XP Screwed By Win2k Install

[Gregor]

Hi,

A friend of mine had a computer with WinXP Media Center pre-installed. I
was trying to help him install a second hard drive. The only way I could
figure out to partition and format the new drive was to boot his computer
off an old bootable Win2k Setup CD I had. However, after formatting the
new drive, Win2k Setup automatically started installing Win2k onto it.
Now when the computer boots, it tries to load Win2k, but fails saying the
system is corrupt or some such thing. I tried removing the new drive from
his computer, so that only the old drive with Windows XP is connected,
but it still tries to boot Win2k and fails. Is there any way I can fix
the Win XP system, short of a full system re-install (I would have to use
his "VAIO Recovery Disc," which I think resets the drive to its original
factory pre-installed software, meaning he would lose all his stuff)? Do
I dare hope it could be as simple as connecting the drive to another
computer and removing the Win2k entry from the boot.ini file? I feel
really bad about screwing up his computer, so I would *really* appreciate
it if anyone could help me fix it.

Thanks a lot,

Greg.

 

[Michael Stevens]

Hi,

A friend of mine had a computer with WinXP Media Center
pre-installed. I was trying to help him install a second hard drive.
The only way I could figure out to partition and format the new drive
was to boot his computer off an old bootable Win2k Setup CD I had.
However, after formatting the new drive, Win2k Setup automatically
started installing Win2k onto it. Now when the computer boots, it
tries to load Win2k, but fails saying the system is corrupt or some
such thing. I tried removing the new drive from his computer, so that
only the old drive with Windows XP is connected, but it still tries
to boot Win2k and fails. Is there any way I can fix the Win XP
system, short of a full system re-install (I would have to use his
"VAIO Recovery Disc," which I think resets the drive to its original
factory pre-installed software, meaning he would lose all his stuff)?
Do I dare hope it could be as simple as connecting the drive to
another computer and removing the Win2k entry from the boot.ini file?
I feel really bad about screwing up his computer, so I would *really*
appreciate it if anyone could help me fix it.

Thanks a lot,

Greg.

If the system came with the XP Media Center CD [not restore media] boot from
the XP MC CD and load Recovery Console. If no XP MC CD, download the six
floppy start up disk set to load RC. Make sure you get the Pro version
without SP1 or with SP1. Disconnect the new drive before loading RC. At the
prompt, type fixboot and possibly fixmbr. Reboot.
If you still get the option to boot into Win 2000, edit boot.ini from XP
after XP loads. You can then shutdown and reconnect the new hard drive and
format it from Disk Management.
You can find help on Disk Management from the Help and Support console
accessed from the Start button.
Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address bar.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310994
Recovery Console
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#RC
Edit boot.ini
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#menu


--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Greg,

You may need to download and use the boot floppy set as all he has is a
Recovery disk set. You need to run fixboot from the Recovery Console. Since
his CD is a recovery disk, it probably doesn't have the option to load this.
Boot the recovery CD and find out if there is a Recovery Console option, if
so use it. If not, download and create the boot floppy set here:

Professional edition:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=33291

You will need 6 blank formatted disks to create it. What's happened is that
the Win2000 bootloader is now installed on the WinXP drive, you need to
reload the WinXP code.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

One additional note:

To partition and format a new drive, just install it and boot WinXP. Then
start/run diskmgmt.msc, and use this tool to partition and format the drive
by right-clicking the free space it shows.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[NobodyMan]

Hi,

A friend of mine had a computer with WinXP Media Center pre-installed. I
was trying to help him install a second hard drive. The only way I could
figure out to partition and format the new drive was to boot his computer
off an old bootable Win2k Setup CD I had. However, after formatting the
new drive, Win2k Setup automatically started installing Win2k onto it.
Now when the computer boots, it tries to load Win2k, but fails saying the
system is corrupt or some such thing. I tried removing the new drive from
his computer, so that only the old drive with Windows XP is connected,
but it still tries to boot Win2k and fails. Is there any way I can fix
the Win XP system, short of a full system re-install (I would have to use
his "VAIO Recovery Disc," which I think resets the drive to its original
factory pre-installed software, meaning he would lose all his stuff)? Do
I dare hope it could be as simple as connecting the drive to another
computer and removing the Win2k entry from the boot.ini file? I feel
really bad about screwing up his computer, so I would *really* appreciate
it if anyone could help me fix it.

Thanks a lot,

Greg.

Good lord man, don't try to help any of your other friends!!!!!

To partition/format a second drive, all you had to do was set jumpers
on it properly and physically install it, then boot up XP and go to
control panel/administrative tools/computer management and select the
disk management section. It has everything you need.

 

[Gregor]

Thank you for all your help! I will try fixboot.

Greg.

 

[Gregor]

Hey all,

I gave my friend the boot disks and told him what to do, and he finally
got around to it. After running fixboot, though, he still gets the same
error. I told him to try running fixmbr, and also to write down the
actual error message for me. It's something along the lines of "Windows
2000 is corrupt or cannot be found." He's never presented with a boot
selection screen...

Thanks,

Greg.

 

[Gregor]

When he types fixmbr, he gets a warning that his MBR is non-standard or
invalid. At first, I thought that was a good indication that the MBR was
indeed the culprit. However, I remember that the VAIO comes with a
special hidden "Recovery" partition on the drive (it supposedly does the
same thing as the Recovery discs). Could this be the reason for the
warning? This is the actual message:

This computer appears to have a non-standard
or invalid master boot record.

FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if
you proceed.

This could cause all the partitions on the
current hard disk to become inaccessible.

If you are not having problems accessing
your drive, do not continue.

Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?

So should he proceed with fixmbr? By the way, here is the error he gets
when booting up his computer (it looks like he munged it a little when
copying it):

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

You can attempt to repair this file by
starting Windows 2000 Setup using the
original Setup floppy disk or CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start
repair.

I tried pressing F8 before, but it didn't do anything. Maybe I didn't
manage to hit it at just the right time...

Thanks,

Greg.