NTLDR error on start-up when adding secondary new drive

[neville310]

I am swapping hard drives on my home-build system and encountered boot errors. The master boot sector is looking for NTDLR; thus can not find an OS to load.

Generally, my system boots directly with grub and then into Windows XP SP2. The C drive is my primary IDE drive; the drive coming out of the system is a secondary IDE (aka slave); the new drive is a SATA 300GB drive replacing the secondary IDE. I had not been able to install the drive over the last year due to lack of time.

The bios properly recognizes the new drive. But the system returns an NTDLR error on start-up; until I go back to the previous drive configuration. The jumper settings are correct since the bios recognizes the SATA drive. Grub may be on the drive coming out (not sure).

Where do I find information on editing grub? How do I save my Linux installation after installing the new drive (aka copy to the new drive)? What tools would help me diagnosis the boot sequence order? Loads of information is available on the internet; yet frankly I don't have time to read through it all. Please point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Found these links yet looking for more info on these topic (especially accessing the grub and moving my linux installation to a new drive)
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318728

Here are my boot.ini and grub.conf


[root@localhost grub]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 7297 58613121 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 7298 14593 58605120 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 7298 10945 29302528+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 10946 14593 29302528+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1272 4757 28001263+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb2 4758 7294 20378452+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb3 1 1271 10209276 83 Linux
/dev/hdb5 4758 7294 20378421 7 HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 24321 195358401 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 24321 195358401 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 200.0 GB, 200049648128 bytes
1 heads, 1 sectors/track, 390721969 cylinders, total 390721969 sectors
Units = cylinders of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 64 390716864 195358400+ 7 HPFS/NTFS


# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd1,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2257.fc5)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2257.fc5 ro root=LABEL=Linux rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2257.fc5.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.16-1.2133_FC5)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16-1.2133_FC5 ro root=LABEL=Linux rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.16-1.2133_FC5.img
title WIndows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

[stoat]

Hello neville310,

If you are saying that installing the new drive makes the system not boot at all and instead display a "NTLDR is missing" error message, that technically means that the drive that is now first in the boot order was formatted and partitioned by NT, XP, W2K, or Server 2003 and has no system files for an operating system in its active partition.

If the 120GB hda drive and the 60GB hdb drive in the fdisk are not involved in the drive switch and have been there all along, then I believe you just need to enter BIOS setup and review the BIOS drive boot order. The order may have been altered by the drive change. If so, it probably needs to be returned to the 120GB drive as first.

If one of those two drives IS involved in the drive switch and was removed, then you may be removing the drive whose master boot record had GRUB stage1 in it and/or the drive with the Windows operating system. You have a much bigger problem to deal with in that case (drive cloning or reinstalling an operating system).

P.S.: If you should need more help or advice with this matter, don't refer to your drives as C, D, E, etc. Outside of a Windows operating system, those letters are not helpful. Refer to your drives by size or by the device names given to them by whatever application with which you are examining them or from which you are posting results.