HD change: problem with boot.ini

[Hubert Rétif]

Hi,

I want to upgrade the HD of my DELL Laptop from 60 GB to 100GB, without of
course having to install all again.

Thus, I made Acronis (version 10) images from all 3 partitions on a USB hard
disk, switched to the new HD, partition it, and restore the images on the
corresponding new partitions.

Booting this new system brings the error message: "hal.dll not found or
corrupted"

Examining boot.ini, I have the following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I don't quite understand why (on my running system) WINDOWS on partition(2)
is (pagefile.sys is on drive D:, but bringing it back on C: does not change
anything in boot.ini), and I can imagine that it is doing the problem on the
new system.

So I would like to be able to edit boot.ini to replace partition(2) by
partition(1), but it is not quite easy... The only way I know is booting
with XP CD and access the repair console. Unfornutately, there is no editor
available.

Does anyone know a way to do this? Or is ma assumption the right one?

Hubert Retif.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I want to upgrade the HD of my DELL Laptop from 60 GB to 100GB, without of
course having to install all again.

Thus, I made Acronis (version 10) images from all 3 partitions on a USB
hard disk, switched to the new HD, partition it, and restore the images on
the corresponding new partitions.

Booting this new system brings the error message: "hal.dll not found or
corrupted"

Examining boot.ini, I have the following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I don't quite understand why (on my running system) WINDOWS on
partition(2) is (pagefile.sys is on drive D:, but bringing it back on C:
does not change anything in boot.ini), and I can imagine that it is doing
the problem on the new system.

So I would like to be able to edit boot.ini to replace partition(2) by
partition(1), but it is not quite easy... The only way I know is booting
with XP CD and access the repair console. Unfornutately, there is no
editor available.

Does anyone know a way to do this? Or is ma assumption the right one?

Hubert Retif.

Create a WinXP boot diskette like so:

- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create the file a:\boot.ini with these lines:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
- Set the BIOS so that the machine boots off your floppy
disk drive.

Now boot the machine off your floppy with whatever option
works. Later on you can tweak c:\boot.ini.