dodgy installation - no os found

[Guest]

Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[John John]

If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

 

[Guest]

Thanks John John.
I managed to sort this out last night by booting into recovery console and
checking the partitions so I could get the boot.ini correct. Turns out the
instalation was on partition 3 so did that but then still didn't boot.
Added the disk to another pc and running disk manager I saw that the system
partition was not active. Set that to active and it booted ok.

It's a bt of an odd situation as when using the recovery console the
installation (boot) is on d:\winnt while the system partition containing
ntldr/ ntdetect.com and boot.ini is on c:\ but when the OS is actually
booted, it's set as c:\winnt and the d:\ drive holds ntldr etc.
So anyway I won't have to re-install so that's good.

If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[John John]

Hmmm. There is something strange with that installation. I wonder what
caused the system partition to become flaged inactive and I wonder how
the WINNT folder being on partition 3 is being enumerated as "C", and
even stranger how the active partition is enumerated as "D". There is
something fishy with the setup.

John

Thanks John John.
I managed to sort this out last night by booting into recovery console and
checking the partitions so I could get the boot.ini correct. Turns out the
instalation was on partition 3 so did that but then still didn't boot.
Added the disk to another pc and running disk manager I saw that the system
partition was not active. Set that to active and it booted ok.

It's a bt of an odd situation as when using the recovery console the
installation (boot) is on d:\winnt while the system partition containing
ntldr/ ntdetect.com and boot.ini is on c:\ but when the OS is actually
booted, it's set as c:\winnt and the d:\ drive holds ntldr etc.
So anyway I won't have to re-install so that's good.

:

If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

Rob wrote:

Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[Guest]

I agree it is very strnage however I don't have the time at present to
re-install it all for him. I'd prefer a fresh installation but it's working
now and he's happy!

Incidentally, the pc is an old system with a PII and about 384mb (3x 128mb)
RAM.
It originally came with a 4gb scsi disk (not plugged in at present) but it's
now running on an 80gb IDE disk.
Do you think there would be any performance benefits by adding the scsi disk
and using it for the pagefile which is at present default c:\ ?
Thanks

Hmmm. There is something strange with that installation. I wonder what
caused the system partition to become flaged inactive and I wonder how
the WINNT folder being on partition 3 is being enumerated as "C", and
even stranger how the active partition is enumerated as "D". There is
something fishy with the setup.

John

Thanks John John.
I managed to sort this out last night by booting into recovery console and
checking the partitions so I could get the boot.ini correct. Turns out the
instalation was on partition 3 so did that but then still didn't boot.
Added the disk to another pc and running disk manager I saw that the system
partition was not active. Set that to active and it booted ok.

It's a bt of an odd situation as when using the recovery console the
installation (boot) is on d:\winnt while the system partition containing
ntldr/ ntdetect.com and boot.ini is on c:\ but when the OS is actually
booted, it's set as c:\winnt and the d:\ drive holds ntldr etc.
So anyway I won't have to re-install so that's good.

:

If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

Rob wrote:


Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[John John]

Off hand one would be inclined to say yes but it's hard to say without
knowing how fast the (very) old SCSI drive is. If the drive is as fast
or faster than the 80GB IDE drive it would surely be a good move. I
would give it a try and see what happens, it's not hard to do and easy
to return the pagefile to the original location if you find that it is
slower. You could run a benchmark test on the drives and see if the
SCSI drive has a good read/write speed. There is an interesting
discussion here on a very similar scenario:
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33048&highlight=pagefile

When all is said and done I think that the end user will notice the
difference and know if it is better or worse. Even if the SCSI drive is
a bit slower moving the pagefile off a heavilly used/busy disk can
improve performance. Try it and see.

John

I agree it is very strnage however I don't have the time at present to
re-install it all for him. I'd prefer a fresh installation but it's working
now and he's happy!

Incidentally, the pc is an old system with a PII and about 384mb (3x 128mb)
RAM.
It originally came with a 4gb scsi disk (not plugged in at present) but it's
now running on an 80gb IDE disk.
Do you think there would be any performance benefits by adding the scsi disk
and using it for the pagefile which is at present default c:\ ?
Thanks

:

Hmmm. There is something strange with that installation. I wonder what
caused the system partition to become flaged inactive and I wonder how
the WINNT folder being on partition 3 is being enumerated as "C", and
even stranger how the active partition is enumerated as "D". There is
something fishy with the setup.

John

Thanks John John.
I managed to sort this out last night by booting into recovery console and
checking the partitions so I could get the boot.ini correct. Turns out the
instalation was on partition 3 so did that but then still didn't boot.
Added the disk to another pc and running disk manager I saw that the system
partition was not active. Set that to active and it booted ok.

It's a bt of an odd situation as when using the recovery console the
installation (boot) is on d:\winnt while the system partition containing
ntldr/ ntdetect.com and boot.ini is on c:\ but when the OS is actually
booted, it's set as c:\winnt and the d:\ drive holds ntldr etc.
So anyway I won't have to re-install so that's good.

