Dual boot problem

[Guest]

My PC was configure to boot from Win98 and XP. I install XP after Win 98 was
installed. I am able to select to boot from Win98 or XP. Now my C drive has
crash and I am not able to boot. I disconnect C drive and reconnect D(with
XP) as primary disk but still cannot boot. Can anyone help? I don't want to
reinstall b'cos I have a lot program installed. I think some config or exe
files can be modified so I can boot straight from D drive with WinXP. I don't
need Win98 anymore.

 

[Pegasus]

My PC was configure to boot from Win98 and XP. I install XP after Win 98 was
installed. I am able to select to boot from Win98 or XP. Now my C drive has
crash and I am not able to boot. I disconnect C drive and reconnect D(with
XP) as primary disk but still cannot boot. Can anyone help? I don't want to
reinstall b'cos I have a lot program installed. I think some config or exe
files can be modified so I can boot straight from D drive with WinXP. I don't
need Win98 anymore.

There are a couple of ways to do this:

a) Install another disk as a place holder for the dead
drive C:, then make it bootable.

b) Make drive D: bootable and make some changes
to the the registry.

Option a) is nice and easy. Option b) is much harder
unless the machine is networked. If you provide the
necessary details then someone will give you more
detailed instructions.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

There are a couple of ways to do this:

a) Install another disk as a place holder for the dead
drive C:, then make it bootable.

b) Make drive D: bootable and make some changes
to the the registry.

Option a) is nice and easy. Option b) is much harder
unless the machine is networked. If you provide the
necessary details then someone will give you more
detailed instructions.

If there is room for another small partition on the
"D: drive", it could be made the "C: partition" and
used to boot the "D: partition". The small partition
would have to be a primary partition and it would
have to be marked "active" (by using WinXP's
Disk Management utility) in order to receive
control from the MBR. It would also need a proper
boot sector and the files boot.ini, ntldr, and
ntdetect.com . (What utility would do that, Pegasus?)
The single default entry in the boot.ini file would have
to point to the "D: partition". That modification
could be done manually by using Notepad or by
Run/msconfig .

If there is no space for a small partition on the
"D: drive", you could use a utility called Partition Magic
(now sold by Symantec) to shrink the "D: partition"
to make room for the new small partition.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

I have try copying boot.ini from another bootable PC to D drive(with XP) but
cannot work.
Is creating a C partition is the only way out? I think the problem lies with
a file in previous C drive that have files like boot.ini, ntdetect.com,
ntldr, bootsec.dos & pagefile.sys goes with it. I was ask to delete the above
files when I want to keep 98 and remove XP. Now is the other way. What files
need to be deleted or replace. Now I think it make sense to replace some
files to previous D drive and reconnect as a single drive and boot from there.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The question comes up frequently here about how
to re-name a system partition to "C:" that had been
installed as "D:". The standard reply that I've seen
from the MVPs is that you can't do it without making
extensive changes in the registry - which is dangerous.

The suggestion by "Pegasus" was that you use another
"C:" partition to do the boot loading while the "D:"
partition remains as it is. That usually means that you
use another partition in which there are ntldr, boot.ini,
and ntdetect.com files at the root level of the file structure.
The straight-forward way to do that is to install another
WinXP OS in that partition and call that partition "D:".

I only pointed out that the "C:" partition doesn't have to
be on another hard drive. If you can make a small
partition on the same hard drive that now contains "D:",
and if you can supply the boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com
files (perhaps by using the WinXP installation CD's
Repair Console?), you can make what you could call
a "boot partition" without having to install an OS. I've
never done this, and the few questions posted here that
ask what is needed to make such a minimal boot
manager have never been answered - just as "Pegasus"
didn't answer me. So, it appears you're on your own.
Please let us know if you have any success.

Just remember to mark the new "C:" partition "active"
so that it will get control from the Master Boot Record.
The boot.ini file should also have an entry that points
to the same hard drive (i.e. "rdisk(0)"), and its
"partition(x)" parameter should point to the partition no.
of the "D:" partition - partition(1) if "D:" is the 1st partition
on the hard drive.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The straight-forward way to do that is to install another
WinXP OS in that partition and call that partition "D:".

