New Hard Drive Problem

Pxl_Buzzard · Aug 11, 2006, 10:17 PM

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 and I recently bought a new hard drive for it. I used norton ghost 9.0 to "ghost" my old hard drive (40GB) to my new hard drive (160GB). I then setup the new hard drive to be the master and I plan to get rid of the old one. Then when I start my computer, it says "primary drive 0 not found, boot device not availible, press F1 to retry and F2 for setup utility." The new drive is formatted and has windows XP on it. My system BIOS is not reading the new drive. Any help on how to fix it? Thanks.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Aug 12, 2006, 10:03 PM

Are you sure the machine supports the new 48 bit LBA? Was the old XP using service pack 2? It looks like the machine can only 'see' the first 133GB and the partition Ghost created stretches across the whole 160 GB which confuses the system

PangingJr · Aug 12, 2006, 10:47 PM

when your computer boots, it reads the partition table of the first BIOS hard drive to find out which partition is "active" and boots from that partition. you may need to make the new system partition (of the new boot drive) the active partition.

Babalou · Aug 12, 2006, 11:34 PM

I take it since you were able to ghost the old drive to the new one that windows at least saw both drives connected. Could the BIOS see the new drive at that time?

My first thought is make sure you got your jumpers set correctly. (not to be insulting, just a first step)

Does the BIOS see the new drive if it is plugged into the system without the old drive?

You could try switching the jumper on the new hard drive to cable select, and plug the drive into the last connector on the ide cable with no other drive on the same cable. And remove the old drive from the system.

Some drives you need to remove the jumper completely for it to function.

Also you could always try to rebuild your bootcfg.ini as explained here.(although i don't think this would do much in this case)
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;330184

Pxl_Buzzard · Aug 13, 2006, 06:27 PM

Ok, thanks for all the help, here's my latest annalist:

Info that I didnt mention before was that my new hard drive was visible when it was the slave, now that it is the master the BIOS doesnt see it at all. Im also using a single... fresh info from 5 seconds ago, BIOS does see it and it says that the windows boot path is wrong. How can I fix this?

PangingJr · Aug 14, 2006, 04:04 PM

i assume that your hardwares are 48-bit LBA compatible. and that the system supports large drive.
i've done what you have tried to do so many times so i know that you should be able to Ghost/clone the old system drive (or partition) to the new drive in mode DOS, with many disk/partition imaging software programs likes Norton Ghost 2003 (Ghost 8.x for DOS), Symantec Ghost 8.x for DOS, Paragon Drive Backup for DOS, Acronis True Image boot medias, BootIt Next Generation, Partition Magic disk copy or some hard drive has its own utility tools that can do this. try this, once you have done with the hard drives cloning, reconfig and set the new boot drive, then completely remove or disconnect the old drive from the system (do not format this old drive just yet), and then manually check and make sure that the new system partition is marked as Active. Do all of these before your first boot from the new system partition/drive.

Partizan · Aug 14, 2006, 04:54 PM

It should also be possible with a MS DOS boot diskette, and with fdisk or gdisk from Norton ghost. With those two programs you can make the partition Active.

It could also be possible that the command: "fdisk /mbr" will solve your problem.

Regards, Partizan

Babalou · Aug 14, 2006, 05:10 PM

Something else that can be attempted (have a backup prior if possible) is to repair the Bootcfg.ini.

You can do this in the recovery console for Windows XP.

Check out method #2 on this site
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477/en-us

PangingJr · Aug 14, 2006, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babalou

Something else that can be attempted (have a backup prior if possible) is to repair the Bootcfg.ini

you mean "boot.ini"? i saw you have mentioned "Bootcfg.ini" twice.

Babalou · Aug 14, 2006, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PangingJr

you mean "boot.ini"? i saw you have mentioned "Bootcfg.ini" twice.

LOL.. sorry brain has been busy this week

I meant "Boot.ini"

Bootcfg is the command to edit the "boot.ini"

Edit: And I see I may the same suggestion twice.. ITs been a rough week

Pxl_Buzzard · Aug 14, 2006, 09:12 PM

Ok, thanks for all the ideas guys, Ill try em all out tonight when I get home.

