Help: Can't login to desktop

[Bob]

I have a multiboot system here, and last night after I was trying
different (2) bootmanagers, I managed to screw up something and now I can't
get to windows.
I can get to the login box, enter my password, click 'OK' then all I get is
the login box again, and it starts shutting down. I have tried 'fdisk
/mbr' but that doesn't solve it. Also tried the CD repair function,
chkdsk says disk is ok and other options I tried say all is ok. Well maybe
that is just the files???

It seems that in the list of OS's I have, the windows OS's are not listed
now, if you can follow that, but the files are shown/are there from a non
windows OS.

Help please.

Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a multiboot system here, and last night after I was trying
different (2) bootmanagers, I managed to screw up something and now I can't
get to windows.
I can get to the login box, enter my password, click 'OK' then all I get is
the login box again, and it starts shutting down. I have tried 'fdisk
/mbr' but that doesn't solve it. Also tried the CD repair function,
chkdsk says disk is ok and other options I tried say all is ok. Well maybe
that is just the files???

It seems that in the list of OS's I have, the windows OS's are not listed
now, if you can follow that, but the files are shown/are there from a non
windows OS.

Help please.

Thanks

- What operating systems do you have in your multi-boot system?
- Which one works?
- Where do you OSs reside?
- What boot manager do you use?
- How did you run fdisk.exe?
- What partitions and what partition types to you have?
- What do you mean with your last paragraph?

 

[Bob]

- What operating systems do you have in your multi-boot system?
- Which one works?
- Where do you OSs reside?
- What boot manager do you use?
- How did you run fdisk.exe?
- What partitions and what partition types to you have?
- What do you mean with your last paragraph?

Ok thanks for the reply.
Well, I have winXP on the 1st partititon of Drive 0. I have Win2k on the
2nd partition of Drive 0, then I have Linux Mandrake, which I am using
now, on 5th partition on Drive 1.

Only Linux Mandrake works now

I am using Powerboot 3.10. It is a DOS based program from
http://www.blueskyinnovations.com. It is an oldish program now, but works
ok for me.

I ran fdisk.exe from the winXP repair option on the CD

The partitions that WinXP and Win2k reside on are NTFS formatted.

What I mean by last paragraph is that from a floppy disk with pqmagict.exe
on, it says that there is a partition table error and both Windows os's
are not there. But I am as confused as you are, because all the files on
both Windows OS's are visible from within Linux Mandrake.

I can boot both Win2k and WinXP to a login box, but that is it; neither
will load or boot to a desktop. All the boot files seem to be ok, that is
boot.ini is ok, and the other required files are in place.

Thanks

 

[Dan Seur]

Is there any chance your partition letters on HDD0 got shifted as you
fooled around with the boot manager(s)? If so, neither windows registry
would any longer refer to correct partition 'names'...

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Ok thanks for the reply.
Well, I have winXP on the 1st partititon of Drive 0. I have Win2k on the
2nd partition of Drive 0, then I have Linux Mandrake, which I am using
now, on 5th partition on Drive 1.

Only Linux Mandrake works now

I am using Powerboot 3.10. It is a DOS based program from
http://www.blueskyinnovations.com. It is an oldish program now, but works
ok for me.

After you get things working again, you might want to consider using
XOSL. It's a free boot loader that runs circles around many commercial
boot loaders. I warmly recommend it.

I ran fdisk.exe from the winXP repair option on the CD

The partitions that WinXP and Win2k reside on are NTFS formatted.

What I mean by last paragraph is that from a floppy disk with pqmagict.exe
on, it says that there is a partition table error and both Windows os's
are not there. But I am as confused as you are, because all the files on
both Windows OS's are visible from within Linux Mandrake.

I'm somewhat apprehensive about this. If PQMagic reports partition table
error 106 then it's often because the BIOS uses the wrong drive geometery
(auto/large/lba). Change this setting and see if PQMagic changes its mind.

You could also install your primary disk as a slave disk in some other
Win2000/XP PC, to check the condition of your partitions.

I can boot both Win2k and WinXP to a login box, but that is it; neither
will load or boot to a desktop. All the boot files seem to be ok, that is
boot.ini is ok, and the other required files are in place.

- When you boot to a login box, is the machine reachable via the network?
- Did you check for the presence of c:\winnt\system32\userinit.exe?
- Did you try to boot without your boot manager? Here is how to do it:

1. Use some partition management tool to make the first partition visible
(i.e. the WinXP partition).
2. Make this partition active.
3. Hide the Win2000 partition.
4. Disconnect your second disk.
5. Ensure that c:\boot.ini refers to c:\Windows for the WinXP menu item.

Please post your results.

 

[Bob H]

See below.




After you get things working again, you might want to consider using
XOSL. It's a free boot loader that runs circles around many commercial
boot loaders. I warmly recommend it.




