Dell Dimension XPS Gen4 - HD probs

Hello all,

I have here the above mentioned PC with Windows XP Pro. User bought a large HD, so I cloned her old one over to it. Both SATA drives.

Problem - I can still successfully boot into Windows with the old drive. However, when I try to boot off the new one, I get the message "NTLDR is missing".

Here is what I have tried with no fix:

CHKDSK
fixboot
fixmbr

A Windows repair install does not pick up the Windows partition.
I have a ISO CD of the NTLDR FIX - it will boot into windows after booting from that CD. When I remove it, I get the same error message again.

The drive is a Hitachi - it passes the Hitachi hd diag from the UBCD with no problems.

This is really driving me bonkers. Any suggestions?

Just a thought but have you checked the drive for an infection?

It appears to be clean. I have scanned it with several programs.

If you slave the new drive in another computer, can you access the files on it? What cloning software did you use? What size new drive? What model computer?

Just a hunch but also check the bios. There is some off the wall setting and I can't recall what it was called but if you have more than one drive in it can flake out the system. It's not the settings for master and slave it's something else that has to do with SATA controls or hard drive size/type I believe. Someone else might know what i'm talking about and have better advice on looking for it.

Yes, when I boot off the original HD, I can access everything on the new one. No problems there.

New hard drive is Hitachi 1TB SATA.

I can't remember what the name of the software is. Its on the latest Ultimate Boot CD. I have used it several times with no problems until this time.

I would say that you need to re clone it.
I would use Acronis if possible.
Here is Hitachi's disk installation page.
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/hdinstall.htm
Note only the last one has a free basic edition
As Niclo said you may need a jumper on the drive as well.

Well I wasn't suggesting the drive jumper but good call Ferrit. What I was describing I only found on a handful of Dell's and it fouled up my progress until I played around with the bios and changed settings that I never saw before to see what happened.