Re: Recovery Console not available

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Hi Geoff,

What are you using for a boot loader for the linux installation? Grub? Lilo?
And where is it on the system? The Recovery Console is not looking at the
proper drive for ntldr, and this may be affected by whatever you are using
to boot the linux installation. Which partition/volume is marked as the
active one? This is where it will be seeking ntldr.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Geoff Bayes" <gbayes@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ir94l1t2jj8r8ci3cb66jgl0p3pr6tqj8s@xxxxxxxxxx
> Some background:
> Abit KT7 RAID motherboard (NOT configured as RAID), BIOS updated to
> version 7N.
> 30Gb Maxtor (boot) on IDE3. Two partitions, Windows98SE (C:) and
> WindowsXP Pro SP2 (E:).
> 40Gb Maxtor on IDE4 (I:) to store data.
> A pair of 20Gb Seagate drives on IDE1. The master has data (D:) on a
> single partition, the slave has a Linux OS (ext3) with its associated
> partitions.
> Plextor CD-RW (master) (F:) & Aopen DVD (slave) (H:) on IDE2.
> XP boot menu lists:
> Windows XP Pro (default)
> Linux Mandrake 10.1
> Windows 98SE
> Windows Recovery Console.
>
> No changes have been made to the hardware or boot menu in twelve
> months, all three OS's boot and run flawlessly from the menu.
> I think I have seen the Recovery Console, if I'm right it would have
> been back when XP came out and I decided to keep a minimal install of
> 98SE just in case.
> Anyway, it won't run now. If this option is selected I see:
> NTLDR is missing
> Press any key to restart
> Pressing a key produces:
> Boot from ATAPI CDROM
> Boot from ATAPI CDROM
> Remove disks or other media
> Press any key to restart
> Pressing a key again produces:
> L 99 99 99 (with the 99's repeated for 9 further lines)
> System then halts.
> The relevant line in C:\boot.ini is:
> C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
> NTLDR is, of course, present in C:\ but not in C:\CMDCONS.
>
> Any help gratefully received.
> Geoff
> http://graffiti.virgin.net/geoff.bayes


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