I'm somewhat apprehensive about this. If PQMagic reports partition table
error 106 then it's often because the BIOS uses the wrong drive geometery
(auto/large/lba). Change this setting and see if PQMagic changes its mind.

You could also install your primary disk as a slave disk in some other
Win2000/XP PC, to check the condition of your partitions.




- When you boot to a login box, is the machine reachable via the network?
- Did you check for the presence of c:\winnt\system32\userinit.exe?
- Did you try to boot without your boot manager? Here is how to do it:

1. Use some partition management tool to make the first partition visible
(i.e. the WinXP partition).
2. Make this partition active.
3. Hide the Win2000 partition.
4. Disconnect your second disk.
5. Ensure that c:\boot.ini refers to c:\Windows for the WinXP menu item.

Please post your results.

I have done some investigating here, and I downloaded and ran both
Ranish Partition Manager and Partboot from floppies to see what I could
find out about the Drive 0, ie, any obvious errors.

I took down some notes of that which either didn't look right or which
partition manager told me something was wrong with a partition in an
extended partition.
I didn't make any changes, just exited out of the programs, then went to
uninstall powerboot3.10 again. After that I 'fdisk mbr' , then rebooted
into win2k; got to the login box again clicked 'ok' and lo and behold
win2k loaded upto the desktop once more!!!

Anyway, now I have win2k up and running again, I have got a copy of
xosl, but I see that it needs its own dedicated, preferably, hidden
partition from what I have read.

What size of partition would you reccomend then for xsol and whereabouts
on the disk, considering I have winxp as the first partition and win2k
as the second partition. I don't want to screw anything else up again!

Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have done some investigating here, and I downloaded and ran both
Ranish Partition Manager and Partboot from floppies to see what I could
find out about the Drive 0, ie, any obvious errors.

I took down some notes of that which either didn't look right or which
partition manager told me something was wrong with a partition in an
extended partition.
I didn't make any changes, just exited out of the programs, then went to
uninstall powerboot3.10 again. After that I 'fdisk mbr' , then rebooted
into win2k; got to the login box again clicked 'ok' and lo and behold
win2k loaded upto the desktop once more!!!

Anyway, now I have win2k up and running again, I have got a copy of
xosl, but I see that it needs its own dedicated, preferably, hidden
partition from what I have read.

What size of partition would you reccomend then for xsol and whereabouts
on the disk, considering I have winxp as the first partition and win2k
as the second partition. I don't want to screw anything else up again!

Thanks

XOSL can be installed in two ways:

- In its own dedicated partition of 8 MBytes (can be a primary or
extended partition on a primary or secondary master or slave
drive)
- On a FAT/FAT32 partition (e.g. a DOS/Win9x system disk)

You could, for example, shrink your Linux partition on the second
disk and install XOSL at the far end.

Note this:
- Installing XOSL does NOT modify the existing partitions
(other than its own partition, of course).
- When you install XOSL then you replace the Windows MBR
with the XOSL MBR.
- To remove XOSL, boot into DOS7 and run fdisk /mbr
- When you select an OS from the XOSL menu then XOSL
will make certain partitions invisible (as configured by you).
It will also hide other partitions. It will then pass control to
the boot sector of the selected boot partition.

There is one trap when installing XOSL: If you chose to install
it in a dedicated partition, and if this dedicated partition already
contains an OS then that OS will be wiped. You have been warned!

 

[Bob]

XOSL can be installed in two ways:

- In its own dedicated partition of 8 MBytes (can be a primary or
extended partition on a primary or secondary master or slave
drive)
- On a FAT/FAT32 partition (e.g. a DOS/Win9x system disk)

You could, for example, shrink your Linux partition on the second
disk and install XOSL at the far end.

Note this:
- Installing XOSL does NOT modify the existing partitions
(other than its own partition, of course).
- When you install XOSL then you replace the Windows MBR
with the XOSL MBR.
- To remove XOSL, boot into DOS7 and run fdisk /mbr
- When you select an OS from the XOSL menu then XOSL
will make certain partitions invisible (as configured by you).
It will also hide other partitions. It will then pass control to
the boot sector of the selected boot partition.

There is one trap when installing XOSL: If you chose to install
it in a dedicated partition, and if this dedicated partition already
contains an OS then that OS will be wiped. You have been warned!

Ok, thanks for that. I did do some reading about xosl, as I said, but I
was not sure as to where I could/should install it and on what size
partition, because I read that it needs either FAT16 or FAT32 and can't
recall now, but the partition has to be a certain size for either of
those. (FAT16/FAT32).

Oh, could you look at my next thread please? Its happened again!!!
I have lost drive letters for both my windows OS's, and can't get into
them again. aaaargh!

Thanks