why can't bootcfg find my Windows OS?

[idiotprogrammer]

I had a hard drive crash on XP Pro and I'm trying to get everything up
again. XP won't start at all without the install CD. I need advice
about trying to boot into XP using my existing OS.

Previously I had three hard drives and I think the Windows
installation was on drive letter E: on hard drive 2.
Hard drive 1 (which crashed) contained C: and D:, but these were only
data partitions.

For some reason I think that Hard drive 1 (HD1) contained the boot
loader (and MBR?) which found the Windows installation on HD2.
When hard drive 1 failed, I think the Windows install wasn't in the
path to boot.

Here's how I tried to resolve the problem.

First, I removed the bad drive and verified that the other two hard
drives work (using an Ubuntu LiveCD). When I ran the XP Recovery
Console, the initial screen asked me to login to the administrator
account on c:\windows . I logged in successfully.

(I verified that c: corresponds to e: on what used to be HD2. C: is
the partition with windows installed).

The problem is that when I run bootcfg nothing seems to happen.
Running /list reveals nothing bootable; running /scan produces this
error message: "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows
installations. This may be caused by a corrupt file system, which
prevents boot.cfg from successfuly scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any
disk errors."

I ran checkdsk; no errors. Before I ran bootcfg I ran both fixboot and
fixmbr without result. I noticed btw that in C:/windows there was no
boot.ini.

I'm on a 64 bit processor and I read somewhere that fixboot and fixmbr
isn't supported on 64 bit processors. Can you verify?

Is there anything else I can try? I find encouraging that recovery
console initially recognizes my Windows OS; why then is it unable to
make it bootable?

I will probably add Vista to the new HD I add, so I guess as long as
Vista can mount the drives, everything will be all right. But I would
really like to get XP running--(mainly to recover my previous settings
and some of the programs that I installed.

Otherwise I can just install XP and Vista on my new drive and forget
about the original Windows partition. But doesn't it seem strange that
Windows would recognize the Windows install at Recovery Console
originally and then be unable to use that knowledge to reconfigure
boot.ini? Any suggestions?


Robert Nagle
Houston, Texas
idiotprogrammer

 

[John John (MVP)]

Copy the files NTDETECT.com and ntldr from the i386 folder on the
Windows XP cd to the root of the drive (c:\), you can do that from the
Recovery Console with the copy command. You also need to acertain that
the partition is marked as active. The boot.ini file also belongs in
the root of the drive alongside the ntldr and NTDETECT.COM files. If
there is only one partition on the drive ntldr may be able to start
Windows without a boot.ini file, it will look for the Windows folder on
the drive and attempt to boot from that folder. The boot ini when there
is only a single partition on a single hard disk usually looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

John

 

[idiotprogrammer]

how do I ascertain that the partition is marked as active?
Robert Nagle

 

[idiotprogrammer]

I just noticed something strange. Recovery Console doesn't seem to
recognize the install CD as a drive letter. what the heck? I don't
have a floppy. would I need to make a CD that boots into DOS (or
whatever the NT equivalent is)?

rj

 

[John John (MVP)]

You can do that with a Windows 98 setup diskette and fdisk, or you can
use a third party tool like BootItNG
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm You don't
have to install BootItNG, just click cancel at the installation screen
and the program will launch in Maintenance Mode and you will be able to
verify the active status of the partitions.

John