First off, I'd like to admit my stupidity in what i did, but it made sense at the time. Second of all i do have a work around that seems to work fine, but it is a bit of a hassle each time i boot.
1. Built a new computer with dual physical hdd's. WD - 250gb - sata - 16mb cache.
2. Everything posted fine.
3. Installed xp on the first drive, leaving 80gb unformatted for a future install of linux....installed antivirus, updated drivers. everything was good.
4. At this point, everything works, and is stable so i decide to format the second drive. All of it one partition NTFS. Being fresh off of the install from xp on the first drive, i figure (and my brother recommended) i should boot to the xp cd, and use the provided partition utility. I do, and walk off for a while as it formats. (i chose the full format, not the fast). And i also chose, ONLY to partition, NOT to install windows.
5. I come back a couple of hours later, and somehow the thing had actually started installing windows on the second drive. I tried to cancel out...but it didnt work. I tried rebooting, with the other drive as the priority...didnt work. It kept asking for the windows disk so that it could finish its install no matter what i did.
6. i went ahead let it finish the windows install on the second drive.
7. i rebooted, and up pops a boot choice screen. i find that i can still get to my original install, and that it works fine. so thats good.
8. at this point i figure i should just completely reformat the second drive, and all will be well.
9. i figure out that there is a utility within xp to do just that under disk management. so i run that.
10. a couple of hours later, i come back, and everything is working. until i try to reboot.
11. now when i reboot, it keeps looking for an HAL file, or something similar. i think that its trying to still boot off of the second drive.
12. i go into setup, and switch the hdd priority around to see if that helps...no dice.
What else should i try? I had to come to work this morning, so i didnt get to check if the boot selector works or not yet.
I was thinking that there used to be two types of formatting...high level, and low level. where one goes deeper than the other. although, i cant recall which.
Also, i was thinking that somehow there is a file left over from the install somewhere that keeps making the computer look for xp on the second drive.
Or...perhaps its somewhere in the bios...perhaps i should pull the batter, and let it reset?
Any suggestions?
ps, i am going to post this in the hard drive section, as i think it could apply to both. thanks.
1. Built a new computer with dual physical hdd's. WD - 250gb - sata - 16mb cache.
2. Everything posted fine.
3. Installed xp on the first drive, leaving 80gb unformatted for a future install of linux....installed antivirus, updated drivers. everything was good.
4. At this point, everything works, and is stable so i decide to format the second drive. All of it one partition NTFS. Being fresh off of the install from xp on the first drive, i figure (and my brother recommended) i should boot to the xp cd, and use the provided partition utility. I do, and walk off for a while as it formats. (i chose the full format, not the fast). And i also chose, ONLY to partition, NOT to install windows.
5. I come back a couple of hours later, and somehow the thing had actually started installing windows on the second drive. I tried to cancel out...but it didnt work. I tried rebooting, with the other drive as the priority...didnt work. It kept asking for the windows disk so that it could finish its install no matter what i did.
6. i went ahead let it finish the windows install on the second drive.
7. i rebooted, and up pops a boot choice screen. i find that i can still get to my original install, and that it works fine. so thats good.
8. at this point i figure i should just completely reformat the second drive, and all will be well.
9. i figure out that there is a utility within xp to do just that under disk management. so i run that.
10. a couple of hours later, i come back, and everything is working. until i try to reboot.
11. now when i reboot, it keeps looking for an HAL file, or something similar. i think that its trying to still boot off of the second drive.
12. i go into setup, and switch the hdd priority around to see if that helps...no dice.
What else should i try? I had to come to work this morning, so i didnt get to check if the boot selector works or not yet.
I was thinking that there used to be two types of formatting...high level, and low level. where one goes deeper than the other. although, i cant recall which.
Also, i was thinking that somehow there is a file left over from the install somewhere that keeps making the computer look for xp on the second drive.
Or...perhaps its somewhere in the bios...perhaps i should pull the batter, and let it reset?
Any suggestions?
ps, i am going to post this in the hard drive section, as i think it could apply to both. thanks.