Recovery Console not available

[Geoff Bayes]

Some background:
Abit KT7 RAID motherboard (NOT configured as RAID), BIOS updated to
version 7N.
30Gb Maxtor (boot) on IDE3. Two partitions, Windows98SE (C and
WindowsXP Pro SP2 (E.
40Gb Maxtor on IDE4 (I to store data.
A pair of 20Gb Seagate drives on IDE1. The master has data (D on a
single partition, the slave has a Linux OS (ext3) with its associated
partitions.
Plextor CD-RW (master) (F & Aopen DVD (slave) (H on IDE2.
XP boot menu lists:
Windows XP Pro (default)
Linux Mandrake 10.1
Windows 98SE
Windows Recovery Console.

No changes have been made to the hardware or boot menu in twelve
months, all three OS's boot and run flawlessly from the menu.
I think I have seen the Recovery Console, if I'm right it would have
been back when XP came out and I decided to keep a minimal install of
98SE just in case.
Anyway, it won't run now. If this option is selected I see:
NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart
Pressing a key produces:
Boot from ATAPI CDROM
Boot from ATAPI CDROM
Remove disks or other media
Press any key to restart
Pressing a key again produces:
L 99 99 99 (with the 99's repeated for 9 further lines)
System then halts.
The relevant line in C:\boot.ini is:
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
NTLDR is, of course, present in C:\ but not in C:\CMDCONS.

Any help gratefully received.
Geoff
http://graffiti.virgin.net/geoff.bayes

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Geoff,

What are you using for a boot loader for the linux installation? Grub? Lilo?
And where is it on the system? The Recovery Console is not looking at the
proper drive for ntldr, and this may be affected by whatever you are using
to boot the linux installation. Which partition/volume is marked as the
active one? This is where it will be seeking ntldr.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Geoff Bayes]

Hi Geoff,

What are you using for a boot loader for the linux installation? Grub? Lilo?
And where is it on the system? The Recovery Console is not looking at the
proper drive for ntldr, and this may be affected by whatever you are using
to boot the linux installation. Which partition/volume is marked as the
active one? This is where it will be seeking ntldr.

Neither boot loader. The line
C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux (Mandrake 10.1)"
in my boot.ini points to (duh) C:\bootsect.lnx. This boots directly
into Mandrake.
The boot drive is C: which is the partition which also holds Win98 and
ntldr is in the root of C:
XP is on E: which is the other partition on that same physical drive.
Linux is on another physical drive identified in C:\bootsect.lnx and
this drive is not visible in Windows.
Geoff
http://graffiti.virgin.net/geoff.bayes

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Geoff,

Could you post the contents of your C:\boot.ini file please?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Geoff Bayes]

Hi Geoff,

Could you post the contents of your C:\boot.ini file please?

Here you go.

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows (XP Professional
SP2)" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux (Mandrake 10.1)"
C:\="Windows (98SE)"
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
Geoff
http://graffiti.virgin.net/geoff.bayes

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Geoff,

At a guess, I'd say that bootsect.dat is damaged. Best bet would be to
reinstall the Recovery Console. Make sure the source disk is at the same
service pack level as the installation, or the Recovery Console will not
load.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Hi Geoff,

Could you post the contents of your C:\boot.ini file please?

Here you go.

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows (XP Professional
SP2)" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux (Mandrake 10.1)"
C:\="Windows (98SE)"
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
Geoff
http://graffiti.virgin.net/geoff.bayes

 

[Geoff Bayes]

Hi Geoff,

At a guess, I'd say that bootsect.dat is damaged. Best bet would be to
reinstall the Recovery Console. Make sure the source disk is at the same
service pack level as the installation, or the Recovery Console will not
load.

Thanks Rick, I'll have a look at that.
Geoff
http://graffiti.virgin.net/geoff.bayes