Boots to light blue/green screen w cursor

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Cloned my C/system drive from a 74GB WD Raptor to a 150GB Raptor that was the E drive.  Both from within windows and from the TIH 2009 boot disk.  Cloning using both did not change E drive to C.  System will boot completely/loads windows using the E drive, etc., IF I leave the C drive connected.  If I disconnect the C drive, it will boot into windows, after I enter the windows password, instead of saying "welcome" and finishing the boot, it says "configuring desktop".  It finally finishes, boots to a light greenish/blue screen with just the cursor, nothing else.  I'm "afraid" to change the C to Z or something, boot to the Z drive, then change the E to C, then boot to the new C to see if that will work.

Anyone have any ideas?

Here's the system.

ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe, AMD Athlon 64 4400+ X2, TWINX2048-3500LLPRO CORSAIR XMS RAM, Pair of BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512, 2 Sony DWQ30A DVD Dual Burners, Mitsumi 7&1 floppy/card reader, Coolermaster 800W power supply & SST-TJ07 case; Not running RAID.  Vista SP1 on a 74GB Raptor, Data on a 150GB Raptor, Data on a 300GB Raptor, Data on a 1TB WD drive, all are SATA drives.

Thu, 09/03/2009 - 03:42
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The problem is because the drive letter assignments are saved in the Registry. C: is still getting assigned to the original drive. When you boot with both connected, it works. When you boot with only the new drive (the 150GB Raptor) connected, C: can't be found and another letter is already assigned to the new drive.

To fix the problem, you need to clear the MountedDevices key in the Registry.

  1. Disconnect the original drive (the 74GB Raptor) so that only the new drive (the 150GB Raptor) is connected.
  2. Make sure the BIOS has the new drive set as the default booting drive.
  3. Start the computer and press F8 (press repeatedly, if necessary) to get the Windows Safe Mode menu.
  4. Select the Safe Mode option to start Windows.
  5. Once you get the Preparing your desktop... message, press Ctrl-Alt-Del and start the Task Manager.
  6. From the Task Manager, run regedit.
  7. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.
  8. Delete all \DosDevices\#: entries. You can also delete all other entries except for the (Default) entry, if you want.
  9. Exit the Registry Editor and reboot.
  10. Vista should reassign C: to the Windows partition (assuming you have it set as the Active).
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 05:20
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Thanks, I'll try that tonight.  Physically disconnect all the hard drives from the MB, including the old C and the other 2 data drives, leaving only the old E, which has the cloned system disk, right?  Reason I ask is the 2 data drives are D and F, and will remain so once I get things right.  There are actually files on D & F that the C drives pull from.  That's where all Favorites, documents, folders, etc. are stored now, mainly on D.  Only thing that's really on the C is the OS/system files and installed programs.  As I mention above, when it successfully boots completely, it boots using the E drive, the E drive shows as the windows/system/pagefile/boot/etc., drive, it just needs the C drive to successfully do it at this point, anyway, I'll try your suggestion.  Thanks, Jim

Thu, 09/03/2009 - 13:08
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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You can leave the data drives connected if you want. Since you have linked folders to them, it's probably best. Just make sure the original Windows drive is disconnected and the new drive is the booting drive.

If you're going to leave them connected, you should also leave the \DosDevices\#: entries for those drives in the MountedDevices key. For example, if your data drives are F: and G:, don't delete the \DosDevices\F: and \DosDevices\G: entries.

Thu, 09/03/2009 - 17:08