Windows XP Screwed by Win2k

[Gregor]

Hey there,

Posted this before, but I don't think anyone's monitoring that thread
anymore.

A friend has a computer with Windows XP Media Center.
Installed a new second drive into it.
Accidentally installed Windows 2000 on the new drive.
His machine can no longer start. It tries to load Windows 2000, then says
a required file is missing or corrupt. I don't know which, because the
error message is munged:

Windows 2000 could not start because
the following file is missing or
corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMd startup
options for Windows 2000, press F8

That's how the message appears, with the path cut off by a sentence
fragment. I couldn't get F8 to do anything (maybe I wasn't able to press
it at just the right moment).

Disconnected the new drive, ran fixboot, still get the error.
When he runs bootcfg /list, it says:

C:\WINDOWS>bootcfg /list

Total entries in boot list: 1

[1] "Windows XP Media Center Edition"
OS Load Options: /fastdetect
OS Location: C:\WINDOWS

Yet it still tries to load Windows 2000 at startup.

He has a VAIO with a special hidden recovery partition. fixmbr says his
mbr is non-standard or invalid, so I'm afraid running it will wreck his
partitions (it might be "non-standard" because of the special partition).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Unless you know what you are doing, never install an older
Windows operating system on a new computer that already
has a newer version of Windows installed. I'm afraid you'll
have to utilize the Sony VAIO recovery method now.

Follow this procedure to perform a system recovery of the computer:
http://129.33.22.7/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEB...5,Sxi=1,Case=obj(313788),UseTemplate=Case.tem


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Gregor" (e-mail address removed) wrote in message:

| Hey there,
|
| Posted this before, but I don't think anyone's monitoring that thread
| anymore.
|
| A friend has a computer with Windows XP Media Center.
| Installed a new second drive into it.
| Accidentally installed Windows 2000 on the new drive.
| His machine can no longer start. It tries to load Windows 2000, then says
| a required file is missing or corrupt. I don't know which, because the
| error message is munged:
|
| Windows 2000 could not start because
| the following file is missing or
| corrupt:
| \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMd startup
| options for Windows 2000, press F8
|
| That's how the message appears, with the path cut off by a sentence
| fragment. I couldn't get F8 to do anything (maybe I wasn't able to press
| it at just the right moment).
|
| Disconnected the new drive, ran fixboot, still get the error.
| When he runs bootcfg /list, it says:
|
| C:\WINDOWS>bootcfg /list
|
| Total entries in boot list: 1
|
| [1] "Windows XP Media Center Edition"
| OS Load Options: /fastdetect
| OS Location: C:\WINDOWS
|
| Yet it still tries to load Windows 2000 at startup.
|
| He has a VAIO with a special hidden recovery partition. fixmbr says his
| mbr is non-standard or invalid, so I'm afraid running it will wreck his
| partitions (it might be "non-standard" because of the special partition).
|
| Any help would be greatly appreciated.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Greg.

 

[NobodyMan]

Hey there,

Posted this before, but I don't think anyone's monitoring that thread
anymore.

A friend has a computer with Windows XP Media Center.
Installed a new second drive into it.
Accidentally installed Windows 2000 on the new drive.
His machine can no longer start. It tries to load Windows 2000, then says
a required file is missing or corrupt. I don't know which, because the
error message is munged:

Windows 2000 could not start because
the following file is missing or
corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMd startup
options for Windows 2000, press F8

That's how the message appears, with the path cut off by a sentence
fragment. I couldn't get F8 to do anything (maybe I wasn't able to press
it at just the right moment).

Disconnected the new drive, ran fixboot, still get the error.
When he runs bootcfg /list, it says:

C:\WINDOWS>bootcfg /list

Total entries in boot list: 1

[1] "Windows XP Media Center Edition"
OS Load Options: /fastdetect
OS Location: C:\WINDOWS

Yet it still tries to load Windows 2000 at startup.

He has a VAIO with a special hidden recovery partition. fixmbr says his
mbr is non-standard or invalid, so I'm afraid running it will wreck his
partitions (it might be "non-standard" because of the special partition).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg.

You've already been answered several times.

 

[Andy]

I would:
1. Put the new disk back into the computer
2. Install Windows 2000 onto the new disk to completion.
3. Boot to the newly installed Windows 2000 installation.
4. Copy ntdetect.com and ntldr from a Windows XP installation CD to
C:\.
5. Changed the default boot to Windows XP Media Center.
6. Reboot.