Re: Installation: doesn't see setup files on hard drive?
From: Frank W. (reply_to_newsgroup_at_please.ccom)
Date: 02/13/05
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Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 20:35:59 -0600
Bruce - you are very thorough. I'll answer your questions, etc, below as best I can.
> Some BIOS's can only boot from the "Active" partition on the first hard
> disk. In these BIOS's, this partition is often referred to as "C" in the
> BIOS startup settings. Other BIOS's can be configured to boot from the
> "Active" partition on other than the first hard disk. Whichever physical
> disk the BIOS is set to boot from must have an appropriate Master Boot
> Record and Partition Boot Record in the first partition plus an "OS" in that
> partition; the message you are getting says, that whatever disk the BIOS is
> attempting to boot from does not have appropriate information in the Master
> Boot Record or the "Active" partition. In this context, the Windows Boot
> Manager is an "OS". Windows setup will write the required information in
> the "Active" partition on the first physical disk. If you change the BIOS
> settings to actually boot from a different physical disk, Windows setup
> won't know that and won't write the Master Boot record etc. on that disk.
>
> The usual way that the Windows multi-boot works is to have ntldr,
> ntdetect.com and boot.ini are in the root of the file system in the "Active"
> partition of whatever disk the BIOS is set to boot from. Most often, but
> not always, this is the first partition on the first physical disk Then,
> when you choose the particular OS installation you actually want to run, the
> Windows Boot Manager loads and executes that OS.
>
> The drive letter to partition association is an artifact of the operating
> system, not your computer's BIOS. Windows Setup enumerates the disks and
> partitions and associates drive letters with the partitions in a fixed way.
> If the physical arrangement of disks is modified, then Windows setup run
> again, it will almost certainly show a different drive letter to partition
> association.
>
> To go further, it is necessary to understand exactly the physical disk
> configuration in your computer and the corresponding BIOS settings.
>
> So, what physical disks do you have installed? Please list them in the
> sequence that your BIOS reports them.
> Which physical disk are you attempting to install Windows on to?
I was worried about those points you made above so I removed all drives except the one I want to instll
the OS on. It has just one partition. Actually I never had more than one drive in the computer - to
keeps things as simple as possible.
>
> In the Windows setup, what physical disks and partitions are reported?
Just the above drive with its single partition.
> You mention something you see in Computer Managment, System Info. This
> implies you have an operational OS on this computer.
I have another drive with a working W2k OS that I'm writing this on. I was looking at the drive with
this OS's Computer Management. I tried to format the drive with Fat/Fat32 so I could run a DOS prompt to
the WINNT.exe file (that I copied to the drive from the CD along with everything else) but I can't even
format this drive with anything except NTFS. Fdisk won't read NTFS. So I'm stumped again. Perhaps your
boot disk instruction below would facilitate that?
> During the OS installation process - e.g. between booting from the CD and
> the restart after the first part of the setup, are you physically
> re-arranging the disks or their cabling?
No.
I should mention that it is a newer drive that I've used many times before as a slave. I have 3 other
drives (80, 80 and 6gb) that I have tried the install process on with no sucess. So its not the drive.
Isn't it easier to install from the hard disk itself? Do I have to create a seperate partitiion (D:?) to
copy the files to so it can install them on C:? This sure is getting complicated........:)
I'll see how you respond to my responses to your questions above, before I go further.
--------------------------------------------------------------
> If you have an operational Windows operating system, you can prepare a boot
> floppy that is sometimes useful to bypass the problem you are seeing. To
> create a boot floppy:
>
> 1. logon to a Windows NT 4, 2000, XP or 2003 computer
> 2. put a floppy disk into the floppy disk drive
> 3. in Windows Explorer, right click on the floppy drive (A) and select
> Format
> 4. DO NOT add a check mark to "Create an MS-DOS startup disk"
> 5. a check mark in "Quick Format" is optional, but I suggest not adding one
> 6. click Start
> 7. when the Format is complete, copy the following files from the root of
> the "System Partition" (usually C, but not necessarily)
> ntldr
> ntdetect.com
> boot.ini
>
> Now, the boot.ini is specific to the particular computer's hard disk
> configuration and OS installations, so you may need to adjust it. Open it
> in Notepad.
