Problem with Start up

[Committed88]

Hi,

This is just a shot in the dark, but I thought I would give it a go. I recently uninstalled a hard disk from my computer becuase it was beginning to go bad, and causing the computer lag while it respun up. I am runnin xp pro sp2. After removing the drive, the computer will not start up correctly. It does start up and is usable, however the only startup programs that show up in the taskbar is the firewall and a video card tool. A sound card program, virus software, active sync, and nvidia control center are supposed to be down there as well.

Also when starting up, the taskbar isn't accesible until after a 4 to 5 minute boot up. This isn't normal. The computer normally is done loading in less than a minute.

I tried a system restore. After doing this, all the program would start up as they should. However, after rebooting once, it was back to how it started up before the restore.

Does anyone know a way to trouble shoot this? I really want to avoid a format and reinstall.

I don't understand why after a system restore it works, until I reboot. I thought it might be becuase I removed a drive, but I thought Pro didn't have the activation code based on computer hardware.

Once again any help would be very much appreciated.

[scuzzman]

It won't have anything to do with activation. Did you disable the drive in the BIOS, or does it still think it's there?

[Committed88]

My system is a zoo. The motherboards built in IDE controller is as follows:

1 - hard drive (boot drive with system information)

2- cdrom

3- cdrom

4 - cdrom

There is then an additional I/O card installed with the following attached.

1 - hard drive

2 - nothing

3 - hard drive

4 - cd rom

2 used to have another hard drive attached, but it is the one that went bad.

It should be said that windows run perfectly. All drives are recognized and accessible. Programs installed on them still run. The only problem is how windows starts in that program do not start up correctly.