Re: W2K SP4 dual boot problems

On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:06:31 +0100, "Pegasus \(MVP\)"
<I.can@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


It seems you're creating yourself a lot of problems with your
complex backup scheme. You could do the same in a far
simpler way, without the accompanying problems that you
appear to have been doing battle with for quite some time.

For starters lets concentrate restoring your Win2000 boot
ability. Try this:
1. Get yourself a new diskette (or one that is in good
condition).
2. Format it on any Win2000/XP PC. Don't format it on
a Win9x machine - it won't work.
3. Copy the following files from the i386 folder of your
Win2000 CD to A:\ -
- ntldr
- ntdetect.com
4. Create a:\boot.ini with these lines inside:
[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(1)partition(1)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="4 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect

5. Boot the machine with this floppy and check which of the
four boot options work. When you know, delete the rest.

When successful, report in detail your current disk structure.
When doing so, please note that the word "disk" is usually
used for the physical thing whereas "drive" is used for partitions.
You therefore do not have "Disk D" but "Drive D:, residing on disk 2".

This business about formatting floppies on a W2K system rings a bell.
I followed your instructions, but was a little dubious about
requirements for the source of the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files or
loading advice (other W2K or accessible W98 of dual boot. I note also
there is no request/requirement for a BOOTSECT.DOS file.

In a first series of boot trials I used a floppy formatted on the
"other W2K" OS machine, with NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from the "other
W2K" OS root, date-stamped 040804 (yymmdd). I created the BOOT.INI
file with no indenting or text wrapping from the copied news server
message, but maintained carriage returns at:
[
Timeout
Default
[
multi
multi
multi
multi.

This produced four alternatives for
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
in the boot menu.

1st- 'missing or corrupt <windows root>\system32\hal.dll'
2nd- 'Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware
configuration (error?). Could not read from the selected boot disk.
Check boot path and disk hardware.'
3rd- booted up the W2K OS.
4th- same as 1st

Using another floppy formatted on the "other W2K" OS machine, I
transferred the NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, from the W98 root, date-stamped
030619. As well, I used the BOOT.INI and BOOTSECT.DOS files from the
previously working crutch disc. (either the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM
files on this disk were not readable, but hadthe same size and
datestamp as those in W98 root). The BOOT.INI file is one I edited
myself in '05 and '06. It reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=C:\
[operating systems]
C:\="Windows 98 2Ed"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional
SP4" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Recovery Console"
/cmdcons

This offers three boot options
1 - Windows 98 2Ed
2 - Windows 2000 Professional SP4
3 - Microsoft Windows 2000 Recovery Console

Boot results were as per previous working crutch floppy:

1st- Invalid System Disk. Replace disk and press any key.
2nd- booted up the W2K OS
3rd- W2k could not start because the following file was missig or
corrupt. <windows 2000 root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

If BOOTSECT.DOS was removed, the result of first boot option was

1st- I/O error accessing boot sector file
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\BOOTSECT.DOS

So my crutch is restored............... yay.

Any ideas on restoring normal dual boot?

There are two hard drives:
1 - single 80G partition W98 fat32 (C: in both OS)
2 - three (primary) basic partitions/volumes
D - bootable W2K NTFS 20G (not visible W98)
L - logical FAT32 data 30G ( D: in W98 )
M - logical FAT32 data 30G ( E in W98 )
The CD/DVD R/W drive is E: in W2k and F: in W98
A SCSI controller is present but hardware or hard drives are only
mounted as-needed, temporarily.

The W98 installation dates from '98 and has never been reinstalled,
despite installation of newer system motherboard in '03, HD
migration/rotation and other hardware changes. It is used to maintain
legacy hardware and SW - is actually still the most used OS, despite
it's excentricities.

The W2K installation disk dates from '99 (actually still NT5 at the
time) so a re-install involves more than 75 updates to achieve SP4.

My "other W2K" system is a W2K/WXP dual boot machine in its infancy
(<6 months). Am gradually migrating applications as required, or
proven safe, but seldom use it except as a test bed. I haven't tried
rotating either OS/Drive to date on this baby machine.

The HD rotation back-up method was one adopted in the days when hard
drives were where you placed your data until it 'went away'in a HD
crash or an OS hiccup. Although it doesn't seem to have resulted in
longer hard drive life, it seems to have avoided system re-installs
rather successfully. I understand that certain 'restore' features of
WXP are introduced to avoid this frequent tendency of Windows
operating systems in general. The ternary back-up method doesn't
appear to be one that is even physically viable with WXP, and is
problematic in W2K, as my current situation seems to illustrate.

I appreciate the assistance. It seems that I have to re-learn this
procedure each time I go through it.

RL
.

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