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Problem with missing boot manager on installing Windows XP on a new drive.?
I have tried to install Windows XP on a new Hard Drive in a friends PC she still wants to keep on using XP. Her original 80Gb IDE H.D. died.
The new 120Gb drive was correctly set up on Cable Select and was seen OK in the BIOS, but wouldn't install XP and I got the message Missing Boot Mgr and I couldn't get past it.
I even put the said HD in my own PC using a IDE cable to from of my CD/DVD writers. I reset the drive to a 'slave' and reset my BIOS to see the drive and it did. Then re-formatted it with Paragon H.D Master.
As I have a basic but working copy of XP on a partition on a drive on my PC , I copied the whole of it across to the new drive and removed the said XP Hard Drive and then reset my BIOS.
I shut down my PC afterwards. The HD was put into the original PC but I got the BootMgr message yet again.
The real sickener was that on booting my own PC I found it was also well screwed up and I now get the same Boot Manager message on mine.
I have tried using my Windows 7 disk to repair the boot manager etc and it tries then to reload the Windows Files to make a repair but then stops and tells me there is an IO problem as a USB hardware item has been incorrectly removed ( not true). On hitting Enter ( as directed) it tries then to reload the Windows Files again to make the required repair, then stops once again with the same message. Pass the ant-depressants please - lol !!
I am now using the wifes laptop to do my emails and write this, but now she grabs it and she makes sure it works OK each time before it is switched off !!!. I just can't believe she doesn't trust me with her baby !!
Which brings me back to "Anyone got any ideas on the boot manager problems or, my latest problem about the USB ????"
2 Answers
- LittlecooLv 69 years agoFavorite Answer
"As I have a basic but working copy of XP on a partition on a drive on my PC , I copied the whole of it across to the new drive and removed the said XP Hard Drive and then reset my BIOS..."
The boot manager is specific to Windows Vista and 7, XP doesn't use BOOTMGR, it uses NTLDR and this is basically where your headache began...ouch! Ok, when installing multiple Windows versions on one PC, they need to be installed in chronological order, so that the boot manager (or equivalent) in the Master Boot Record (MBR) is always overwritten by the most recent Windows version. When you installed XP on your PC that is currently running Win 7 it overwrote the existing Win 7 boot manager and Win 7 won't recognize it, the Win 7 boot manager is very different from that which XP uses.
The IO error has me puzzled- might be something screwy going on in BIOS and if so, then a CMOS reset should sort it out....You can reset CMOS by disconnecting your PC at the mains, open the case and (carefully) removing the coin sized CMOS battery from it's socket on the motherboard, wait a couple minutes, then put the battery back. Whilst you're in there check your cable connections and your jumper settings for your PATA/IDE drives- use the appropriate master/slave jumper settings and there are no conflicts, I recommend NOT using CS...cable select can be problematic and I really find it less painful to to assign all IDE as master or slave. For your PC, disconnect any external USB drives (incl flash drives) remove any discs etc (except your Win 7 install disc) go into the BIOS and check the boot order, remove/disable all devices on the list except your CD/DVD drive- set this as first boot device and your primary HDD- set as second boot device. Save your changes and restart to see if Win 7 loves you again...or not. If not, I'd say you certainly have a mangled boot sector and you will need to do a startup repair from Win 7s recovery tool or do a manual fix of the boot partition. Here is a guide-
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/win7-windows-7-mb...
here is the MS KB article about the same- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
As for the PC that... er... should be running XP, probably has the same conniption as your Win 7 PC, so, as above, lather, rinse, repeat...only in this case you will use the XP recovery console IF you have an XP install or recovery disc, whichever one from anywhere but it MUST BE FOR XP.
If you don't have this you may need to download and make a Ubuntu live CD- http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download and use this to access the HDD and repair the boot sector- http://www.arsgeek.com/2008/01/15/how-to-fix-your-...
I guess your only other option here that will absolutely work is if you do a format and full reinstall of both Windows versions on their respective PCs, but if don't have an install disc and/or you want to lose your data, this is not really an option for you. I hope this helps you, best of luck ;-)
