Boot problem - cannot log on after install new drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter alan
  • Start date Start date
A

alan

I added a second hard drive into the computer and now
Windows 2000 log on screen comes back repeatedly and I
cannot log in. It seems to be confused about the drive
letters. It was originally upgraded from Windows 98 and
starts with a dual boot selection of Windows 2000 or MS
DOS. Once the log on screen comes up I enter the correct
password. An error message flashes past too quickly to
read. Then the log on screen is displayed again. I have
tried FIXBOOT and FIXMBR from a boot disk set. When I try
to view the disks via the network the drive it shows as C
is really D.

Alan
 
I'll bet you installed a second copy of Win2K and it doesn't have any user
profiles. So you need to log in as administrator on any Win2K that you can
get into and find all the OS installations. Try a search for NTOSKRNL.EXE
(the OS program) on all drives and partitions. Then update boot.ini to
include a line for all of them, try booting each, pick the one you like best
and name this as the default in boot.ini. I do this using a floppy,
formatted on Win2K (NOT DOS!), and containing, ntdetect.com, ntldr and
boot.ini. A small text editor like notepad is handy for changing boot.ini.
When you are happy with boot.ini, copy it back to your hard disk.
 
Are you sure you didn't end up slaving the wrong drive? Try turning off
HDD0 in the BIOS and see if the pc boots on HDD1.

John
 
Thanks, but it still doesn't work. I tried installing
Win2000 again and now I have 2 of them and both are
listed in the boot.ini. The new one boots fine - I can
log in. But I would rather have the old one where all the
applications are already installed. Both are on the same
drive, but the old one seems to get confused about drive
letters during the log on. Both have similar boot.ini
lines - multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) one with
\WINNT and one with \WINDOWS. But the old one keeps going
back to the log on screen. There must be another
parameter file somewhere.

Alan
 
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