Not able to Boot from second hard drive

[Torquay-Pete]

Hi again, I have installed XP Home onto my D Drive as I was having serious trouble with my main C drive. This was running great ( I would boot up and have the option of 2 OS to boot from. After getting D Drive set up with all my E-mail stuff and all my Anti-Virus, Spyware and adware remover etc I was ready to re-format the C Drive. So far so good, I ran a program callaed Killdisk and reformatted C drive. This is where the fun begins, I then re booted and My system came up with the error No OS found?? I went into BIOS to select D drive to boot from but it still only wanted to boot from C drive?? To cut a long boring story short, the only way to get going was to re-install windows from fresh back onto C Drive!! This was not a problem only another whole day doing what I had already done to my D drive , in short Is there a way of getting back to having an option of Booting from C or D??
Thanks as always Pete

[Gecko]

Start the system from your windows XP CD at the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10 or press 'R" to repair
This will start the Windows Recovery Console select your D: drive install and press enter.
After your enter your admin password you will get a command prompt at the prompt type:
bootcfg /rebuild

That should do it for you, you should now have the option to select your C: drive or D: driver install.

[Torquay-Pete]

Thanks for your tip , system now OK All the best pete

[Torquay-Pete]

Hello again Just 1 more final question on this subject, If I may!! Now that i have got all my
settings and files back on to my original C:\ Drive I no longer have the need to boot from anything other than this. Can I now get back to automatically booting from this drive only??
rather than having the choice of C:\ or D:\ as I am now going to re-format D:\ drve so this is
free from any kinda crap left from the last few weeks problems.
Thanks in advance as usual Pete

[Gecko]

First of all make sure your boot.ini file is on C: drive and not D: drive it will be in the root, C:\boot.ini

To edit your boot up go to Start > Control panel > System > Advance tab > Startup and recovery section > Settings button
In the system startup section click the edit button remove the line with the drive(1) reference

Not the drive(0) reference

[Torquay-Pete]

Hi Gecko thanks for your tip , I deleted the line you suggested and this was fine. Now after
shutting down for a few hours I am getting a choice of 2 OS to boot from again ( with D:\ Drive being the first choice??? I wonder why as this has been formatted and is currently completely empty??? Your thoughts on this and a solution please. Cheers Pete

[Gecko]

It has to be in your boot.ini file.

Could you please open it up and copy and paste the contents is this thread.

[Torquay-Pete]

Hi Gecko thanks for your advice . I have found out the reason for my present predicament.
I had to go away for a few days and while I was away my brother decided to have a play with my PC , he only went and Installed a Beta version of windows Vista on my now recently cleaned Hard drive . When he could not get this to run he re-formatted the drive
and thought that I wouldnt even know that he had been there.I have given him a severe slap around the head for his trouble and barred him from my PC for the rest of the month!!.
So now when I boot I get a choice of a "Pre Longhorn set-up" which is the one I want or Windows which was Vista but now deleted!!. I now wish to Boot only from C :\ Drive which has XP on it. I have enclosed a copy of my Boot ini file.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /FASTDETECT
It is not showing anything from D:\ drive?? I hope you can help me here.
Cheers Pete

[Gecko]

Are you sure that there is no boot.ini file on the D drive?

When windows starts an OS install it will write to the Windows boot sector to insure the proper first reboot of the install.
This is where your problem could be, but check the D: drive first for a boot.ini file.

If you don’t have a boot.ini file on D drive then you will have to boot from you windows CD.
At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10 or press 'R" to repair.
At the command prompt type:
fixboot D: and press enter

Now type :
Exit and press enter the system will reboot you should be good to go now.

[Torquay-Pete]

Hi Gecko thanx for your time, I just want to make sure 100% before I carry out your recomendations, My D:\ Drive is now completely empty and formatted (No Hidden folders) this was the drive that had Vista on it. My C:| Drive is the one I need to boot from. Am I right in assuming that the command FixBoot D will clear D:\ Drive and allow C:\ Drive to boot On Re-Boot?? Thanks again Pete

[Gecko]

Yes

[Torquay-Pete]

Thanx You`re a hero I `ll let you know how this all went tomorrow.
All the Best Pete

[Torquay-Pete]

hello again sorry to bother you but I tried your suggestion and am
still in the same position as before . When I booted from the CD and pressed R at the
setup stage I was asked which OS to Load from and Only C:\ drive as an option??
I entered BOOTFIX D then Yes when prompted to and re-Booted only to find that
I was still offered two Choices at start-up???? Do I need to BOOTFIX C or will this kill
my startups?? Cheers again Pete

[Gecko]

Yes BOOTFIX C drive and no you will not lose any startup items.

This section of the boot sequence is where window writes thing to do before the OS loads.
This should be where the vista reference is located.

It was a 50% chance of being wrong on choosing what drive to try first
You had said that vista was on D so I took an educated guess and said D drive op2s: