xp won't boot without windows cd

kind of strange. i had to reformat my pc a while ago, and i guess i wasn't really paying attention, as it ended up making c: the slave drive and d: the master.

windows itself was installed on d:, but the boot files, ntldr etc are on c:, and without the windows cd in during boot you get the no operating system found error, but if the cd is present it boots without issue.

i tried changing the boot order, rebuilding the boot files, but it didn't really help.

 

check your boot ini and see if the boot sequence is set to d and not c meaning if it looks like this
"C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut " change the C:/ to D:/.

you can access your boot ini by going to systems properties /advanced tab then startup and recovery then hit the edit button will bring up the boot ini in note pad.
hope this helps good luck.

 

The OP might want to check the jumper settings for the drives. Make 1 of them master, the other slave. Disconnect the data cable to the slave drive. Install the OS on the only drive available to the system/master. After installing the OS, shut the computer down. Reconnect the slave drive data cable. Start system, new drive should be recognized. Format the slave drive.

 

here's my boot.ini, no drive letters used.

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="xp" /fastdetect