NTFS Boot Disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jody
  • Start date Start date
J

Jody

I have tried to create a Windows 2000 Professional NTFS
boot floppy disk per the instructions in Microsoft
Knowledge Base Article #301680. Unfortunately this is not
working for me.

I get a different a result with each procedure:

1. Creating the disk from the Installation CD doesn't do
anything and boots into the hard disk OS.

2. Creating the disk from my hard disk returns the
following error message despite the file attribute
settings:

"BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR. Please insert another disk."

It is important to note that I am also using the boot.ini
file from my hard drive that properly uses multi(0) for my
EIDE drive.

Any ideas? Once I get this working I would also like to
burn the files to a CD-ROM for a bootable diagnostic
tool. Any sugestions on this too would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jody
 
Jody said:
I have tried to create a Windows 2000 Professional NTFS
boot floppy disk per the instructions in Microsoft
Knowledge Base Article #301680. Unfortunately this is not
working for me.

I get a different a result with each procedure:

1. Creating the disk from the Installation CD doesn't do
anything and boots into the hard disk OS.

2. Creating the disk from my hard disk returns the
following error message despite the file attribute
settings:

"BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR. Please insert another disk."

It is important to note that I am also using the boot.ini
file from my hard drive that properly uses multi(0) for my
EIDE drive.

Any ideas? Once I get this working I would also like to
burn the files to a CD-ROM for a bootable diagnostic
tool. Any sugestions on this too would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jody
Click to expand...

If you want to make a boot disk so that you can boot
an existing Win2000 installation from it, just format
an ordinary floppy disk on any Win2000 PC, then copy
these hidden files from your Win2000 PC to A:\ -
- c:\ntldr
- c:\ntdetect.com
- c:\boot.ini

If you want to repair a damaged Win2000 installation
then you do not need a boot disk. Simply boot from
your Win2000 installation CD (remember to fix the
boot order in the BIOS!), then select Repair when
prompted, then Command Console.
 
That is what I did and it doesn't work.
-----Original Message-----



If you want to make a boot disk so that you can boot
an existing Win2000 installation from it, just format
an ordinary floppy disk on any Win2000 PC, then copy
these hidden files from your Win2000 PC to A:\ -
- c:\ntldr
- c:\ntdetect.com
- c:\boot.ini

If you want to repair a damaged Win2000 installation
then you do not need a boot disk. Simply boot from
your Win2000 installation CD (remember to fix the
boot order in the BIOS!), then select Repair when
prompted, then Command Console.


.
Click to expand...
 
Your reply tells us nothing. You don't say which of the
two approaches you tried, what happened, how far it
got and what messages you saw.
 
I apologize if I was not as clear as I could have been in
my original post. These are the procedures I followed and
their subsequent results: Note that floppy disks are
known good and formatted on my W2K Pro SP-4 workstation.

1. Copied C:\NTLDT, C:\NTDETECT.COM & BOOT.INI to a floppy
With attributes set to System: (ref: KB #301680)

RESULT: Error message: "BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR. Please
insert another disk."

2. Copied that same files (NTLDR, NETDETECT.COM) from the
W2K Pro Installation CD and Boot.ini from C:\ (ref: KB
#301680)

RESULT: The system looks at he floppy does not produce an
error and the system boots in what appears to be the
C:\WINNT OS.

3. I have also tried each of the above procedures using
the working #1 setup / install floppy instead of a new
formatted floppy. (ref. KB #325879)

RESULT: Error message: "BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR. Please
insert another disk."

CHANGE: Renamed NTLDR to SETUPLDR.BIN

RESULT: The system looks at he floppy does not produce an
error and the system boots in what appears to be the
C:\WINNT OS.

QUESTION: I am expecting to boot to a command prompt or a
DOS type menu. Am I perhaps misinterpreting the result?
Does a working NTFS Boot floppy load the OS? IF so how do
you tell whether you are booting from the floppy or the
HDD?

Thanks
Jody
 
You'll need a dos disk. www.bootdisk.com

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

QUESTION: I am expecting to boot to a command prompt or a
DOS type menu. Am I perhaps misinterpreting the result?
Click to expand...
<snip>
 
QUESTION: I am expecting to boot to a command prompt or a
DOS type menu. Am I perhaps misinterpreting the result?
Does a working NTFS Boot floppy load the OS? IF so how do
you tell whether you are booting from the floppy or the
HDD?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have sent this sooner, it'll either help you or confuse
you completely! <G>

This is pretty long, please read it completely:

There are three different disk that are often called "boot disks" used
for Windows 2000:

1. A set of 4 diskettes used for starting Windows 2000 Setup.
2. A single boot disk that will start your Windows 2000 installation if
your boot sector becomes damaged.
3. A single DOS boot disk that will boot you to a DOS prompt and can be
used to flash your BIOS, etc.

Which do you need?

