win2k will not start - missing ntoskrnl.exe after Partition Magic copy..

[Jacek Bogucki]

Hi!
After copying my _working_ Win2k FAT32 partition to a new (bigger) drive
with Partition Magic and trying to boot from new one I have this message:
Windows 2000 could not start (...) missing ntoskrnl.exe
After copying I replaced old disk with the new one, new partition was set
active in the process. It's same size, first on the disk.

I tried to fixmbr and fixboot, but it didn't have any (visible) effect...
I'm a bit out of ideas for now. Something with drive letters? I know this
thing is twisted badly since Win2k, but I don't really think that this is
it.

Help?
Jacek Bo.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi!
After copying my _working_ Win2k FAT32 partition to a new (bigger) drive
with Partition Magic and trying to boot from new one I have this message:
Windows 2000 could not start (...) missing ntoskrnl.exe
After copying I replaced old disk with the new one, new partition was set
active in the process. It's same size, first on the disk.

I tried to fixmbr and fixboot, but it didn't have any (visible) effect...
I'm a bit out of ideas for now. Something with drive letters? I know this
thing is twisted badly since Win2k, but I don't really think that this is
it.

Help?
Jacek Bo.

It is likely that your partition numbers are incorrect. To fix
it, you could boot the machine with a floppy boot disk like so:
- Format a floppy disk on some other Win2000/XP PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your Win2000 CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="1 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="2 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT="4 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy, trying each of
the available options.
- When successful, adjust the hidden file c:\boot.ini
accordingly.

 

[Jacek Bogucki]

It is likely that your partition numbers are incorrect. To fix
it, you could boot the machine with a floppy boot disk like so:
- Format a floppy disk on some other Win2000/XP PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your Win2000 CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader] (...)
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy, trying each of
the available options.
- When successful, adjust the hidden file c:\boot.ini
accordingly.

1. it doesn't work with any of those 4 options. I also just tried to edit
boot.ini on that disk same way and the effect was exactly same...
(to be precise - I have an XP copied to another disk here - same way - and
I'm doing it with those XP partitions, just the file missing is hal.dll)
2. I'm surprised that this floppy boots at all I mean - that simply
copying those two files + making boot.ini will make it bootable (that they
don't have to be placed with some SYS command, or something...)
Any other ideas, please? (I believe it's something with "partitions
numbers" - can it/they be verified in any way?)

Jacek Bo.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

It is likely that your partition numbers are incorrect. To fix
it, you could boot the machine with a floppy boot disk like so:
- Format a floppy disk on some other Win2000/XP PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your Win2000 CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader] (...)
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy, trying each of
the available options.
- When successful, adjust the hidden file c:\boot.ini
accordingly.

1. it doesn't work with any of those 4 options. I also just tried to edit
boot.ini on that disk same way and the effect was exactly same...
(to be precise - I have an XP copied to another disk here - same way - and
I'm doing it with those XP partitions, just the file missing is hal.dll)
2. I'm surprised that this floppy boots at all I mean - that simply
copying those two files + making boot.ini will make it bootable (that they
don't have to be placed with some SYS command, or something...)
Any other ideas, please? (I believe it's something with "partitions
numbers" - can it/they be verified in any way?)

Jacek Bo.

Your experience with the sys command stems from the old
DOS/Win9x days. Windows 2000 will boot successfully
if you follow the recipe I gave you, provided that the Windows
installation is intact on the hard disk. Try it with your WinXP
machine, making sure you use ntldr and ntdetect.com from
the WinXP CD!

Since you are playing with several disks, it is possible that
your disk number is incorrect. Try some other numbers
in a:\boot.ini, e.g.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000"

 

[Jacek Bogucki]

Your experience with the sys command stems from the old
DOS/Win9x days. Windows 2000 will boot successfully
if you follow the recipe I gave you, provided that the Windows
installation is intact on the hard disk. Try it with your WinXP
machine, making sure you use ntldr and ntdetect.com from
the WinXP CD!

Exactly.

Since you are playing with several disks, it is possible that
your disk number is incorrect. Try some other numbers
in a:\boot.ini, e.g.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000"

Actually I created disk on XP and tried it at home (on W2K) and it _almost_
worked with second option (i.e. second partition). Unfortunatelly 'almost'
means that the effect was exactly like few topics below "Drive Cloning
Problem". Unfortunatelly 2 - I don't have other NT/2K/XP machine @home - I
only have an oldschool DOS6.2/Win98 for oldchool gaming - so I can't use
that networked sollution...
JB

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Since your problems all stem from cloning your disk
with PQMagic, I recommend you have a look at the
PowerQuest FAQs. It is likely that you took a wrong
turn somewhere and that this issue is fully dealt with
in the FAQs.