XP Hard Drive failed

L

LJames

Member
3 identical Sata Seagate Barracuda 500GB hard drives: XP Pro on Drive 1, Data on Drive 2, Win7 on Drive 3: Drive 1 (XP) failed and unable to boot to Win7; on startup get NTLDR is missing (CNTl-ALT-DEL to restart) How do I get Win7 to boot?


I do believe I have a recent Image of the XP Drive on my External backup drive, and I do have a new (unformatted) spare drive to use. Is there a way to boot up and reinstall the image to the new drive
 
Terry60 said:
When you installed W7 it put its boot files on XP (normal behaviour when a previous Windows already exists). With XP's demise, W7's boot files have gone too.
Use your W7 DVD to repair the W7 boot process
Recovering the Windows Bootloader from the DVD - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Should have noted that I have tried at least 10 times to "repair" with Win7 disk to no avail. I have loaded Win 7 on a new hard drive that and that boots fine but I would like is to get the original drive (Win 7) to boot. This would alliviate having to reload all the Win 7 programs that are still on the original disk.

If I load XP on the new drive could I get it to dual boot again with the original Win7 drive?
 
What happened when you tried the repair ?
If it didn't find a W7 to repair, disconnect the other HDDs temporarily.
 
Thanks Terry, I disconnected the "Data" drive (No system installed) and it took 3 tries but the final fixed the boot and it booted up. Now can I reinstall XP on a new drive and then set up daual boot again? Should I disconnet the Win7 drive while installing XP? I appreciate the help - getting this Win7 drive to boot up saves a lot of trouble.
 
If you install XP with W7 visible, it will regress the boot and need repairing again, or if you're putting it on a different HDD you can disconnect W7 as you suggested, and do a clean XP install to a lone HDD.
Reconnect W7 (remember to put its drive at the top of the BIOS boot sequence), boot it, start EasyBCD and add an entry for XP (auto configure).
 
Thanks again - that confirms my thoughts. One last question. I believe I have a Windows backup (System image) of the XP drive on my Fantom exterior drive (at least there is an XP folder dated 8/2/11 on it). Any thoughts or cautions on trying to restore this XP image to a new drive. I don't want to mess up my Win7 again. Win7 is my primary working system; XP was original OS and I kept it for legacy programs and games (AoE2, etc.) that don't work on Win 7. The dual boot with 3 hard drives (XP on one; Win7 on second; and all data on third and synced to both OS) was recommended by Lincoln Spector of PC World and it worked great and I would like to continue.

Also, I may have a hard time with a fresh install of XP Getting all the drivers necessary. Can't find the mobo install CD

Striker II Formula mobo
GTS 8600 dual SLI graphics

Thanks again Lloyd
 
That should be OK whether it's an XP partition-only or a whole disk image you restore.
You've built a whole new set of boot information on the W7 drive now, so even if the old stuff gets put back on the XP drive, you just keep W7 at the head of the BIOS boot sequence, and the old stuff won't even be referenced.
Just be ultra careful to restore it to the right place !!
 
XP disk repaired and all recovered

Hi

Update: as reported earlier my Windows 7 drive finally got repaired and boots fine. My XP Seagate disk that failed has been rejuvenated. I returned it to Seagate (still under 5 year warranty) and it a was a firmware problem. Seagate updated the firmware (no charge) and the drive works just fine now.

So. referencing your earlier reply: my problem: I have all drives working, Windows 7, Windows XP, and the third drive DATA, which contains all data accessed by either drive system - whichever is booted. I currently have not installed both drives together for fear that the Win XP drive would corrupt the Win 7 bootloader. (It was the Win XP drive that had the BCD dual boot loader installed.) As you stated as to how to get back to a dual boot status SAFELY. What will happen if I install both OS drives - Win 7 on SATA 1, Win XP on SATA 4, DATA on SATA 2, set SATA 1 drive in BIOS as and the first boot hard drive?. Would this boot up WIN 7 and then could I install BCD on Win 7 and get back to dual boot menu with XP?

Thanks

P.S. I am currently detaching/attaching the drives data cable prior to boot for the desired OS :unamused::unamused: a real pain
 
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