>
> You shoudl see something like this:
>
> [boot loader]
> timeout=10
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Operational XP D1P1"
> /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="2003 Ent R2" /noexecute=optout
> /fastdetect
>
> For normal X86 type computers with IDE drives, the multi and disk parts are
> not relevant; leave them as they are.
>
> The rdisk(n) specifies the physical disk number as enumerated by the
> computer's BIOS - your BIOS will normally display the disks in the
> enumeration order during POST. You should also be able to see this in the
> BIOS's configuration panels. Only actual hard disks are counted, CD/DVD
> drives etc. don't get a number. The numbering starts at 0. The Windows
> Computer Management, Disk Management will also show the drive numbers. In
> the bottom pane that shows the disks and partitions, the left most partition
> on each drive is number 1.
>
> The partition(n) refers to the partion number. Patition numbering starts at
> 1. The name after the "\" (e.g. WINDOWS in the above sample) is the name of
> the folder in the root of the partition's file system that holds the OS. On
> Windows NT 4 systems, this was typically WINNT. On Windows 2000 and later
> it is typically WINDOWS.
>
> The part inside the quote marks is the human readable stuff displayed by the
> Windows Boot Manager - you can make this whatever you like.
>
> The other strings (e.g. /fastdetect) are boot options. If in doubt, you can
> usually do without any of these.
>
> If you boot from a floppy built in this way, you will get the Windows Boot
> Manager menu showing the items in the [operating system] section of the
> boot.ini. The content of the boot.ini is not validated by the Boot
> Manager - it assumes it is correct.
>
> You can then select the OS you want to start. Naturally, if the info (e.g.
> multi(0)... ) is not correct, the selected OS won't load, but you will get
> a specific message for this situation (e.g. "ntoskrnl.exe is misssing or
> invalid" means either there is no such file in the System32 folder in the
> partition\folder specified by the boot.ini record or its corrupted).
>
> One other possible thing - you mention you have a new hard drive; the newer
> faster IDE drivers might not work correctly unless you use an 80 conductor
> cable, instead of the older 40 conductor cables.
>
> --
> Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
> http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
>
> It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
>
>
>
> "Frank W." <reply_to_newsgroup@please.ccom> wrote in message
> news:376sioF5apvlmU1@individual.net...
> >I should mention that the exact error message when the system reboots after
> >copying files to the hard
> > drive is:
> > DISK BOOT FAILURE. INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.
> >
> >> Also I noticed in Computer Management, System Information,
> >> Conflicts/Sharing that my Matrox Millennium
> >> G450 video card and Creative SB Live! Basic (WDM) are both mentioned on
> >> IRQ 11. And my Intel
> > 82371AB/EB
> >> PCI to USB Universal Host Controller and Adaptec AHA-2940U2/U2W PCI SCSI
> >> Controlller are both mentioned
> >> on IRQ 5.
> >>
> >> I can't find any info in W2K about the motherboard. On the mb itself, it
> >> just says Asus P2B rev.1.04.
> > I
> >> went to Asus.com (I wonder what brain surgeon designed that website) and
> >> there are lots of P2B models
> >> (P2B98-XV, P2B-B, P2B-D2, etc) but only one that is P2B.
> >>
> >> I tried an old 6 gig drive - same thing.
> >>
> >> > There are 12 different model manuals for P2B. Do you know which one?
> >> > No, the
> >> > drive shouldn't matter.
> >>
> >> > | ASUS P2B rev 1.04
> >> > | Award Modular Bios v4.51 PG ACPI Bios Revision 1006
> >> > 10/09/98
> >> > i440BX
> >> > |
> >> > | I am using a much newer hard drive than the motherboard. Is it
> >> > possible
> >> > that there is some
> >> > | incompatibility between the old motherboard and newer hard drive that
> >> > only
> >> > arises when installing an
> >> > | operating system? (But then I did also have that strange "E: is not
> >> > accessible. The parameter is
> >> > | incorrect" message on 2 newer hard drives after moving them around.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
- Next message: Dave Patrick: "Re: How can I create a new local user using existing domain user settings?"
- Previous message: danjr: "Re: Word and GPO"
- In reply to: Bruce Sanderson: "Re: Installation: doesn't see setup files on hard drive?"
- Next in thread: Dave Patrick: "Re: Installation: doesn't see setup files on hard drive?"
- Reply: Dave Patrick: "Re: Installation: doesn't see setup files on hard drive?"
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