Stuck in loop trying to get into safe mode. Will W2000 disk help ...

[StargateFanFromWork]

.... first off, let me get this out of the road. I listened to some advice
that I shouldn't have. In WinXP, went into MSCONFIG and in the boot.ini tab
ticked "Safe mode" and "networking". (I was forgetting I wasn't in Win98SE
and that this wouldn't be easily reversible). I was stuck in a loop before
then as I couldn't get into any of the options besides safe mode, either but
I could at least get back into Windows. Now I cannot. Well, this would not
be a problem, but it's WinXP so there you go!

This has been the last straw for me re WinXP and though it came with the new
box and I _may_ be able to restore it, I've had enough of its stupidity
(which I won't go into here, of course). I still, thank goodness, have
Windows 2000, which though I never liked it either, still felt like it
obeyed me more and I can go back to using it. My concern is will this work
in wiping the drive, etc., if I'm stuck in the safe mode selection screen
which then endlessly cycles back to the COMPAQ screen and when I choose F8,
goes back to the other screen, but then after I select something and it
loads a ton of drivers, it then goes back to the COMPAQ screen.

I was told yesterday that WinXP will most probably want to wipe the entire
computers partitions and all (what's the point in partitions, then, I'd like
to know!!!). If I remember correctly, one at least had more control of what
Win2000 would wipe. I only need the C drive done!

Any tips and advise welcomed. I only have today to do most of the research
as, after that, will have to resort to the public library for information as
I can't use my own computer and the person I'm replacing here at work is
working this week, so I'll be out of luck with computer resources for the
next few days after today.

Thanks! D

 

[Dave Patrick]

Try creating a boot disk. For the floppy to successfully boot Windows XP the
disk must contain the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows XP
machine, not a DOS/Win9x, so the NT boot sector gets written to the floppy),
and copy Windows XP versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it.
Edit the boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to
boot. Below is an example of boot.ini. The default is to start the operating
system located on the first partition of the primary or first drive
(drive0). Then drive0 partition 2 and so on.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 0,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 0,2"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 1,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 1,2"


Another possibility is to try loading the controller driver also from
floppy. For the floppy to successfully boot Windows XP the disk must contain
the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows XP machine, not a
DOS/Win9x, so the "NT" boot sector gets written to the floppy), then copy
ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it. Edit the boot.ini to give it a
correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot.

In order for this to work you'll want to change the arc path in boot.ini
from multi syntax to scsi syntax to indicate that Windows XP will load a
boot device driver and use that driver to access the boot partition. Then
also copy the correct manufacturer scsi driver to the floppy but renamed to
ntbootdd.sys

Something like this below;

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 0,1"
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 0,2"
scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 1,1"
scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 1,2"


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[StargateFanFromWork]

Forgive me for the delay in responding; I haven't had my computer at home
working since the time I posted and I wasn't brought in to work till today
since I'm replacing someone who came back to work for a few days.

The machine here at work has WinXP _and_ a floppy drive but I have no floppy
drive at home. So there might have been a solution there if not for my
machine.

The instructions below are wonderful but I'm not sure I understand
everything. There are some terms I've heard of but am unfamiliar how to
deal with. Will start researching how to do the instructions below where I
don't understand.

Just a note, the difficulty with the situation at home is in the continual
looping. When the machine tries to go into safe mode or any other option,
after drivers are loaded, they get stuck at mup.sys, I believe it was. Then
it loops back to the beginning. If I stand back and do nothing, the machine
goes on merrily since with the timeouts, it just keeps reverting back to the
loop. Fascinating if it weren't so frustrating. I made a huge mistake re
the boot.ini file forgetting I had no access to DOS <sigh>. Anyway ...

In the interim, I did figure out where to go in setup to change first boot
device to the DVD-ROM drive and put the Win2K disk in but that didn't do
anything at all worth beans <g>. I suspect that I need to do more and the
clue to that will be in your kind instructions below.

Thank you! Much appreciated. Will keep at this, obviously, till solution
reached. D

Try creating a boot disk. For the floppy to successfully boot Windows XP
the disk must contain the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a
Windows XP machine, not a DOS/Win9x, so the NT boot sector gets written to
the floppy), and copy Windows XP versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and
boot.ini to it. Edit the boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the
machine you wish to boot. Below is an example of boot.ini. The default is
to start the operating system located on the first partition of the
primary or first drive (drive0). Then drive0 partition 2 and so on.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 0,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 0,2"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 1,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 1,2"


Another possibility is to try loading the controller driver also from
floppy. For the floppy to successfully boot Windows XP the disk must
contain the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows XP machine,
not a DOS/Win9x, so the "NT" boot sector gets written to the floppy), then
copy ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it. Edit the boot.ini to give it
a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot.

In order for this to work you'll want to change the arc path in boot.ini
from multi syntax to scsi syntax to indicate that Windows XP will load a
boot device driver and use that driver to access the boot partition. Then
also copy the correct manufacturer scsi driver to the floppy but renamed
to ntbootdd.sys

Something like this below;

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 0,1"
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 0,2"
scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Windows XP 1,1"
scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows XP 1,2"


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

... first off, let me get this out of the road. I listened to some
advice that I shouldn't have. In WinXP, went into MSCONFIG and in the
boot.ini tab ticked "Safe mode" and "networking". (I was forgetting I
wasn't in Win98SE and that this wouldn't be easily reversible). I was
stuck in a loop before then as I couldn't get into any of the options
besides safe mode, either but I could at least get back into Windows.
Now I cannot. Well, this would not be a problem, but it's WinXP so there
you go!

This has been the last straw for me re WinXP and though it came with the
new box and I _may_ be able to restore it, I've had enough of its
stupidity (which I won't go into here, of course). I still, thank
goodness, have Windows 2000, which though I never liked it either, still
felt like it obeyed me more and I can go back to using it. My concern is
will this work in wiping the drive, etc., if I'm stuck in the safe mode
selection screen which then endlessly cycles back to the COMPAQ screen
and when I choose F8, goes back to the other screen, but then after I
select something and it loads a ton of drivers, it then goes back to the
COMPAQ screen.

I was told yesterday that WinXP will most probably want to wipe the
entire computers partitions and all (what's the point in partitions,
then, I'd like to know!!!). If I remember correctly, one at least had
more control of what Win2000 would wipe. I only need the C drive done!

Any tips and advise welcomed. I only have today to do most of the
research as, after that, will have to resort to the public library for
information as I can't use my own computer and the person I'm replacing
here at work is working this week, so I'll be out of luck with computer
resources for the next few days after today.

Thanks! D

 

[Dave Patrick]

Here's for Windows 2000. You mentioned XP then later 2000 so I don't know.

For the floppy to successfully boot Windows 2000 the disk must contain the
"NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows 2000 machine, not a
DOS/Win9x, so the NT boot sector gets written to the floppy), and copy
Windows 2000 versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it. Edit the
boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot.
Below is an example of boot.ini. The default is to start the operating
system located on the first partition of the primary or first drive
(drive0). Then drive0 partition 2 and so on.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 0,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 0,2"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 1,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 1,2"


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect