XP Pro(SP2) Error Loading OS

Topic

New Reply

Hi all,

One of our boxes is a Compaq EVO320 Desktop with XP Pro(SP2) installed on a 40GB IDE HD and it’s getting low on space.

I have a 160 GB IDE HD and have used XP’s Disk Management tool to create 2 partitions of 60/100GB, formatting both as NTFS.

Next I used Ghost to clone the 40GB drive over to the newly created 60GB partition of the second drive.

When I remove the original drive and try to boot from the clone I get “Error Loading OS” imediately after the Compaq splash screen. A bit of searching around shows the error popping up here and there with SATA drives but am unable to find a solution for my IDE drive.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Michael.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Hi Michael,

Try booting from your XP installation CD and go into Recovery Console. In the console type in the following:

fixboot (and press enter)
fixmbr (and press enter)

Remove your Windows CD and try to boot to your C: drive again.

These commands fix boot problems and repair the Master Boot Record.

Reply | Quote

Thanks Gerald, I tried your suggestion and I’m closer to a solution……

The disk will boot now and windows begins to load. At the exact moment the welcome screen appears the system freezes. Does anyone know what could cause this? Thanks.

Regards
Michael

Reply | Quote

Well, the situation got the better of me……..nothing I tried got the clone disk working. While I had other plans for the original 40GB drive I did the obvious…….kept it for the OS and just installed the 160 as a storage drive. Have freed up space on the 40GB so consider the matter closed.

For the record, this is what I find curious. We have 2 of the particular PC’s in question, one bought a little after the other. When we got the second one I just cloned the OS drive from the first PC over to the next one and never had a problem. Oh well, such is life!

Cheers

Reply | Quote

Well, the situation got the better of me……..nothing I tried got the clone disk working. While I had other plans for the original 40GB drive I did the obvious…….kept it for the OS and just installed the 160 as a storage drive. Have freed up space on the 40GB so consider the matter closed.

For the record, this is what I find curious. We have 2 of the particular PC’s in question, one bought a little after the other. When we got the second one I just cloned the OS drive from the first PC over to the next one and never had a problem. Oh well, such is life!

Cheers

have you checked the pin configuration? just wondrin

Reply | Quote