I have no idea if this has happened before, and I do not know what caused it.

I recently purchased a new hard drive, drive-to-drive copy, and I was up on
my feet again. After a while, I had another error and had to boot up my old
drive and play on there. After a bit, it finally started failing again.

I did a repair install with windows on the first drive, and went back to the
old drive to find my files and settings. After repairing the old one, I
started to have a freeze if i did not have my new drive connected. I do not
know which files it is pulling from the other drive, but at one point I had
to boot up on the new drive, and edit that registry and tell it to swap the
drives, because when I booted using my old drive, it would put my old drive
as D: and new as C:, though I hadn't booted with the new one.

Any clue what would cause an instance of windows to use the files from
another hard drive to run?

Much appreciated.

Blake

Have you ever run chkdsk?
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315265

Before running chkdsk run DiskCleanUp in each active User
Profile to remove Temporary Internet Files.

What made you originally decide to buy a new hard disk?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Blake" <Blake@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C406A48A-2294-45C0-95DA-2E1916DA8766@microsoft.com...
>I have no idea if this has happened before, and I do not know what
>caused it.
>
> I recently purchased a new hard drive, drive-to-drive copy, and I was
> up on
> my feet again. After a while, I had another error and had to boot up
> my old
> drive and play on there. After a bit, it finally started failing
> again.
>
> I did a repair install with windows on the first drive, and went back
> to the
> old drive to find my files and settings. After repairing the old one,
> I
> started to have a freeze if i did not have my new drive connected. I
> do not
> know which files it is pulling from the other drive, but at one point
> I had
> to boot up on the new drive, and edit that registry and tell it to
> swap the
> drives, because when I booted using my old drive, it would put my old
> drive
> as D: and new as C:, though I hadn't booted with the new one.
>
> Any clue what would cause an instance of windows to use the files from
> another hard drive to run?
>
> Much appreciated.

I have run chkdsk many times so far, but have not used diskcleanup yet.

The original problem with my old hard drive, I'll call it Charlie, was that
the windows installation started to mess up. Eplorer.exe was corrupted, and
then it would hang at the windows logo/welcome screen, right before it
allowed me to log in. I had not done anything different, had not installed
any new hardware or software in months, and kept my computer clean of viruses
(as far as I knew and still know) and kept everything in working order. So
far I am up to a working rendition of how it was before I encountered these
issues with only the problem of not being able to disconnect the new hard
drive, I call it Phoenix, without Charlie not working properly.

Mighty confusing.

I will be running disk cleanup, and since there is only one user on this
machine, aside from Administrator in safe mode, that should not take too long.

Thank you for your reply.

"Gerry Cornell" wrote:

> Blake
>
> Have you ever run chkdsk?
> How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315265
>
> Before running chkdsk run DiskCleanUp in each active User
> Profile to remove Temporary Internet Files.
>
> What made you originally decide to buy a new hard disk?
>
> --
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Gerry
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> FCA
>
> Using invalid email address
>
> Stourport, Worcs, England
> Enquire, plan and execute.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Please tell the newsgroup how any
> suggested solution worked for you.
>
> http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> "Blake" <Blake@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C406A48A-2294-45C0-95DA-2E1916DA8766@microsoft.com...
> >I have no idea if this has happened before, and I do not know what
> >caused it.
> >
> > I recently purchased a new hard drive, drive-to-drive copy, and I was
> > up on
> > my feet again. After a while, I had another error and had to boot up
> > my old
> > drive and play on there. After a bit, it finally started failing
> > again.
> >
> > I did a repair install with windows on the first drive, and went back
> > to the
> > old drive to find my files and settings. After repairing the old one,
> > I
> > started to have a freeze if i did not have my new drive connected. I
> > do not
> > know which files it is pulling from the other drive, but at one point
> > I had
> > to boot up on the new drive, and edit that registry and tell it to
> > swap the
> > drives, because when I booted using my old drive, it would put my old
> > drive
> > as D: and new as C:, though I hadn't booted with the new one.
> >
> > Any clue what would cause an instance of windows to use the files from
> > another hard drive to run?
> >
> > Much appreciated.
>
>

Blake

How did you know explorer.exe was corrupted?

If it was the first solution would be to try Start, Run, type "sfc
/scannow" without quotes and hit Enter.
Description of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 System File Checker
(Sfc.exe)
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;310747

Removing Temporary Internet Files is always a good thing to do before
running chkdsk or Disk Defragmenter. Temporary Internet Files can
include files, which break rules and cause both utilities problems
completing.

Have you encountered any problems with Activation?

You have been assuming that your original problems were caused by a
defective hard disk! Have you tested to see if the disk is failing? Can
you give details of the old disk. Manufacturer and model? You may have
the option of keeping both on the machine,

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Blake" <Blake@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1364EBEE-1F86-4617-8C7C-3503EFD991A5@microsoft.com...
>I have run chkdsk many times so far, but have not used diskcleanup yet.
>
> The original problem with my old hard drive, I'll call it Charlie, was
> that
> the windows installation started to mess up. Eplorer.exe was
> corrupted, and
> then it would hang at the windows logo/welcome screen, right before it
> allowed me to log in. I had not done anything different, had not
> installed
> any new hardware or software in months, and kept my computer clean of
> viruses
> (as far as I knew and still know) and kept everything in working
> order. So
> far I am up to a working rendition of how it was before I encountered
> these
> issues with only the problem of not being able to disconnect the new
> hard
> drive, I call it Phoenix, without Charlie not working properly.
>
> Mighty confusing.
>
> I will be running disk cleanup, and since there is only one user on
> this
> machine, aside from Administrator in safe mode, that should not take
> too long.
>
> Thank you for your reply.
>
> "Gerry Cornell" wrote:
>
>> Blake
>>
>> Have you ever run chkdsk?
>> How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
>> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315265
>>
>> Before running chkdsk run DiskCleanUp in each active User
>> Profile to remove Temporary Internet Files.
>>
>> What made you originally decide to buy a new hard disk?
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Gerry
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> FCA
>>
>> Using invalid email address
>>
>> Stourport, Worcs, England
>> Enquire, plan and execute.
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Please tell the newsgroup how any
>> suggested solution worked for you.
>>
>> http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>
>> "Blake" <Blake@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:C406A48A-2294-45C0-95DA-2E1916DA8766@microsoft.com...
>> >I have no idea if this has happened before, and I do not know what
>> >caused it.
>> >
>> > I recently purchased a new hard drive, drive-to-drive copy, and I
>> > was
>> > up on
>> > my feet again. After a while, I had another error and had to boot
>> > up
>> > my old
>> > drive and play on there. After a bit, it finally started failing
>> > again.
>> >
>> > I did a repair install with windows on the first drive, and went
>> > back
>> > to the
>> > old drive to find my files and settings. After repairing the old
>> > one,
>> > I
>> > started to have a freeze if i did not have my new drive connected.
>> > I
>> > do not
>> > know which files it is pulling from the other drive, but at one
>> > point
>> > I had
>> > to boot up on the new drive, and edit that registry and tell it to
>> > swap the
>> > drives, because when I booted using my old drive, it would put my
>> > old
>> > drive
>> > as D: and new as C:, though I hadn't booted with the new one.
>> >
>> > Any clue what would cause an instance of windows to use the files
>> > from
>> > another hard drive to run?
>> >
>> > Much appreciated.
>>
>>