Drive number change :-(

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Had a 2000 server installation on a Dell GX260 that went dead.
Found a GX280 (as close a possible). But this has 2 S-ATA
controllers, and then the P-ATA disk from the GX260 chows as
drive 2 (and not drive 0 as it is defined in the BOOT.INI).

How can I change the ordering, OR how do I change BOOT.INI

If I hook up the disk on another computer will I have access,
or will NTFS prevent accessing the files on the disk?

 

[John John]

There are several methods that can be used to do the changes. If the
SATA controllers can be disabled in the BIOS that may be an easy way to
do it. Another way via the Recovery Console is described here:

How to Retrieve One Page Text Files in the Recovery Console by Using the
Batch Command
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243067
(Use the MAP command while in the Recovery Console to see tha ARC paths
of the drives)

You mentioned accessing the disk via another Windows installation, that
will work, you may need to grant yourself necessary permissions to the
files but otherwise it will work without problems.

Another very easy way (if the computer has a floppy drive) is to create
a boot diskette, instructions here: http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/

Do keep in mind that the boot.ini file there points to the default XP
%systemroot% (Windows). On Windows 2000 the default is WINNT, so the
path needs to be changed to point to the correct folder, it would be
something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="First harddisk, first
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="First harddisk, second
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="First harddisk, third
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT="First harddisk, fourth
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Second harddisk, first
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Second harddisk, second
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINNT="Second harddisk, third
partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINNT="Second harddisk, fourth
partition" /fastdetect

John