BIOS and Boot help, multiple HDDs

[Munty]

Hi guys, thanks to help with virus protection and the like I'm happy that this computer is now finally up to scratch and that means it's time to use it to fix the others! I just got a SATA splitter through the post so I can now hook up both my active 1TB HDD and my older 320GB one which has a whole host of data on that I want to get back!

So I plugged both in and was expecting it to boot up into this system, automatically designating the old 320GB HDD as F: or something simialr. That should allow me torun virus and malware scans, take off what I need from it then reformat it and install a new OS. But that's not as simple as it sounds apparently... So here's my info and problem, please read on if you have a brain with such things as I'm sure it shoudl be simple to fix with the right knowhow...

Firstly, the issue with my old 320GB drive is something to do with the windows logon process I believe. In the final 'logging into windows' screen it gives me an error message of 'userinit.exe failed to initialise or similar. After a lot of time spent trying to diagnose it I gave up, purchased a new HDD and started over but I do need to save the data on the smaller 320GB one and I want to use it as a backup for said data in future to allow periodic reformatting of this new one.

Anyway, I'm not too interested in fixing this userinit issue as it's subject to a full reformat soon anyway but I need the data first so I want to get this 320GB drive wired up as a slave to my 1TB one I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I've done similar in the past so I think it's my best bet now...

In BIOS (with both HDDs plugged in) I went to the 'standard CMOS setup' page (again forgive my ignorance if I'm using wrong terms or locations, I try to avoid meddling with things outside the OS) and was given a list of the following;
IDE Channel 0 Master TSTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (no idea on any of this but remember TST being present)
IDE Channel 0 Slave None
IDE Channel 1 Master x (both channel 1 slots were greyed out with a x next to them instead of none)
IDE Channel 1 Slave x
IDE Channel 2 Master Samsungxxxxxxxxxxx
IDE Channel 2 Slave None
IDE Channel 3 Master xxxxxxxxxxxxx (some wierd number, this is the 320GB HDD)
IDE Channel 3 Slave None

Sorry for the messy post and lack of better descriptions, I'm not too sure about most of this though. First question based on the above... I know that the bottom one in channel 3 is the 320GB one as it's listed as none in the BIOS when I disconnect it. But why do I have 2 others and why is there no channel 1? Channel 2 is the first spot on my mobo for the SATA data cable and I plugged the 320GB one into the next slot which is clearly channel 3 so I guess the Samsung in channel 2 is my 1TB.

But what is the channel 0 one? Is there some minute storage capacity on the board or something odd? Or is it a non-HDD component? And how come I have no Channel 1? Is it just the way the mobo is? Sorry I can't get the details on the mobo without a switch off and dismantle but will do that if necessary of course!

So my main goal here is to get the rig running with the 1TB as a master and the 320GB as a slave. Strangely, when I boot up as it is, I still get the userinit error message, even with the healthy 1TB HDD in the former slot so it seems to be drawing on bad data from the 320GB HDD even before it logs into windows. So currently I'm unable to boot up with the 320GB connected at all. When it has power it works fine as I can hear and feel it working.

Any help would be sterling as I was hoping to get this sorted today and crossed off the to-do list! +rep for a solution lol

[Munty]

Woohoo +rep for me lol I just booted up with my 1TB OS and then hooked up the other drive while I was running. Quick refresh of the device manager turned it up and now my anti-virus is going to town on it's ass lol

[x88x]

I'm wondering if when you booted with both connected it was just booting to the 320GB and that's why it was giving you the errors even when booting with the 1TB.

Are all the 'IDE' channels actually SATA or is there actually an IDE channel or two on the board? Do you have any CD/DVD/etc drives hooked up to the IDE channel(s)? That might explain the weird ID on channel 0.

[Munty]

The CDD is IDE but that's it. Both HDDs are in SATA plugs so I really don't get it.

As far as booting from the 320GB I think I messed up a bit initially but here's the process I went through!

I have 2 SATA data cables but one has a 90degree connector on one end so it would only fit in one place. That meant I ended up crossing over the cables without thinking of it. Putting the 320GB one in the port ahead of the 1TB one. When I booted in that configuration it gave me the 'safe mode with command prompts, last known good configuration' etc screen because of the issues preventing correct startp on the 320GB one. I selected last known good and it took me up to the userinit.exe error.

I switched off, reversed the data cables and tried again and low and behold no 'start in safe mod' screen which leads me to assume it's trying to run from the healthy 1TB HDD but it still went through to the userinit.exe error which is odd.

I switched off and removed the 320GB HDD again and it boots up as normal and then reconnected the 320 while running and found it in device manager. I've since run registry mechanic which found 20-something errors and put them right. Microsoft Security Essentials is 90minutes into a custom scan of what is now E: drive with what looks like another 60 to go. I'm sure it'll find a LOT of problems and in a way I'll be concerned if it doesn't!

When that's finished I'll make a directory on that volume and fill it with everything I want to keep then wipe the rest. Can I do that to the Windows directories too? I want to just eradicate everything I don't want from E: asap which includes the OS and I'm running everything from C: anyway but don't know if I can just delete anything from it like it's removable media. I'd imagine Windows would try to prevent such idiocy in most situations

[x88x]

MBB's will often display SATA channels as slave-less IDE channels, probably just because they can't be bothered to rewrite that portion of their software. So what's happening here is probably that you have two IDE channels and two SATA channels that are being displayed as IDE channels.

Since you have an IDE CD drive, I'm guessing that's the TST-blahblahblah drive. Check the advanced settings in your BIOS; the second IDE channel might just be disabled, which would explain it being greyed out.

Not seeing the boot choice screen just means that it shut down properly, so that doesn't necessarily mean that you were booting off one drive or the other.

If you're wiping the whole 320GB drive, I would format it. If you just delete everything you might run into problems with the disk's MBR still being active and trying to read stuff that isn't there.

[Munty]

I'll definitely reformat it asap but I don't much fancy pulling all the data I want from it straight onto this comp now. Even once the virus check has dealt with everything that it finds I won't trust the 320 until a full reformat has been done. I just don't want to end up brining any nasties onto this HDD or I'm really screwed!

[Munty]

Need different kind of help now. Got together a bundle of about 130GB that I want to bring over from E: to C: but every time I try it gives me the 'disk is full or write protected or file is in use crap' What do I need to do for it to allow the move? Can I change the permissions somewhere or is there something else to blame?

[xr4man]

did you try just a "copy file" rather than "move"? i've found that sometimes makes a difference.

another choice would be to copy to an external drive first if you have one.

or try to move just a few folders at a time until you find something that is offending your OS.

[Munty]

thanks but I think I've tried all that... Tried moving each folder individually and each and every one shows the same problem. Tried copying and moving but both are the same. Even tried cut-pasting to the new drive but still no good.

[Munty]

Seems to be a problem with moving .DLLs from my game folders but not all .DLLs which is very odd. I really don't understand why some would be different, they aren't in use at all so why won't they copy? And why only some of them?

EDIT : scratch that, just had an application file refuse to transfer with the same error. EVery other file in the whole game directory transferred and then with 5 secs left it failed to move this last one...