Expert: Chris Morrison Date: 6/20/2008 Subject: Startup Folder Programs No Longer Start
Question Hi,
Yesterday I tried to add a second IDE hard drive to my PC. I was not successful—the BIOS did not recognize the drive. During my attempts, I installed a new IDE data cable with connectors for both drives, adjusted the master/slave jumpers on both drives, etc. I also disconnected power from the original drive and tried booting the PC from a System Restore DVD.
After all my attempts failed, I reconnected the old drive and (I thought) put everything back in its original condition. The PC boots fine, and I have access to all my programs. However, several start-up-type programs no longer load automatically during boot-up. They include Norton 360 and APC PowerChute (both originally launched via a registry setting, I guess), plus MS Outlook, which was launching via a shortcut I had placed in the Startup folder.
Do you have any ideas why these programs no longer auto-launch? How can I fix this?
Thanks,
Joe
Answer You can try removing the cable from the CDROM drives and adding the second drive as a master there to see if it is seen. I have had some samsung drives that i had to do this with.
Another alternative is to just put the second drive in a external USB case. http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=92&name=External-Enclos...
As far as the startup programs missing, if you had a failed windows boot it may have defaulted to last known good config.
The items should still be in msconfig (type msconfig at the run box)and you should be able to just re-enable them.
The shortcut startup you may have to re-apply.
You may want to do a disk defragment and run cleanup http://www.stevengould.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=2...
