Help with SATA Hard Drives Please

[media555]

Hi All,

I am new here so please bear with me. I have recently purchased a complete HP workstation with a SATA 500Gig HD containing windows Vista. My intentions was to put my original SATA 160gig HD from my old computer into this and run this HD as the main with windows XP and all my programs which I dont want to lose, and have the 500gig as a slave for storing large videos (I am quite happy to remove all programs from this drive if required).

The problem is I have cabled the drives correctly but the bios does not recognise my 160gig drive and throws me into a loop.

Any help would be appreciated for this complete novice in the back of the box, thanks.

Regards
Media555

[omol]

Are you sure it's not reconising it. I think it is more likly that you are trying to run windows set up to run on one set of harware on anouther. The best thing i can suggest is to remove the 500 gb drive, run the windows xp installation cd and do in place upgrade on that drive.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

[media555]

Hi omol,

Many thanks for your help. I have taken out the 500g hd as suggested and tried booting with the XP disc in drive to the 160 g hd, but after initialising I get an error stating to check for viruses or hardware compatability.

when I have both hd discs wired up, if I direct the 500 gig drive to the SATA 1 on motherboard and the 160 gig to SATA 2 the system fires up ok with the new hard drive (probably set up with factory default) but I don't know how to access the second drive from this.

Obvious if I change the connections around so the 160 is in the SATA 1 connection then I get the bios loop.

Sorry to be so confused over this, althoug I am quite computer savvy to a low level, this is new to me and a little over my head.

many thanks for your help once again.

regards
media555

[Bob_180_Bob]

There is probably no need to run a repair/upgrade on your drive as it was working properly. But by allowing your PC to work with that first, you can set-up all your drivers etc on your 160gig drive and when all is running well as windoes XP replace your 500gb drive ensuring it is set as a slave and you should not have any problems.
As a matter of interest, what is shown in your post screen about your drives?

[media555]

Thanks Bob_180

I am still unable to get the XP up and running on the 160 gig drive.

after starting via the CD drive with the XP disc in the drive I get a message stating windows set up is loading files, then is tries to boot and I get the message which reads.

Check HD to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run chkdsk /F to check for hard drive corruption.
Tech Info: STOP 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0xoooooooo)

I am unable to run the chkdsk /F as I cannot get out of the loop.

Regards

media555

[omol]

There is probably no need to run a repair/upgrade on your drive as it was working properly. But by allowing your PC to work with that first, you can set-up all your drivers etc on your 160gig drive and when all is running well as windoes XP replace your 500gb drive ensuring it is set as a slave and you should not have any problems.
As a matter of interest, what is shown in your post screen about your drives?

It was running propally on a diffrent hardware setup, differant motherboard, processor, ram. It's a diffrent computer! No way will windows "Just work" on completly diffrent hardware!

Media555, i would suggest removing 500 gb drive and linking the 160 gb drive up to sata 1 and only that drive. Then boot from the windows XP installation cd.

It sounds as though you are not getting into the windows installtion at all.

1) First enter bios and check that your cd drive is set to boot priority 1.

2) (You will be prompted to press a key to boot from this cd media). When asked if you would like to press a key.

3) Let setup load drivers etc, and when asked if you would like to repair the installation say no.

4) Accept the license aggreement.

5) Now when you are presented with the list of hard drive request a repair from this menu. (R)

I have had to do this hundreds of times upgrading motherboards and cpu's in servers.

Windows is set up with a diffrent driver base so will not boot from that harddrive intill you have reinstalled the correct drivers for your new motherboard.

[media555]

Hi omol,

Thanks once again, I have done what you suggested, but don't get any further from the error message originally described.

I don't even get as far as putting in my licence key.

Really scratching my head now!!

regards

media555

[omol]

Do you mind loosing the data currently on your xp hard drive?

Alternativly you could try booting into the recovery console and actually doing a chkdsk /F

1) Boot from the xp installation cd
2) After setup has started (Blue screen) press R
3) Follow the onscreen prompts.

[media555]

Hi again,

I will try the chkdsk first. I cannot lose the data on the 160gig drive, holds many programs to all my websites, (3 years work) foolishly I have never backed these up.

