Re: Dual boot woes (long version)
From: I'm Dan (dgREMOVE-THIS1261_at_cs.com)
Date: 06/15/04
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Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 04:38:15 -0700
"Ed H" <w.whatkey@comcast.net> wrote:
> With my computer running great once again and my HD partitioned:
> [F: Boot Magic (FAT32), C: Win XP Home, Win XP Home (hidden),
> Extended partition containing D: Backups]. I wanted to install my
> new Win XP Pro on the hidden drive so that I could learn to use it
> before I subject the family to it. First, I disabled Boot Magic then
> I uninstalled it and finally, formatted the volume. I checked to see
> if I could dual-boot using PQboot, a tool of Partition Magic, all
> was fine. So using PM, I formatted the hidden partition and again
> I checked to see if I could reboot--all was fine. Then I set the
> formatted partition as active, restarted the computer and expected
> it to stop at a black screen with a blinking white dot just as I've
> always seen it in the past. But instead there was a message saying
> NTLDR is missing. I decided to go ahead with the install anyway,
> all went fine till the first boot. Suddenly the monitor went black,
> my HD winded down to a halt and then a blue screen, 'a fatal error
> has occurred.' I had to power off the PC to do anything.
>
> I decided to insert the PM floppies into A:\ and I formatted the
> partition holding the new install and set my other OS as active,
> rebooted, now the screen says, 'could not load windows hal.dll
> is missing or corrupted.' I didn't know how to fix it from there so
> I decided to re-install windows, at boot-up I see that there are
> 2 windows Home Editions listed, exactly the same way. I try
> one, my new installation opens to the desk top. I installed PM
> and decided to delete the hidden partition and the F: partition
> and have C: assume the unallocated space. I re-boot-- all is okay!
> ...(snipped)...
It's not clear what state you're in now, but if you were putting BM in a
separate partition I'll guess you want XP in NTFS partitions. It looks like
you eliminated the BM partition, you have a working XP-Home in primary-1,
unallocated space intended for XP-Pro, and an extended partition. Is that
correct?
You shouldn't be having this much trouble, but since you are, step back to a
known working state, avoid *installing* PM and run it from floppy, avoid
installing BM, don't use the PM wizard, and manually control things at each
step along the way. Make sure you have a *Win98* boot floppy (download from
www.bootdisk.com, if necessary). Make sure you have PM on floppy. Also
copy pqboot.exe and ptedit.exe from the PM CD and put on the floppy.
Download editbini.exe from www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html and put
it on floppy. You already know pqboot is a quick way to change the active
partition, but ptedit allows you to look at the actual partition table
(instead of PM's re-interpretation of it), editbini let's you examine or
edit NTFS boot.ini files from DOS, and the Win98 boot floppy ensures you can
boot to DOS. If you run into any trouble with the following steps, ptedit
and editbini may come in handy to interpret the results.
(1) Make sure there are no vestiges of BM left around. Boot the Win98 boot
floppy and run "fdisk /mbr" to make sure you have a known good MBR. Run PM
and delete (or leave unallocated) the space for primary-2, and set primary-1
(XPH) active.
(2) Boot into XPH, make sure it boots as C:, and clean up boot.ini if it
still shows two selections. To erase XP's memory of any previous partition
locations, I would also run regedit and delete all entries in the
[HKLM\System\MountedDevices] key, then reboot again so XP can rebuild a
fresh drive letter table.
(3) Now for partition-2. Boot from floppy, run PM, create partition in
unallocated space for XPP. Make sure it is a *primary* partition - PM often
defaults to *logical* if it sees there is already one primary partition on
the disk. Set primary-2 active and hide primary-1.
(4) Reboot, enter bios setup, and make sure boot order is set to boot from
CD before HD.
(5) Insert XPP installation CD, at prompt press any key to boot from CD.
(6) Choose to do a new install. At partitions list, you should see
something like D: first (your hidden primary-1) and C: second (the active
primary-2). If the second partition is not C:, go back to step (3) and
recheck. If it is C:, choose to install there, choose to format NTFS if
necessary, and continue with setup. When Setup reboots in the middle, it
should continue without a hitch.
(7) XPP should then be working properly. Test and retest both. Boot from
floppy, run pqboot, choose #1, and XPH should boot correctly as C: with
pri-2 hidden. Boot from floppy, run pqboot, choose #2, and XPP should boot
correctly as C: with pri-1 hidden.
If all is well, you're ready for the boot manager. FWIW, I'd use a better
boot manager like XOSL (free from www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm). XOSL can
even be installed in a small partition at the end of the extended partition,
so unlike BM, you don't necessarily need a primary partition for the boot
manager. (BTW, I quit recommending BM when they eliminated the DOS-install
option - after v.5, I think - and went to a Windows-only installer.)
- Next message: Alex Nichol: "Re: XP verses ME"
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- In reply to: Ed H: "Dual boot woes (long version)"
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