PCA Forums

Crap ! !

I am working on installing a new HDD in a computer. I ghosted the original HDD to a new one.
Now when I boot from the new image it hangs at the blue Windows XP splash screen. Even in safe mode. I can not get into windows in any way shape or form. Just sits there at the spash screen. I have a mouse and it moves but the boot process will not continue.

Any suggestions?

Of course I no longer have the original windows I ghosted from so I need to get this one working and I really do not want to reformat. I can always put the newly ghosted HDD in a USB enclosure to copy the important files but I really want to get this working. Any ideas on how to get into windows?
Thanks

Did you try a repair install yet? I ran into something like this on a clients Dell and nothing I did was able to get it past the blue splash screen and I had to do a clean install..

eGo

If I boot from a winxp install disk I get this:

CAUTION: A \WINDOWS folder already exists that may contain a Windows installation.If you continue, the existing Windows installation will be overwritten.
All files, subfolders, user accounts, application, security and desktop settings for that installation will be deleted. The "My Documents" folder may also be deleted.

This does not sound like a repair.

is it refering to the "back-up drive' or the drive with windows already [partially] installed.

I also ran into that recently and don't know why the option for a repair install was not available.. Perhaps somebody else who has encountered these two unique problems will be able to tell us what we did wrong and how to do it right!

eGo

Okay a few possibilities. Assuming that you don't have some kind of special OEM CD that won't do Repair installs (I don't think there is such an animal) and that you're using the right version of Windows (not sure, but you might not get a repair option if you tried to run a Home CD on a Pro install) I would guess that the clone didn't work right and the drive is not properly readable. That would explain why it doesn't boot and why the Windows CD doesn't detect a pre-existing Windows installation.

Have you tried reading files from it like images or documents? I'd be concerned that you can't.

How old a system is this?

I suspect this might be a laptop from the way you describe it. Did you clone the drive on the same computer or a different one? I've seen situations where a drive's configuration was incorrectly detected by BIOS on a different computer (this often happens when cloning a laptop drive while connecting it to a desktop computer - some laptop drives need to be configured as LARGE in BIOS instead of the default LBA) the clone succeeds and can be accessed properly on the desktop but when you pop it back in the laptop it can't be accessed properly.

If you think that's what may have happened you could put the drive back in the system you cloned it on, dump the image to another HDD, then manually configure the new drive as LARGE in BIOS on the desktop (don't forget to switch it back to AUTO when you're done or you'll screw up the next drive you work on) and restore the image to the new drive.

You can confirm if this is the problem by running Partition Magic on the new drive while it's in the laptop. PM will detect if the drive was formatted with the incorrect BIOS settings (you'll get a yellow warning in PM saying something to the effect of that the drive was formatted with an incorrect number of cylinders in the BIOS setting).

It's also possible that Ghost failed to copy properly. While I swear by Ghost, nothing is infallible. The DOS version of Ghost is no longer supported and I've already run into issues trying to restore RAID mirror arrays on some newer SATA controllers. For that reason I've just switched to Acronis True Image.

Why is the original drive no longer available? Even if it's a bad drive I usually tell the client to keep it as a backup copy if it's readable. Besides, I'd never get rid of the original until I was sure the replacement was working properly. ALWAYS cover your ass.

Hope this helps...

No special OEM version of WinXP... It is Pro Version and the version installed is the same one Im booting from. I built this computer BTW.

The drive is readable. I can put it in a USB enclosure and read it just fine on my computer.

Windows does detect the previous install...(see post above)...it just will not let me repair, I could be doing something wrong as I have never done a repair. I usually just start over its cleaner that way.

The system is new-ish, NForce2-400, XP2500+, 9800Pro HDDs are now a WD600JB, and WD800JB

Previously was the 80Gig partitioned in two with OS and Data. I cloned the OS partition to the 60Gig and Deleted the partitions on the old drive made one partition and put the data back on. Now have C; and D: as before but instead of one drive with two partitions it is two drives. The computer should not notice the difference once it is done.

I have ghosted several times, so Im not new to this. However I have never not been able to get in windows from safe mode. I guess I could log the boot and see what it is hangin on.

Old drive no longer available because like a dumb butt...I deleted the partitions and put the data on it before booting from the ghosted drive.

I feel like it is a windows software issue and not a hardware problem. But I have been wrong on most occasions. I just dont know what to try when I cant get a currsor or in windows. Frustrating. Good thing is I can recover the data at this point. It would just be very time consuming to transfer files back and forth and reinstall all his programs.

The drive is readable. I can put it in a USB enclosure and read it just fine on my computer.

Doesn't mean anything. Can you read it in HIS computer? Boot with BartPE and see if you can access any files like a text file.

I would also highly recommend you run Partition Magic from a boot disk while it's connected to his computer. The program is amazing in that - when it initializes the drives - it does a LOT of tests. Whenever I have a drive that seems to work fine on my bench system but doesn't work on a client's, I run PM and it generally tells me something like it was formatted with the wrong number of cylinders or something.

Oh, and if you haven't tried it yet, replace his ribbon cable just in case.

giving some of that a try.

you could try setting it to slave and put it on a working xp system, it usually will run chkdsk when it detects the new drive. i did this once, put the drive back where it was and it booted up.


try this one first:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Windows does detect the previous install...(see post above)...it just will not let me repair, I could be doing something wrong as I have never done a repair. I usually just start over its cleaner that way.

if that doesn't work, try this one. this shows you how to get a repair otion in xp setup if it was previously not available. it looks difficult, but once you realize what you are doing, it is not as bad as it looks.
http://www.digitalwebcast.com/articles/ ... sp?id=8658

Does the mouse move on the blue screen? If its that far then the kernel is loaded, the video drivers and mouse and stuff also may be loaded.

mouse does move at the screen. Not sure why the drivers would not work, its the same hardware and same drivers.

Here is something funny ... I have his other computer today and tried the same thing.
He has one disc with two partitions...I ghost the primary to a new disc, put the new disc in the computer alone. The computer hangs at the blue windosXP screen. Mouse works but windows just wont go in.

Same result, different hardware. Now Im stumped.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the original drives had two partitions and the new ones only had one... Im going to try two partions now.

Im booting from norton ghost 2003. Ive always enjoyed this version, gess Ill try a newer one. On the second computer I did not write over the drive.

Had a hunch with this second computer job.

This time I ghosted the drive to drive. Meaning one drive with two partitions to another drive with two partitions.

Guess what????? Still thinking?????

It worked just fine. So it was something to do with the partitions. I really wanted one partition but Ill take two if it works :-)

I had the same issue trying to restore some backups from the CD here just a while back. And even trying to clone drive to drive. I'm leaving ghost behind and going with Acronis True Image..

Glad you got this one!

eGo

never heard of ATI....

/me going to google

Thanks