Boot.ini question

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_dv

First, I had WinXP Pro SP1 running on D:. I had it booted when I ran
an install of XP SP2 to the C: partition. I thought that was supposed
to intelligently create a Boot.ini on C: that would preserve the
option to boot D:. It did not. (If I had been thinking, I would have
saved a copy of the old Boot.ini, but...I was not)

So I tried to recreate the boot entry by copying the boot options for
C:, like so:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="WinXP on D:"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Result: Boot failure with the typical DLL corrupt or not found. (Is
this because one or both of those options are not legal for a
secondary boot partition?)

Tried booting from the XP install disk and repairing the boot.ini
file. The autodetect process created boot entries for BOTH C: and D:
that had no options:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINXP="WinXP D:"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WinXP C:"

What is going on with /noexecute=optin and /fastdetect? Is there one
preferred method for this?
 
_dv said:
First, I had WinXP Pro SP1 running on D:. I had it booted when I ran
an install of XP SP2 to the C: partition. I thought that was supposed
to intelligently create a Boot.ini on C: that would preserve the
option to boot D:. It did not. (If I had been thinking, I would have
saved a copy of the old Boot.ini, but...I was not)

So I tried to recreate the boot entry by copying the boot options for
C:, like so:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="WinXP on D:"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Result: Boot failure with the typical DLL corrupt or not found. (Is
this because one or both of those options are not legal for a
secondary boot partition?)

Tried booting from the XP install disk and repairing the boot.ini
file. The autodetect process created boot entries for BOTH C: and D:
that had no options:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINXP="WinXP D:"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WinXP C:"

What is going on with /noexecute=optin and /fastdetect? Is there one
preferred method for this?
Click to expand...

You should supply more details, e.g.
- Is D: a separate disk, a primary drive on the first disk or
a logical drive on the first disk?
- Which drive is set to "active", C: or D:?
- What is the ***full*** contents of boot.ini on the active
partition? So far you have only given us fragments.
- Did you install WinXP into D:\Windows or into D:\WinXP?
- Which if any version of Windows can you boot into?
 
So, now can't boot into either drive? How did you fix the boot.ini?
I think your best bet would be to do a fixmbr from the repair console, boot
from the windows cd, selct r for repair, you should get to choose which
windows installation you want to log onto, then type in fixmbr, hit y to
confirm and you should be all set. Remember to type exit from the repair
console.
Cheers from Peter
 
- Did you install WinXP into D:\Windows or into D:\WinXP?
Click to expand...

Ah, good catch! I completely forgot about that. I had named the
folder 'WinXP' back in the day when XP was new. The options were the
thing that jumped out when I reviewed the BootIni file.

Thanks
 
PS: I'm still curious about why the new SP2 install (on C:) did not
include the previous XP SP1 entry (D:), especially given that I
installed SP2 while booted from the D: partition. Is this normal?
 
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