for new system installations, but instead of finding the one I want it found a bunch of crap from some backups I made a while ago.

- running Fixboot and Fixmbr, both failed to change anything

So I'm still getting the 'Missing NTLDR file' crap when I try to boot from the SATA drive, BUT I think I know why. I've looked at the partitions and it looks something like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tompjagiello/3867926109/

[yeah it's in Polish:)]

so partition D is the current one I boot from and I want to boot from L. Now the dark blue frames are basic partitions, the light blue is logical disk and the green is extended partition. In addition D is marked as 'Boot', L is marked as 'Healthy' (as everything else) and M is marked as Active (not sure why). Am I correct to think that because M is Active it tries to look for the NTLDR file there (and fails to find it as it actually sits on L)?

Anyways I will try one more thing, booting from the WinXP CD and logging into my current WinXP installation (the one on D). I will then run Bootcfg and try too look for the system install on L. Previously I logged into the L installation and perhaps that's why it couldn't find itself?

This whole this is really getting on my nerves...

Regards,
dsc.