New Hard Drive problems

[MetalX]

I just got a new hard drive:

80GB Seagate SATA-II.

I tried to use Norton Ghost to transfer my old hard drive to the new one, and it went fine. However, I cannot boot from the new drive. It has exactly the same files as my main (boot) drive right now, copied using Ghost 9.0's Copy Hard Drive function. Anyone have any idea what's wrong? The rest of my system specs are in my profile and/or signature.

 

[nkarunatilaka]

Boot Sector get copied?

 

[MetalX]

How do I find out?

EDIT: Oh... whoops you're right. I did forget to copy the MBR silly me. I'm running the HDD Copy again.

 

[nkarunatilaka]

Try going thru the command prompt or dos and using the FIXBOOT command.

Your new hard drive most have not copied the MBR (Master Boot Record) from the original hard drive, as that is the only reason I can see that it is not booting.

EDIT : Oh ok, let me know if it boots up fine or not, as I believe since the MBR didn't copy that it is the cause.

 

[MetalX]

Ok, I booted successfully with the new hard drive.

Then the bad thing happened.

I had previously had 2 HDDs, and now I have 3 (including the new SATA 80GB one). One of the 2 old ones was a 40GB "quiet" hard drive which contained Windows and many programs.

The second old hard drive was "loud" and added later because I ran out of room for games on the original "quiet" one.

So I used Norton Ghost to copy the Windows installation from the "quiet" 40GB drive to the new 80GB SATA. It seemed to work and I booted off it sucessfully.

So I then wanted to copy the contents of the "loud" secondary drive to the now unused "quiet" drive. However, Ghost would not let me overright the drive because it was being used for the Page File.

So I switched the page file to the 80GB SATA temporarily.

However, while the page file screen said that the page file was now on the 80GB SATA, Computer Management-> Storage still listed the "quiet" drive as having the page file. So since windows and Ghost would not let me delete the partition on this drive, I deleted it using the WinXP insall disc.

I used the XP install disc to reformat the drive, then rebooted. However, when I booted, the system now gets stuck at the "Welcome" screen. It does not hang, does not reboot. It just sits there as though undecided on whether or not to boot.

The "welcome" screen does not say welcome, nor does it say my user name. It just has the Window XP logo shown. I do not know why this would happen..

To make a long story short, I used Ghost to copy an old drive to a new drive. Booted off the new drive sucessfully, deleted the partition (unneeded)m off the old drive, and now the new drive gets stuck at the "welcome screen."

Anyone know what the hell is going on and how to fix it? I have a LAN party on thursday, and I don't want to have to reformat and reinstall all my games

EDIT: I have tried using Safe mode, and it does the same thing. Again, it doesn't freeze, the mouse still works, it just stays there. It is a lot like the situation this person had: http://www.winforumz.com/windows/stuck-screen-ftopict373609.html

However, the solutions provided there do not seem to work for me... should I just reformat and reinstall everything?????

 

[MetalX]

Big update: I'm gonna kill myself.

I deleted all my partitions and attempted a reinstall of windows. It seems the new hard drive refuses to accept new installations. Every time I format it and start the windows install, after it reboots, it always says that the volume cannot be booted. It tells me to insert a system disc.

So I have now realized that A) All this has been for nothing, because the only way I can get my computer running again is by installing Windows on my OLD hard drive that originally had Windows on it, B) that everything is totally my fault, and C) my brand new HDD might be broken (because it doesn't like to be used as a boot volume).

Just let me go kill myself. I'm joking of course, but I'm not doing so in a good mood. Be glad you have the Internet between me and yourselves. I might kill someone if this anything else goes wrong. I fear for my mother.

 

[MetalX]

Another update. Now ALL my hard drives (even the old ones) are unable to boot. I format them. try to install Windows on them, and when they have to reboot to start the install, they are unable to. It says, "DISK BOOT FAILURE. PLEASE INSERT A SYSTEM DISK." DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THIS IS HAPPENING?!?!?!?! PLEASE I'M DESPERATE!!

P.S. WTF does it mean by SYSTEM DISK? Does it mean a MS-DOS bot disk?

EDIT: Solved the problem. Of course now I still have to reinstall everything, but my system needed cleaning anyway.

 

[foozy]

For the curious, what was the problem?

 

[MetalX]

Read the thread -_-

And unfortunately, I have no idea how I solved the problem. I just kept doing the same thing over and over again until for once it didn't give me an error message. So mods, if you want, delete this thread because it's totally useless. Because I can't offer a solution to this problem, so nobody will really benefit from this thread.