Aug 11, 2006, 10:17 PM	#1
Pxl_Buzzard HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 15 Rep Power: 38	New Hard Drive Problem I have a Dell Dimension 2400 and I recently bought a new hard drive for it. I used norton ghost 9.0 to "ghost" my old hard drive (40GB) to my new hard drive (160GB). I then setup the new hard drive to be the master and I plan to get rid of the old one. Then when I start my computer, it says "primary drive 0 not found, boot device not availible, press F1 to retry and F2 for setup utility." The new drive is formatted and has windows XP on it. My system BIOS is not reading the new drive. Any help on how to fix it? Thanks.

Aug 14, 2006, 04:54 PM	#7
Partizan Fun loving criminal Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Slovenia Posts: 1,182 Rep Power: 60 System Specs	It should also be possible with a MS DOS boot diskette, and with fdisk or gdisk from Norton ghost. With those two programs you can make the partition Active. It could also be possible that the command: "fdisk /mbr" will solve your problem. Regards, Partizan __________________ Live and let live!

Aug 12, 2006, 10:03 PM	#2
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Are you sure the machine supports the new 48 bit LBA? Was the old XP using service pack 2? It looks like the machine can only 'see' the first 133GB and the partition Ghost created stretches across the whole 160 GB which confuses the system

Aug 12, 2006, 10:47 PM	#3
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 69	when your computer boots, it reads the partition table of the first BIOS hard drive to find out which partition is "active" and boots from that partition. you may need to make the new system partition (of the new boot drive) the active partition.

Aug 12, 2006, 11:34 PM	#4
Babalou HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 132 Rep Power: 0	I take it since you were able to ghost the old drive to the new one that windows at least saw both drives connected. Could the BIOS see the new drive at that time? My first thought is make sure you got your jumpers set correctly. (not to be insulting, just a first step) Does the BIOS see the new drive if it is plugged into the system without the old drive? You could try switching the jumper on the new hard drive to cable select, and plug the drive into the last connector on the ide cable with no other drive on the same cable. And remove the old drive from the system. Some drives you need to remove the jumper completely for it to function. Also you could always try to rebuild your bootcfg.ini as explained here.(although i don't think this would do much in this case) http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;330184

Aug 13, 2006, 06:27 PM	Thread Starter #5
Pxl_Buzzard HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 15 Rep Power: 38	Ok, thanks for all the help, here's my latest annalist: Info that I didnt mention before was that my new hard drive was visible when it was the slave, now that it is the master the BIOS doesnt see it at all. Im also using a single... fresh info from 5 seconds ago, BIOS does see it and it says that the windows boot path is wrong. How can I fix this?

Aug 14, 2006, 04:04 PM	#6
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 69	i assume that your hardwares are 48-bit LBA compatible. and that the system supports large drive. i've done what you have tried to do so many times so i know that you should be able to Ghost/clone the old system drive (or partition) to the new drive in mode DOS, with many disk/partition imaging software programs likes Norton Ghost 2003 (Ghost 8.x for DOS), Symantec Ghost 8.x for DOS, Paragon Drive Backup for DOS, Acronis True Image boot medias, BootIt Next Generation, Partition Magic disk copy or some hard drive has its own utility tools that can do this. try this, once you have done with the hard drives cloning, reconfig and set the new boot drive, then completely remove or disconnect the old drive from the system (do not format this old drive just yet), and then manually check and make sure that the new system partition is marked as Active. Do all of these before your first boot from the new system partition/drive.

Aug 14, 2006, 05:10 PM	#8
Babalou HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 132 Rep Power: 0	Something else that can be attempted (have a backup prior if possible) is to repair the Bootcfg.ini. You can do this in the recovery console for Windows XP. Check out method #2 on this site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477/en-us

Aug 14, 2006, 09:12 PM	Thread Starter #11
Pxl_Buzzard HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 15 Rep Power: 38	Ok, thanks for all the ideas guys, Ill try em all out tonight when I get home.