How to boot from second drive in Dimension 2400

Question

My problem is this: my old Dimension 8300 died. I wanted to rescue my files from the hard disk (the original Hitachi ATA/IDE 120 Gb).

I connected the hard disk as a second disk in my old Dimension 2400. I read the articles here about problems connecting a second drive to a Dimension 2400, but I had no problems. I can access the old (now second) hard disk. In my BIOS it is showing as " IDE DRIVE UDMA" .

But ... Most of my files at the old disk are encrypted by Windows XP, so I don't get access to that files. The only way to recover that files, is to boot from that disk and login as the original administrator, but there my problems started. (Yes, I know, I should have exported the certificate, but I didn't, grrrr.)

In BIOS I don't see any option to boot from the second drive " IDE DRIVE UDMA". I only can choose between Primary disk or CD/DVD. So I tried to replace the original drive from the Dimension 2400 (Hitachi ATA/IDE 40 Gb) with the drive from the Dimension 8300, hoping that the computer would accept it as Primary disk, but that resulted in a blue screen saying STOP: 0xF8BCF524 etcetera. It seems not to be possible just to swap both disks, so I need to find a way to connect both disks (which is easy) but than boot from my old 8300-disk, and I don't know how to achieve that.

Is there any way to let my Dimension 2400 boot from the second disk?

baslima · Accepted Answer

In case someone else has the same problem: I found a solution (at a cost of €149 + VAT).

For a few days I have been thinking and searching, but I think Jack is right. Even with SP3-installation disks, there is still a risk of loosing the protected data. And I couldn't find another Dimension 8300 with exactly the same configuration as my old one, so there was no way to boot from my old hard disk.

So the refrased question is: how to recover EFS-data from an old hard disk, if you cannot boot from that disk. The answer (at least in my situation) was: Advanced AFS Data Recovery from elcomsoft.com. Not cheap but effective (if you still know your old administrator username and password).

But a much better advise is: use all the posibilities to make sure you can recover your EFS-data (certificates, recovery agents etcetera), because some day even your loyal Dell 8300 will crash!

jackshack · Answer

You can usually boot from the second IDE port provided you go to system setup (F2 during the self test after restarting the computer) and turn the first port Off.  Your basic problem, however, is that the hard drive from the 8300 has only the drivers for that computer, and nothing for the devices and main board of the Dimension 2400.  You can sometimes correct this by running a repair installation using a Windows installation disk, but the catch on that procedure is that the installation disk must include at least the same service pack as the installation on the hard drive.  If your installation CD includes Service Pack 2, but your 8300 hard drive has Service Pack 3, you won't be able to complete the repair.  You may also have problems with the security aspect; I don't know how the files that get replaced during the repair will affect the calculation of the encryption key.

baslima · Answer

Thanks Jack,

At least I understand better now what my problem is. (I don't know much about hardware, and I was hoping something like windows=windows and dell=dell, so I can just swap disks, but I understand now the world is not that easy).

Yes, my installation-CD's are from 2003 I think, from before any Service Packs, and my hard drive has Service Pack 3.

Anyone knows any other trick I could try?

Storage, Drives & Media

How to boot from second drive in Dimension 2400

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