Help splitting a dual boot

[Russ Edkins]

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.

 

[Tom]

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.

Well, it has to have a bootloader at the beginning of the drive, but I don't
think you need to blow it off. Try doing a repair install with your XP pro
disk:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Russ,

Boot the WinXP CD, load the Recovery Console. From the command prompt, copy
ntldr and ntdetect.com from the I386 folder on the CD to the root of the
system drive. Then run fixboot <drive>:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[John]

Well, it has to have a bootloader at the beginning of the drive, but I don't
think you need to blow it off. Try doing a repair install with your XP pro
disk:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

It appears the W2K drive is the primary master, no? If so it holds XP's
boot files and removing the drive leaves XP not only unbootable but even
if you do an XP repair drive letters will change. Your only option if
you don't want to reinstall XP is to leave the W2K drive in the comp and
just remove the W2K boot option from boot.ini. Boot.ini most likely is
on your C: drive of the W2K disk. Normally its hidden and read only and
so you will have to change folder settings to get at it. Once that is
done you can delete the W2K install and use that drive for data storage.
If you reformat it XP's boot is gone again and if you delete/add
partitions to the primary master the drive letters change and XP is hosed.

If you had only asked a 'what if' beforehand ...
John

 

[Ron Sommer]

XP is installed to D:.
Even if you get it to boot, the Registry will have references to D:.
Without having a boot partition or a boot drive, I doubt if XP will work.
You will probably have to reinstall.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.

Depending on if the hard drive with 2000 that you remove was partitioned or
not, you will need configure the XP drive with a primary active partition
placed before the current XP partition. You will need third party
partitioning software to accomplish the task. You will then need to run
recovery console to run bootcfg, fixboot, fixmbr. Then do the repair
install. Without adding the new partition all your registry settings will be
pointing to the wrong locations.
Ideally, you should have created the new partition and copied the boot files
to the new partition before removing the 2000 hard drive.
Boot.ini,
Bootsect.dos,
hiberfil.sys,
ntbootdd.sys,
Ntdetect.com,
Ntldr,
Pagefile.sys.
You could have then just run fixmbr and fixboot from recovery console.

Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Remove a dual boot.
#19 on the FAQ list
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html

--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP a
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Tom]

Will that work, as it seems he says (in the subject line) he has a dual
boot. Will he still be able to use that install, and keep the references to
the partition now being D: ?

Hi Russ,

Boot the WinXP CD, load the Recovery Console. From the command prompt,
copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the I386 folder on the CD to the root of
the system drive. Then run fixboot <drive>:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.

 

[Russ Edkins]

Many thanks to everyone who answered. After reading your suggestions,
it sounds like I'm on a bit of a sticky wicket, as we say on this side
of the water. But thanks to the beautiful gift of cheap technology, I
also have a DVD writer and a stack of blank DVDs, so I think I'll back
up and re-install. I could do with getting rid of some of the rubbish
that's accumulated on the drive over the years anyway. Thanks for your
time guys, much appreciated.

Russ.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

It should, the drive will not lose its enumeration - it's just that the
bootstrap cannot locate anything bootable on the remaining drive (as the
boot files were on the drive that was removed).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Will that work, as it seems he says (in the subject line) he has a dual
boot. Will he still be able to use that install, and keep the references
to the partition now being D: ?

Hi Russ,

Boot the WinXP CD, load the Recovery Console. From the command prompt,
copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the I386 folder on the CD to the root of
the system drive. Then run fixboot <drive>:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.

 

[Michael Stevens]

Many thanks to everyone who answered. After reading your suggestions,
it sounds like I'm on a bit of a sticky wicket, as we say on this side
of the water. But thanks to the beautiful gift of cheap technology, I
also have a DVD writer and a stack of blank DVDs, so I think I'll back
up and re-install. I could do with getting rid of some of the rubbish
that's accumulated on the drive over the years anyway. Thanks for your
time guys, much appreciated.

Russ.

You could also reconnect the 2000 hard drive to the original system and
run fixboot and bootcfg and then do what I suggested you should have done.

Michael Stevens MVP-MPS-Shell
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com

 

[Tom]

Thanks Rick,

The reason I ask, is that John posted that my method (repair install)
wouldn't work, though I thought it would, because everything installed on
that partition, would reference the system as a whole as "D:", when
considering what the OP wants to do, it would then become the lone system
drive on that PC. John's reply seemed to make sense (deleting the 2K
install, after re-doing the boot.ini) . Ron Sommers made this seem like an
impossibility because of the references pointing to another drive letter.

Hi,

It should, the drive will not lose its enumeration - it's just that the
bootstrap cannot locate anything bootable on the remaining drive (as the
boot files were on the drive that was removed).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Will that work, as it seems he says (in the subject line) he has a dual
boot. Will he still be able to use that install, and keep the references
to the partition now being D: ?

Hi Russ,

Boot the WinXP CD, load the Recovery Console. From the command prompt,
copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the I386 folder on the CD to the root
of the system drive. Then run fixboot <drive>:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Are you assuming that the drive is active?
Will running fixboot make the drive active?
--
Ron Sommer

Hi,

It should, the drive will not lose its enumeration - it's just that the
bootstrap cannot locate anything bootable on the remaining drive (as the
boot files were on the drive that was removed).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Will that work, as it seems he says (in the subject line) he has a dual
boot. Will he still be able to use that install, and keep the references
to the partition now being D: ?

Hi Russ,

Boot the WinXP CD, load the Recovery Console. From the command prompt,
copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the I386 folder on the CD to the root
of the system drive. Then run fixboot <drive>:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Hi,

Slightly odd one this - basically, I was running W2K, and I installed
another HDD and installed XP Pro on it. Now as part of the
installation, XP decided to be smart and set up a boot menu, which was
great, but now I want to keep both OS's but move the W2K one off to
another PC. All the posts I've seen about this relate to keeping one
OS or the other, not keeping both and splitting them!

In my prodigous nievity, I had hoped that I could just take out the
W2K drive and plug it in a new PC and everything would be hunky dory,
but of course, that was a pipe dream! When I try to boot the XP drive,
it says it's not bootable, and can't find NTLDR. I've searched both
drives, and NTLDR (and the other connected files NTDETECT etc.) only
exisited on the W2K one, which was the primary master drive.

The W2K drive will boot and still shows the menu, but when I put it in
my new PC, it blue screens, so I'm pretty much resigned to blowing it
away anyway.

So the question is, is there a way to get the XP drive to stop looking
for NTLDR and boot without having to blow it away and re-install?

Thanks,

Russ.