Will keep you updated on my progress.

Regards

media555

[media555]

Hi again,

Unfortunately it will not let me do a chkdsk command even using R on the blue screen.

I was thinking, if I reset my drive cable back to how the computer arrived, i,e, 500 gig to SATA 1 and then connect 160 gig to SATA2 and boot up, this should boot as it did when I first purchased the system.

If I remember correctly the 160 gig was showing like this in My Computer as Drive G - (slave) could I not some how transfer the contents of drive G (160gig HD) to Drive C (500 gig HD) to try and rescue my programs.

Then I could re-format 160 gig hd and use this for storage only.

any advise on this procedure would be appreciated.

Regards

media555

[omol]

Yes that would be best, sorry i assumed you wanted xp rather than vista.

[media555]

Hi omol,

Yes you are right, I would prefer xp rather than vister, but I think I will try and rescue my data from the 160 gig drive onto a portable hard drive for the time being.

Once I have saved all this I will then try to begin the task of changing vista back to XP.

Thanks for your help you have been great.

regards

media555

[omol]

This sounds like a good idea to me, did you not want to use xp rather than vista though? What you could do is reformat and reinstall XP on your 500 gig hard drive and then copy the files over from your secondary 160gb drive onc ethat has completed.

I thought the inplace upgrade would have been quite a bit quicker, sorry if i have caused any gray hairs.

ONE SEC! Can you boot off of your new 500 gb drive and run a check disk from vista on your old drive?

chkdsk G: /F

[media555]

Hi omol,

Thats a good idea. luckily i have a 300 gig usb portable hard drive, so I will transfer/rescue all the folders from the 160gig drive first, then I will run a check disk on the drive, then I will set about downgrading vista to XP in that order.

I appreciate all your advice.

Regards

media555

[gerbil]

The only way you will be able to "save" pgms from your old 160 if you boot with the 500 is if you have the installer files.... but you can get all your data.
The 7B error comes because driver files on the 160 are incompatible with your new hardware.. but a Windows Repair via Setup [you choose the "To set up Windows XP now, Press ENTER" option ...] should be possible.
Your BIOS is set so that it looks to the drive in Sata-0 for the system files. First unplug the 500, plug the 160 into Sata-0, and boot from your CD [F8 key?]. When the files are installed your sys should boot from the hd on its restart [the sys does an automatic restart, and boot.ini is modified so that it will boot from the hd, but it does put up that Press any key to boot from CD msg - do not touch anything...].
[okay, I'm typing Sata-0 to your sata-1]. You do not need the key.

[media555]

Hi gerbil,

Many thanks for your input. I will try what you have suggested later tonight, as I am in the middle of transfering all my files to a portable drive. I do underdtand that I will only have access to the data and not the programs.

So I will try what you have suggested.

Didn't realise it would be so difficult just to upgrade my systems.

Many thanks, will catch you later.

Regards

media555

[Bob_180_Bob]

If you can get the PC to reconize both drives, you can easily copy your files but your programes will not transfer, they will have to be reloaded from your CDs. It is possable that the programes are already on the 500gb drive from the last owner so you only need to copy your working files. What was using "D" "E" "F" drives when you first installed??
Maybe a multi cards reader? What programes do you have on the 160gb drive?
I just noticed that you earlier said your 160 Drive was shown as "G" but in a error message you got it said it could not access "F", Was this after you had only the 160 gb drive in?
(And Windows XP will regulary run on another PC with difwerent hardware and configeration, as it loads it will find new hardware and install it. I have done it many times. If it is too diferent, you will get a message to register windows.)

[forumdude123]

Here's what I'd do if I were you:

Retry running xp with the 160gig in the machine, then "hotplugging" the drive if it is a supported feature

retry with both drives

repair xp on the 160 only, not w/ the 500 gig installed.

(if u want to pony up some extra cash), you can always clone the 160gb drive to the 500gb drive with a program like acronis true image, or norton ghost. Then, plug the 160gb into an enclosure. Or, a cheaper option, just get an enclosure for the 500gb, and put your programs on it. Enclosures can be as cheap as $15

[caperjack]

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1.htm