Hi,Got a new 80GB HDD after my old one failed. I formatted the new drive and can run Windows on it. Now I plugged in my old backup drive and I keep getting cannot load operating system during boot. So I go into XP Recovery console and when it scans the disks, it says that they're both disk 0! Shouldn't one (probably the backup as it's a slave) be disk 1? Is it possible to change this number?Thanks,

Probably need a little more info on your setup,i assume you have an operating system installed om your new HD and want to use the 40GB as backup (or want to restore data from it?).Did you set the jumpers on the backup drive as slave?Also check out the Boot.ini file for the ARC path name (with single IDE master/slave config it should show something like this: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) ...

Sorry for not giving you that much information. I have XP purring away on the new HDD, and have two partitions on the backup drive, 10GB for an emergency OS install, and 30GB for backup files, of which I have a few gigs. The backup is set as a slave. I didn't have it plugged in when I formatted and installed Windows on the new drive, perhaps that had something to do with it. (?) Here's my boot.ini:[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetectWhen loading Windows XP recovery console, it says that it's scanning the drives. The new drive is Disk0, Id0, and something else 0. Backup is Disk0, ID1, and the other number 0. Shouldn't the backup drive be Disk1?Thanks

bumpShould I hook up both drives and reformat the new drive? Would this "kick back" the numbers to how they're supposed to be?

Oops. Never mind. I misread the post.

Hmmmm...ok lets see you installed the winxp on the 80GB hd without the 40GB hd physicly connected to the cable (make sure that the master drive is at the end of the cable and the slave is on the midle connector).After succesful boot to winxp you connected the 40GB hd and now the computer doesnt even boot,or just doesnt recognize the seconf drive?Anyway the BIOS supposed to be auto-recognize the drive setup,so check out the BIOS first (make sure that you are document any changes,so you can change it back if something goes awry),look at your PCI configuration,everything supposed to be set to auto here,after this look at IDE configuration and the 80GB hd supposed to be show as primary master and the 40GB hd as primary slave.At this point still no succes ,i would reformat the new drive,install winxp on the new drive with the back up drive set as slave (make sure the jumper settings are correct,and the position on the cable is right).

Fixed it! Turns out the Maxtor drive likes being on a different IDE cable than the other drive. Haven't checked if it's still Disk0, but it works very well. :-)