Correction: "....call that parition "C:"."

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

When you installed WinXP, it should have made a
boot.ini file at the root level that had entries for each of the
OSes in the PC. Please post the contents of that boot.ini
file. (You can use Notepad to cut and paste from boot.ini.)

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have try copying boot.ini from another bootable PC to D drive(with XP) but
cannot work.
Is creating a C partition is the only way out?

No, it is not the only way but unless you provide answers
to every question in my first reply I cannot tell you how to
do it.

 

[Guest]

I already install a spare drive with WinXP(with initial D drive disconnect) .
After that I reattached the drive but the PC just boot with the new OS
ignoring the one in D drive. Must I reinstall the spare drive with the D
drive attached.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Let's have a look at your hidden file c:\boot.ini! Timothy
Daniels already asked for this file but it seems you chose
to ignore his request.

By the way, if you again wait almost two weeks until
you reply then this thread will have disappeared from
my newsreader's horizon and your reply will be
invisible to me.

 

[Guest]

Sorry for the delay. I cannot find boot.ini. I think it is the crashed drive
with Win98. I try to find in other PC also don't have this particular file. I
chose option view hidden files also cannot find.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

These commands will show it to you:
type c:\boot.ini
notepad c:\boot.ini

 

[Guest]

I used to have 2 separate drives "c" with Win98 and "d" with WinXP. Now my
"c" is dead. Then I cannot boot even though I remove "c" and reconfigure the
IDE connection, "d" as primary drive. I ever ask guidance to remove WinXP
from dual boot and he point me to "c" that have boot.ini. Currently I also
have a PC with dual boot but the boot.ini is at "c" drive with Win98. So in
my dead PC there are no boot.ini as it is in "c" drive.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I just reread the whole thread in an attempt to
refamiliarise myself with your problem. Assuming
that you have a formatted drive C: in your machine,
presumably more or less empty, and a working c
opy of WinXP on drive D:, then you can revive
it like so:
1. Boot the machine with your WinXP CD.
2. Select Repair, then Recovery Console.
3. Execute these commands:
fixboot (to create a WinXP boot sector on drive C
fixmbr (to create a WinXP Master Boot Record)
bootcfg /rebuild (to create a new version of c:\boot.ini)
exit (to reboot the machine)

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I just reread the whole thread in an attempt to
refamiliarise myself with your problem. Assuming
that you have a formatted drive C: in your machine,
presumably more or less empty, and a working c
opy of WinXP on drive D:, then you can revive
it like so:
1. Boot the machine with your WinXP CD.
2. Select Repair, then Recovery Console.
3. Execute these commands:
fixboot (to create a WinXP boot sector on drive C
fixmbr (to create a WinXP Master Boot Record)
bootcfg /rebuild (to create a new version of c:\boot.ini)
exit (to reboot the machine)

What utility would supply the ntldr and ntdetect.com
files (needed along with boot.ini for booting the OS)?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

What utility would supply the ntldr and ntdetect.com
files (needed along with boot.ini for booting the OS)?

*TimDaniels*

Mhhm. Good question. Boot.ini is easily generated
by the bootcfg command (it's just a humble text file)
but the OP would probably have to copy the two
other files from the i386 folder of his WinXP CD,
perhaps via a floppy disk if his CD drive is inaccessible
while in the Recovery Console. Seeing how this is a
looooooooooooong drawn out thread, I think the OP
will easy find the time to test this for himself.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Pegasus (MVP)" replied:

[...] Assuming
that you have a formatted drive C: in your machine,
presumably more or less empty, and a working c
opy of WinXP on drive D:, then you can revive
it like so:
1. Boot the machine with your WinXP CD.
2. Select Repair, then Recovery Console.
3. Execute these commands:
fixboot (to create a WinXP boot sector on drive C
fixmbr (to create a WinXP Master Boot Record)
bootcfg /rebuild (to create a new version of c:\boot.ini)
exit (to reboot the machine)

What utility would supply the ntldr and ntdetect.com
files (needed along with boot.ini for booting the OS)?

