Here is situation: 2 Disk drives. C drive with XP loaded. D drive had vlarge data files (photos etc) data and some programs. Each disk is a single partition. XP started to operate unusually. Windows explorer not working properly Could not access Start to run system restore to recover. Attempted a "repair" with an original XP disk. 1st attempt failed, Windows attempted a second time and failed. Windows then suggested that I load the system onto the D Drive where there was sufficient space. Successfully loaded, creating a dual boot system. I could seelct either install C instantiation was now worse than before, D drive was OK. I successfully then used the systems tools to remove the second system from being a boot selection. XP then was deleted from the C drive. System now properly loads the only remaining system. Problem is: Boot.ini, ntldr etc all remain on the C drive. when the machine cold starts it recognizes both drives and successfully boots. However, if a warm restart occurs,i.e after loadain ga program the C drive is not detected and I get message statign no operating system found. I want to move the boot files to the D Drive and reformat the C drive. I have tried using the restore console and the following 3 commands in sequence fixmbr fixboot bootcfg /rebuild to make the D drive the bootable disk, No success. Ay ideas?

What I would do is put the d: drive on the primary master cable to make it c: then either do the fixmbr and bootcfg /rebuild or do a repair install of XP. Then put the first disk back in as d: after everything is up an running then you can partition and format it the way you want in disk management in XP. BTW- it sounds as if you really do your home work. You also explain everything very well. Good job.

Tried the suggestion. moved the d drive to the primarly IDE. Allowed start up to proceed normally. Got through BIOS, It saw the disk drive and then black screen with message: No OS message. Inserted Win XP disk in CD. Booted. Machine came up, loaded a whack of files. It did not detect the existing XP installation. It detected all of the freespace on the drive and asked if I wanted to install Windows to that partition. I quit out as I was concerned that it would place a second copy on the drive. Advice? As I can see all of the boot files on the C drive, Can I simply copy them to the other drive? If so where would I put them? then power down remove the C drive, Connenct D as primary and try to restart?

Does this second drive have a primary parititon and is it marked active? You can check this from a boot disk with fdisk. If the partition is not marked active it will not boot even if the boot files exist. Only a primary partition will boot. An extended partition is not bootable. Can you confirm the files ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini exist at the root of this drive? Does the folder Windows exist? You should be able to confirm this by going into recovery console. One method that is successful to get a drive booting is run install and choose repair not new install. You will have to redo your updates but your data/apps will remain. This method also corrects registry entries since your first install had the drive on d: and now its on c:.

C drive is listed in disk mgmt as Basic FAT32 D Drive is listed as Basic NTFS boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com are all on C drive in the root folder. Thery are not present anywhere on D. Windows folder is on D drive I can create a boot floppy by copying the 3 files (boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com) and the computer will load windows properly. I have installed recovery console. (it installed to C drive. When I do a cold start, I am able to select either Windows XP or the recovery console. Selecting recovery Console results in the instantiation of windows on the D drive to be the only selection. Selectign it results in D: prompt.

D is confirmed as bootable/active via partition commander

So you did the fixmbr from the recovery console when the d: drive was placed in the primary master spot and the c: drive was taken out? If that didn't work try the fixboot command, then try the bootcfg /rebuild.