XP on wrong HDD

[mb26]

ok let me set the scene...

i had winME installed on one HDD (1), and a blank HDD (2).

HDD 1 was set to master, and HDD 2 as slave

(i tried installing XP pro on the blank hard drive alone but it didn't seem to be working..and so..)

i loaded the WinXP CD inside WinME and installed WinXP as a clean install onto HDD 2. However, this altered the boot record of HDD 1, although intsalling the files onto HDD 2.

therefore, when i load with HDD 1 as master, it gives me the option of either loading ME or XP,
and when i set HDD 2 as master i get 'disk boot failure, instert system disk and press enter'

i would like to have HDD 2 as the master, loading WinXP, and HDD 1 to only load ME when it is the master (but generally to be set as slave and ultimately re-format it)

so, how do i sort this out!?:confused:

[Force Flow]

With a multiboot system, the oldest O/S has to be first, followed by the newest. So, leave the HDD configuration where it works and boot up into XP. Go Start > Run > type "msconfig" and hit ok > click the "BOOT.INI" tab.

Select the line that mentions Windows XP and click the "set as default" button.

So, this will make XP booted by default, and you still have the option of choosing to boot ME.

[mb26]

you read me wrong.. it already boots XP (well it brings up an option, and then if i do nothing then it will boot XP)

but the problem is,
that i need to have my old harddrive (HDD 1) as the master in order to boot XP, which is on HDD 2. (and i want to get rid of HDD 1 and set HDD 2 as the master)

[Force Flow]

Ok, set the XP HDD as master, boot off the XP CD and run a repair. Type fixboot and enter. They type fixmbr and enter. That should to the trick.

[glc]

Only problem with that is now all the programs that were on it won't run because what was the D drive is now the C drive.

[mb26]

ok well first off my pc wouldn't boot from CD, so i had to download something from M/s, load it onto 6 disks, and then load each one up, thenn i got to the repair and typed fixboot and i think it did it for drive D, (i tried typing fixboot [C:] but it woudln't let me do that) drive D now being the slave, ie OLD hdd :( then i typed fixmbr and it warned me that it was invalid or non-standard or something and it could mess it up, but being as i had come this far (did i mention i lost my HDD jumper and it look me an hour to find it again ! uh) i carried on anyway... then i restarted and it wouldn't load off the XP HDD, and so i switched em back (getting so sick of swapping HDD jumpers if u cant tell :( ) and it starting loading XP pro then gave me the BSOD... so then i restarted and pressed F8 ( to get the 'advanced boot options') and selected 'last good configuration' and that worked (thank god) but it got me riggght back to where i was before. i'm thinking the best thing to do would just be to format the new HDD and install XP clean on it again (as i had only just installed it so not LOADS of changes to do.. uh thats gonna take forever) from DOS as i now have the disks to boot from CD!.. (and get the old one well out of the way when i do it)

is there anything better i could do??

oh well wish me luck i'm gonna go try that now:(

[glc]

Starting fresh fixes a lot of ills when all else fails.