*TimDaniels*

Mhhm. Good question. Boot.ini is easily generated
by the bootcfg command (it's just a humble text file)
but the OP would probably have to copy the two
other files from the i386 folder of his WinXP CD,
perhaps via a floppy disk if his CD drive is inaccessible
while in the Recovery Console. Seeing how this is a
looooooooooooong drawn out thread, I think the OP
will easy find the time to test this for himself.

Thanks. I asked the question because there frequently
appears the problem about single-booting an OS that had
previously been part of a dual-boot where the load files
(i.e. boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com) were in the partition
containing the removed OS. More specifically, the load
files and OS #1 were in what the poster calls the "C:"
drive, and OS #2 resides in the "D:" drive, and he wants
to boot OS #2 without the "C:" drive present. So the
problem then arises about providing the load files for the
"D:" drive. If ntldr and ntdetect.com could simply be copied
over from the "C:" drive, would they work on the "D:" drive?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

"Pegasus (MVP)" replied:

:
[...] Assuming
that you have a formatted drive C: in your machine,
presumably more or less empty, and a working c
opy of WinXP on drive D:, then you can revive
it like so:
1. Boot the machine with your WinXP CD.
2. Select Repair, then Recovery Console.
3. Execute these commands:
fixboot (to create a WinXP boot sector on drive C
fixmbr (to create a WinXP Master Boot Record)
bootcfg /rebuild (to create a new version of c:\boot.ini)
exit (to reboot the machine)


What utility would supply the ntldr and ntdetect.com
files (needed along with boot.ini for booting the OS)?

*TimDaniels*

Mhhm. Good question. Boot.ini is easily generated
by the bootcfg command (it's just a humble text file)
but the OP would probably have to copy the two
other files from the i386 folder of his WinXP CD,
perhaps via a floppy disk if his CD drive is inaccessible
while in the Recovery Console. Seeing how this is a
looooooooooooong drawn out thread, I think the OP
will easy find the time to test this for himself.

Thanks. I asked the question because there frequently
appears the problem about single-booting an OS that had
previously been part of a dual-boot where the load files
(i.e. boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com) were in the partition
containing the removed OS. More specifically, the load
files and OS #1 were in what the poster calls the "C:"
drive, and OS #2 resides in the "D:" drive, and he wants
to boot OS #2 without the "C:" drive present. So the
problem then arises about providing the load files for the
"D:" drive. If ntldr and ntdetect.com could simply be copied
over from the "C:" drive, would they work on the "D:" drive?

*TimDaniels*

Yes, they would, and it's what I should have said in the
first place. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Pegasus (MVP)" replied:

"Timothy Daniels" asked:
[........] there frequently
appears the problem about single-booting an OS that had
previously been part of a dual-boot where the load files
(i.e. boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com) were in the partition
containing the removed OS. More specifically, the load
files and OS #1 were in what the poster calls the "C:"
drive, and OS #2 resides in the "D:" drive, and he wants
to boot OS #2 without the "C:" drive present. So the
problem then arises about providing the load files for the
"D:" drive. If ntldr and ntdetect.com could simply be copied
over from the "C:" drive, would they work on the "D:" drive?

Yes, they would, and it's what I should have said in the
first place. Thanks for pointing it out.

Whew! Thanks. That question has been echoing
around the WindowsXP newsgroups for more than a
year without an answer until now.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

I think I can follow Pegasus way to recreate a boot.ini file. But for ntldr
and ntdetect I will be copying from WinXP CD. Right?

"Pegasus (MVP)" replied:

"Timothy Daniels" asked:
[........] there frequently
appears the problem about single-booting an OS that had
previously been part of a dual-boot where the load files
(i.e. boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com) were in the partition
containing the removed OS. More specifically, the load
files and OS #1 were in what the poster calls the "C:"
drive, and OS #2 resides in the "D:" drive, and he wants
to boot OS #2 without the "C:" drive present. So the
problem then arises about providing the load files for the
"D:" drive. If ntldr and ntdetect.com could simply be copied
over from the "C:" drive, would they work on the "D:" drive?

Yes, they would, and it's what I should have said in the
first place. Thanks for pointing it out.

Whew! Thanks. That question has been echoing
around the WindowsXP newsgroups for more than a
year without an answer until now.

*TimDaniels*