Boot help

Here's the deal, sorry if this has been ask as i'm sure it has, but most threads get choppy and hard to follow so i'm going to go over what i have done so far on a step by step process to see if you guys can clue me in on where i have gone wrong.
First the specs, the computer contains a 40g WD (master) and a 160g Seagate (slave). The master began clicking and freezing during normal windows operation so i decided to take the external (250g maxtor) and do a full disk image from the 40g to the 250g as i replaced the 250g as the slave. i used true image disk to disk automatic mode and did the image to the 250g. I should add all disks are regulare IDE disks so no sata problems. I then removed the 40g, placed the 250g as master and 160g after a shutdown. Started the computer to have it load as per usual and once the loading screen finished, the Blue window with the microsoft windows imaged appeared with mouse functionality but nothing else, booting into windows fully ceased at that point. From there, i switched back to the 40g as master leaving the 160g as slave the rest of the time to do a little research. I ran a boot disk, windows 98 to run the Fdisk/mbr command in which ( i dont know what it's supposed to do or look like) but it did nothing but bring up the a: prompt again. Shutdown, replaced the 250g as master and rebooted to the same screen. Replaced the 40g, as master, then researched more and tried the MBR special CD as listed in the forums in which in that case it said "no boot record for this os" or something to the sorts, tried the 250g again as master to find the same result.
What did i do wrong in this process or what do i need to do to get this 250g to boot as master disk with the 160g as slave. Do i need to replace the 250g as slave and redo the true image disk to disk? and what from there do i need to do to make this work?
thanks for any help you can provide as this is the first time i've tried a disk to disk image.

 

If I'm reading you right, you put an image on the 250. Images are not bootable until they are Restored to a hard drive. Did you, in fact, go through the Restore process?

 

No, like i said i've never done this before. I ran the disc to disc copy. Let it perform the copy and shutdown when it prompted and said to switch the new drive in. Placed the new drive in, it started with the acronis prompt with Analyzing and 2 other processes, then rebooted itself. Upon rebooting i got to the blue screen and it stopped with Windows XP professional emblem and nothing more.
More specifically i ran the Clone Disk option in True Image 9.0

 

Hello erm0715,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that we recommend you to unplug one of the hard drives right after the disk cloning process has been finished, since keeping both original and cloned hard drives connected might cause different boot or drive letter assignment problems.

Could you please connect your 250g hard drive to the computer as Master, boot the computer from Windows 98 Startup Disk and run "fdisk /mbr" command?

If that does not help, please do the following:

- Download Acronis Report utility;
- Run Acronis Report utility and select the "Create bootable floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the floppy drive and proceed with creating the bootable diskette;
- Boot the computer under consideration from this diskette and wait for report creation process to complete;
- Send us the report.txt file from the floppy disk.

This would provide us with detailed information on the hard disk partition structure.

Please create an account, then log in and submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
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Tatyana Tsyngaeva