Hi everyone, nice forum. I bet i have found more answers that worked from a simple Google search referencing this forum then any other LoL. My problem today i need some help with is this, so get ready. On an alternate HP Pavillion box that had 98SE and one hard drive i added another hard drive and install XP Pro on that one. I noticed that XP Pro burns in it's own boot manager, which is ok as it was. Later i decided to pull the hard drive with the XP Pro on it and add it to my main box, leaving the HP with only one hard drive again, but 2 partitions on it. Just today, i decided to redistribute free space and as i always do allowed PARAGON Hard Drive Manager to do the honors and all went well, well almost. I can boot up as always with one partition but the other one won't. Instead it gives you that "invalid system disc" message you might see if you left a floppy in the drive or something. I further noticed that the XP Pro Boot Manager prompt is on the screen each time even though i pulled that drive out. Why is this happening? I completely cleared the CMOS by pulling the bat out for 1 hour and pulled the cords too. Still, every time it clears from the cmos screen to boot, the XP Pro boot manager shows up again. I thought if i cleared the CMOS that would throw off the XP Pro boot manager that might still be stuck in it but no such luck so far. It always shows Boot to XP Professional or Regular Windows which is my 98 of course. When i boot to the good partion and fire up PARAGON HD manager to investigate, the partition that wont boot right shows everything including LABEL is correct, and are "UNHID". I'm at a loss here, what did that XP Pro install to that other drive do to my computer to have this behavior and prevent me from removing it. Thanks.

The XP install changed the Master Boot Record. To get rid of it, make a Win98 boot disk. put the program fdisk on it. Boot with the disk, then type fdisk /mbr. This should overwrite the Master Boot Record and thereby remove the XP boot menu. It may also trash your Paragon HD manager, which in my humble opinion, it not very good. I never use them. Rule #1: Good Computers don't go down. Rule #2: There is no such thing as a good computer.

This place never ceases to amaze me! I can't thank you enough for not only posting your reply but in a most timely fashion i surely didnt expect! While waiting a reply i searched some resources via Google as always, and indeed! found a similar instance(s)from another where XP deliberately BRANDED! the MBR rendering either the other OS from booting normally from the other partition. Your advice falls in line exactly with what i discovered while away, so my appreciation again for weighing in on this issue. BTW, you need not concern over the PARAGON manager or it's boot manager, both are performing fine as they always did again. Why is it i wonder why Microsoft doesnt warn on this occurance?

Here are a couple of additional reference links should some one else fall victim to XP's Boot Manager when switching hard drives. http://www.techzonez.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-5505.html http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-5140.html