help please - cloning

I use Windows XP service pack 1. I cloned my Drive C to a second drive (drive E) on my computer, so I would have a backup (I want a clone, not an image). I want to leave that clone drive on my computer but I still want to use my original drive C as the boot/system drive, but now when I boot them computer wants to boot from the clone, not my original Drive C. The message says to "hit enter to find OS". I do that and it makes my computer boot from the original Drive C, but I do not want to do that step everytime. What can I do? What must I change? Must I somehow change the drive letter of the clone (which now seems to also be called Drive C)?
I appreciate any help. My first post here. Thanks in advance.

 

Hi, pureair1000

Welcome to Wilders.

You can either disconnect the HDD you do not want to Boot.

Or go to you BIOS and turn off Auto Detect to the HDD you do not need. [that will make like your HDD is not connected]

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Yo have discovered that a clone is just that, an exact replica of the original disk. Having it connected when you boot is confusing to Windows because two identical disks exist.

Either disconnect the clone or disable it in BIOS to avoid the problem as described by TheQuest.

 

Too late.




"These examples illustrate two general rules for successful cloning of NT-family OS's:

* do not let old-XP see the new partition before cloning.
Doing so would give XP a chance to assign a drive letter, it will be remembered by the registry when it is cloned, and the clone will adopt the wrong drive letter for itself.

* do not let new-XP see the old-XP partition the first time it boots.
If new-XP sees old-XP, it won't reuse the original drive letter when it assigns a drive letter to itself. (Once XP-2 has booted and reallocated new drive letters, the old-XP partition can be reintroduced into the system, if desired.)"


http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

 

Thank you all. Please bear with me, I am still not quite sure what I can do now. I need to have both hard drives to access, but I want the computer to boot from only the original Drive C. I really need to solve this problem.

John, I'm a little inexperienced....if I disable the new Drive C in the bios can I still access it when my computer is on? Also, what is the specoific proceedure for disabling it in the bios?..........are there different ways on different systems?

Brian K. Thanks for your input. Actually I have already read http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm. Pretty confusing to me. In any case, is there some way I can fix the situation now? I can even reformat the new Drive C (originally Drive E), if that would somehow help me achieve what I want.

Thanks in advance

 

pureair1000,

If you want a backup, you need an image, not a clone. Yes, delete the clone partition and create a logical partition on your second HD. Or format the partition. Write an image of your C: drive to the second HD.