Why would boot install to slave drive

[lohearn]

I have two hard drives in my system and I want to remove one. The slave drive is old and very slow. I did not do the install of XP Pro onto this system so have no idea why it's setup like it is.

I tried to take out the old, slow second slave hard drive and my computer wouldn't boot. Hook the drive back up and presto, computer boots. I thought it was a hardware problem since the drive was a removable hard drive. It's a 12G WD Caviar in a removeable case made by CRU Dataport.

Well, I have discovered that my XP boot info is on that drive? Now why would it install there when the OS is one the master drive, a 40G Seagate Barracuda?

I want to know if there is a way to switch XP Pro to boot from the C drive instead of the D drive? Should I just simply copy the boot files to the C drive or is there much more to it?

[thegladiatorgy]

If you're saying your boot files are on the d drive then it may not be possible to just copy the files over to the c drive. You may have to install a clean copy of XP on the c drive.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Looks like a fresh install is in order.

Without the slave drive.

Bill

[sweeper2]

have you tried to move the jumpers so the c: drive is the master and d: drive is the slave and try rebooting with both in and see how it works, if it boots up, take out the d: drive and leave the c: drive as the master drive..just a thought...not sure if it will work or not...

[lohearn]

The jumpers are all set, C is and always was the master. That's why I'm baffled as to why the boot is set to D. I just can't do a fresh install of XP. Other than the boot snafu the computer is flawless and runs like a champ. It just boots slower than molasses! And the WD drive is the noisiest drive! The seagate is so quiet.

There has to be a way to change it. Guess I'll see if the recovery console will help with it.

[kevinss]

Is you have a USB smart card reader or ZIP drive installed in your system, disconnect them before your reinstall. They will make your primary hard drive appear as E, F, or G in a lot of machines. Also, check your primary boot device in your BIOS. Some boards (my Asus board included) will actually make the OS think the drive you selected as your primary boot device is IDE0:0. Pretty sweet feature if used correctly