I've 2 HDD with XP Pro installed in primary (1st) partition on both drive.
Recently, I've used PartitionMagic (by PowerQuest) to copy (overwrites) 1st XP to 2nd drive.

Right after the completion, it reboots and I happily choose the newly copied XP Pro. Well, PartitionMagic starts doing the COPY partition again. Did not realize what went on, after rebooting, I choosed the 2nd XP Pro (as done previously). The video card's driver starts acting strangely.

So I reboot and choose my 1st partition. It acted strangely. It was as if the 1st partition does not exist. It was desiginated as "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)" in Boot.ini. The next reboot, I choosed "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)" - before copying over, I imaged 2nd drive's XP Pro to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2).

Choosing multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2) works as if I've choosed multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1).

I've used DiskAdmin and PartitionMagic, SET command to verify that I am actually booting from multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) (1st partition) not 2nd.

VERY STRANGE behavior.

I then copy the partition again using Drive Image (also by PowerQuest). I got the same result. Now, my system works only if I choose multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2) but not multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1).

My copied XP no longer works. I've done it before but this time, I am toally lost.

Have anyone seen this?
Is it related with MBR being messed up?
How to resolve it besides reformat / reinstall?

Thanks for your help.