I tried moving the cables around earlier to no avail.
Everything is detected I mean in the BIOS and with the xp disk so I don't understand why XP won't see it. is there a way I can do a repair install to the 200 if I can do that maybe I can get xp to see it again.

It sees it but it sees it as Not Initialized. In other words Not formatted/Unallocated.

A drive will not show under My Computer until it is Initialized (formatted).

If you put the 200 in the Primary Master (remove the 20) you should be able to run a Repair Install.

A good guide here:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

If this works then you should see the 200 from itself.

As to seeing the 200 from the 20... don't know. Just a personal idea is having 2 versions of XP within one computer is potentially problematic.

they're not the same version but what would you recommend?

By version I just meant XP. Are you saying one is Home and one is Pro?

My point was not to have two copies of XP (regardless of version) on the same computer.

If your main desire is to Save the data and programs on the 200 I would try a Repair Install as Primary Master (with the 20 removed).

If this enables you to boot into and access the 200 (after adding SP2) then I would slave the 20 and extract any data you want then format the 20 or just leave the 20 out.

Well now I have a big problem before when I ran the xp disc it saw the two partions one is my 20 and the other is my 200 which is stopped at 127 because of sp1 and then 63 or something unallocated, now it sees the whole 200 as unallocated and unpartioned.

Now look this is not good: http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6...hunter9rb0.png

I didn't do anything different. All I did was restart and try to do a repair install.

Just to clarify:

By partitions do you mean hard drives? Do you have two hard drives? A 20 and a 200? This is what I was assuming (sorry for my confusion).

I thought you removed the 20?

Have you set the 200 as Primary Master and removed the 20?

Then you boot your XP CD?

Then you choose Setup?

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

Does Setup offer to Repair/Upgrade the 200?

Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.

Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair.

no I didn't remove the 20 I just booted from the cd I didn't think that would have any effect on it but I will remove the 20 and try again how late will you be available?

I can't do it in the BIOS correct? it must be done by physically moving the jumpers right?

I am here for a couple hours probably. Back tomorrow similar time.

I would suggest physically removing it (disconnecting the cables: IDE & power) and setting the 200 as Primary Master.

You can try just using the BIOS by Disabling the 20 under BOOT/HDD (usually).

However I would want the 200 as Primary Master myself. Which means switching the IDE cable and setting the jumpers accordingly.

alright, I'll do that. Is there anyone else that comes on later to help?