If 1. Insert your Win2k CD in any PC running DOS or WIN9x or WIN2k,
browse to the "BOOTDISK" directory and type "MAKEBOOT.EXE".

If 2. Format a blank floppy and copy boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com
on to the floppy.

If 3. Insert your Win3K CD and browse to the VALUEADD/3RDPARTY/CA_ANITV
directory and run the program MAKEDISK.BAT which will create a bootable
floppy with Antivirus files to check your boot sector. Just add the
necessary BIOS flashing files to the disk (you may have to delete the
antivirus program to have enough room).

Hope this helps?

BTW, You might consider grabbing some floppies and making all of these,
you'll very likely want them sooner or later?
 
Thank you for the information.

I was hoping for a boot disk that would let me access the
data files & utilities from a DOS like environemnt for
NTFS partitions.

Since a DOS or WIN98 "Boot Disk" will not see an NTFS
partition is the limited Recovery Console my only option
for this purpose?

All the 4 Setup disks (MAKEBOOT) do is let you repair, go
to recovery console or re-install. Same as with the
Installation CD. These options do not allow direct access
to the data on the HDD.

Am I missing something fundemental here or is this just
not an option?

I am to assuem that the boot disk that I refered to
eariler that goes directly into the OS is NOT working
correctly?

Thanks,
Jody
 
As Dave Patrick said, a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com
will let you boot up your PC into DOS.

You can then run ntfsdos.exe (www.sysinternals.com) to
access your NTFS partitions. The read-only version is free.

There are other methods do access your NTFS drives. If you
tell us what your ultimate aim is then we can tell you which
method might be most appropriate.
 
I wasn't aware there was such a utility. Thank You that
will b very helpful.

Back to my original problem....

What is the expected behavior of your #2 (ntldr,
ntdetect.com & boot.ini) option below boot disk?

Should you end up with a Dos link session or does it boot
into the os?

I still am not convinced that the original boot disk I
created is working properly.

-----Original Message-----
Then you'll want http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdospro.shtml

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

Thank you for the information.

I was hoping for a boot disk that would let me access the
data files & utilities from a DOS like environemnt for
NTFS partitions.

Since a DOS or WIN98 "Boot Disk" will not see an NTFS
partition is the limited Recovery Console my only option
for this purpose?

All the 4 Setup disks (MAKEBOOT) do is let you repair, go
to recovery console or re-install. Same as with the
Installation CD. These options do not allow direct access
to the data on the HDD.

Am I missing something fundemental here or is this just
not an option?

I am to assuem that the boot disk that I refered to
eariler that goes directly into the OS is NOT working
correctly?

Thanks,
Jody
how
do help
you or confuse WIN9x
or WIN2k, and
ntdetect.com making
all of these,
Click to expand...


.
Click to expand...
 
Inline Reply:
| I wasn't aware there was such a utility. Thank You that
| will b very helpful.
|
| Back to my original problem....
|
| What is the expected behavior of your #2 (ntldr,
| ntdetect.com & boot.ini) option below boot disk?
|
| Should you end up with a Dos link session or does it boot
| into the os?

For the floppy to successfully boot Windows NT/2000 the disk must contain
the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on an NT machine, not a DOS/Win9x,
so the NT boot sector gets written to the floppy), then copy ntldr,
ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it; and possibly ntbootdd.sys. Edit the
boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot.
This disk would simply starts the operating system.

| I still am not convinced that the original boot disk I
| created is working properly.
 
2. Copied that same files (NTLDR, NETDETECT.COM) from the
W2K Pro Installation CD and Boot.ini from C:\ (ref: KB
#301680)

RESULT: The system looks at he floppy does not produce an
error and the system boots in what appears to be the
C:\WINNT OS.
Click to expand...
Yes, it *should* boot the system from the C: It is just using the
files to boot, then it hands over to the OS.

The question was "How do you tell the difference". There is
essentially no difference. Once the boot process has completed it is
irrelevant how the boot was done.

Cheers,

Cliff
 
I have tried to create a Windows 2000 Professional NTFS
boot floppy disk per the instructions in Microsoft
Knowledge Base Article #301680. Unfortunately this is not
working for me.
[snip]

Any ideas? Once I get this working I would also like to
burn the files to a CD-ROM for a bootable diagnostic
tool. Any sugestions on this too would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
This approach will not work if the OS on the HDD is damaged in any
way, because the boot process just loads the OS from the disk.

Cheers,

Cliff
 
Back to my original problem....
Click to expand...
What is the expected behavior of your #2 (ntldr,
ntdetect.com & boot.ini) option below boot disk?
Click to expand...

I see that no one has actually answered this question yet.
Should you end up with a Dos link session or does it boot
into the os?
Click to expand...

It boots into the OS. There is no DOS in Win2K and no way to make a disk
that will boot into DOS.
 
Thank You! Then I guess the disk is in fact working after
all if the system looks at the floppy and then boots!
 
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