:



If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

Rob wrote:



Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the link.
I've already encouraged him to get more memory so in the absence of any
testing I think I'll live it for now unitl he complains again.
Thanks again for all your help.
Rob

Off hand one would be inclined to say yes but it's hard to say without
knowing how fast the (very) old SCSI drive is. If the drive is as fast
or faster than the 80GB IDE drive it would surely be a good move. I
would give it a try and see what happens, it's not hard to do and easy
to return the pagefile to the original location if you find that it is
slower. You could run a benchmark test on the drives and see if the
SCSI drive has a good read/write speed. There is an interesting
discussion here on a very similar scenario:
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33048&highlight=pagefile

When all is said and done I think that the end user will notice the
difference and know if it is better or worse. Even if the SCSI drive is
a bit slower moving the pagefile off a heavilly used/busy disk can
improve performance. Try it and see.

John

I agree it is very strnage however I don't have the time at present to
re-install it all for him. I'd prefer a fresh installation but it's working
now and he's happy!

Incidentally, the pc is an old system with a PII and about 384mb (3x 128mb)
RAM.
It originally came with a 4gb scsi disk (not plugged in at present) but it's
now running on an 80gb IDE disk.
Do you think there would be any performance benefits by adding the scsi disk
and using it for the pagefile which is at present default c:\ ?
Thanks

:

Hmmm. There is something strange with that installation. I wonder what
caused the system partition to become flaged inactive and I wonder how
the WINNT folder being on partition 3 is being enumerated as "C", and
even stranger how the active partition is enumerated as "D". There is
something fishy with the setup.

John

Rob wrote:

Thanks John John.
I managed to sort this out last night by booting into recovery console and
checking the partitions so I could get the boot.ini correct. Turns out the
instalation was on partition 3 so did that but then still didn't boot.
Added the disk to another pc and running disk manager I saw that the system
partition was not active. Set that to active and it booted ok.

It's a bt of an odd situation as when using the recovery console the
installation (boot) is on d:\winnt while the system partition containing
ntldr/ ntdetect.com and boot.ini is on c:\ but when the OS is actually
booted, it's set as c:\winnt and the d:\ drive holds ntldr etc.
So anyway I won't have to re-install so that's good.

:



If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

Rob wrote:



Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob

 

[John John]

You're welcome.

John

Thanks for the link.
I've already encouraged him to get more memory so in the absence of any
testing I think I'll live it for now unitl he complains again.
Thanks again for all your help.
Rob


:

Off hand one would be inclined to say yes but it's hard to say without
knowing how fast the (very) old SCSI drive is. If the drive is as fast
or faster than the 80GB IDE drive it would surely be a good move. I
would give it a try and see what happens, it's not hard to do and easy
to return the pagefile to the original location if you find that it is
slower. You could run a benchmark test on the drives and see if the
SCSI drive has a good read/write speed. There is an interesting
discussion here on a very similar scenario:
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33048&highlight=pagefile

When all is said and done I think that the end user will notice the
difference and know if it is better or worse. Even if the SCSI drive is
a bit slower moving the pagefile off a heavilly used/busy disk can
improve performance. Try it and see.

John

Rob wrote:

I agree it is very strnage however I don't have the time at present to
re-install it all for him. I'd prefer a fresh installation but it's working
now and he's happy!

Incidentally, the pc is an old system with a PII and about 384mb (3x 128mb)
RAM.
It originally came with a 4gb scsi disk (not plugged in at present) but it's
now running on an 80gb IDE disk.
Do you think there would be any performance benefits by adding the scsi disk
and using it for the pagefile which is at present default c:\ ?
Thanks

:



Hmmm. There is something strange with that installation. I wonder what
caused the system partition to become flaged inactive and I wonder how
the WINNT folder being on partition 3 is being enumerated as "C", and
even stranger how the active partition is enumerated as "D". There is
something fishy with the setup.

John

Rob wrote:


Thanks John John.
I managed to sort this out last night by booting into recovery console and
checking the partitions so I could get the boot.ini correct. Turns out the
instalation was on partition 3 so did that but then still didn't boot.
Added the disk to another pc and running disk manager I saw that the system
partition was not active. Set that to active and it booted ok.

It's a bt of an odd situation as when using the recovery console the
installation (boot) is on d:\winnt while the system partition containing
ntldr/ ntdetect.com and boot.ini is on c:\ but when the OS is actually
booted, it's set as c:\winnt and the d:\ drive holds ntldr etc.
So anyway I won't have to re-install so that's good.

:




If the computer has a floppy drive try booting it with a floppy boot
disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) Don't forget to use WINNT=
instead of WINDOWS=

If indeed the Operating system was installed on the second ("D")
partition then there is no way of changing that other than reinstalling
the Operating System. You cannot remove the System Partition and it
will always retain the "C" designation.

John

Rob wrote:




Good afternoon,
I am working on a friends pc which has an odd partition layout.
At present the os will not boot and displays message:
"no os found"
Using the recovery console I can log on to the OS.
The \winnt and program files are installed on the D: drive while the C:\
drive just contains some backup data. So, in effect it looks as tho the
installation has been done to Dboot partition) but the system partition is
C:
I have checked the contents of both partitions and the ntldr/ ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files exist on both.

So, my question is how to get the pc to boot?
I haven't yet had a chance to change the boot.ini files but am thinking in
this circumstance I need to have the following boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Server" /fastdetect

Am I correct in this?
Or should I just run fixboot?

Also, I'd rather not re-install but what I would like to do is make D: the
boot and system partition and change it's drive letter to C: . I'm not sure
if this is possible tho - perhaps with partition magic? Even if I cannot
change the drive letter, would it be possible to create the boot and system
partition on D: and then delete C:\ partition?

Many thanks
Rob