Re: grub error

OK, thanks for this info, Pegasus. I've still got a bit to learn about
this.

The reason my Dell computer did NOT boot up on the WinXP boot disk is
apparently due to the fact that Dell installs two special partitions to the
HD (one for its own utilities, and one for its own image recovery (called
DSR - Dell System Restore).

So I copied the exisitng and good boot.ini file on the C: drive to the
floppy disk, and that worked. The difference between the more generic
code given below, and mine, is in this critical line:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

So it needed to be told to go to the second partition (which is indeed where
the WinXP system is located my Dell computer).

But I'm still trying to figure out a case where this would be of any use.
Because if the system on C: is so screwed up so that it won't boot up on C:,
how is booting to the floppy to then, in turn, go over and boot up on the C:
drive (as it seems to do here) of any use? I'm still not understanding
something. (This seems different than is the case for anything I know in
Win98SE and DOS environments).


Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
*** See below.

"Bill in Co." <not_really_here@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%237j%23MHOWIHA.4868@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OK, but I'm evidently still missing something here. (I'm trying this
out
now on a good system just to see). (and I'm coming here as a past
Win98SE/DOS user)

Given what is quoted below for a basic formatted disk, how does it manage
to
boot up with no operating system on the floppy? I mean, it just stops
there.

*** Which boot disk are you talking about? The WinXP boot disk
*** or the Win98 boot disk?
*** The WinXP boot disk will boot the machine into Windows XP,
*** provided that there is an intact Windows XP installation on the
*** hard disk.
*** The Win98 boot disk will boot to an "A:\ prompt".

I actually tried it out, and nothing happened except that I was stuck at
the
"a:" prompt, (but this only AFTER I had created a floppy with command.com
on
it.

*** If you download the Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com
*** then you get it complete with command.com. And yes, it will
*** get you to an "A:\" prompt. At this stage you can start working
*** with commands such as fdisk.exe, which would let you replace
*** the Grub boot sector with the Windows boot sector.

Otherwise I got the error Invalid System Disk).

My test prior to that it was just using a basic formatted diskette (with
no
OS on it), and it wouldn't boot, which seems right.

*** I said "Use a disk formatted on a WinXP PC, then copy . . ."
*** If you stop after the formatting step then you obviously won't
*** have a bootable disk.

- Format a diskette on a WinXP PC.
- Copy these files to it from the i386 folder of your WinXP CD:
ntldr and ntdetect.com
- Use notepad.exe to create a:\boot.ini on it, with these lines:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
The benefit of the WinXP boot disk is that it lets you boot
a WinXP installation that has a damaged boot environment
but is otherwise intact.

The benefit of a Win98 boot disk is that it gives you very
basic access to the hard disk where you can perhaps
repair the damaged boot environment.

Both disks are useful to have. A Bart PE boot CD is even
more useful to have but it takes time to make one).


"Bill in Co." <not_really_here@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23r$cQqMWIHA.5132@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, my system boots up fine now, but I was just wondering if this
method
makes a good backup disk to supplement the MSDOS backup one?

So if windows didn't boot up, I presume this method would be the first
way
to try, and if that fails, maybe you'd need the MSDOS boot disk. Is
that
correct?

cornedbeef007-groups@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jan 17, 10:16 am, "Bill in Co." <not_really_h...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Would this also work for WinXP Home (just by changing "Professional"
to
"Home" below)?

No need to change "Professional" to "Home". It's only a label for a
human to read.

OK. It's just a text label then.

I'm curious as to how it works, if you can't even boot up in WinXP
normally. Just looking at the lines below, it seems (to me) to just
be
attempting to access the HD as would normally happen except that it
is
using a clean version of those two files ntldr and ntdetect.com. So
is
that basically it?


The floppy is running the bootloader, and it uses the info in boot.ini
file to find/start Windows.
The 3 choices you'll see are only an attempt to cover all bases of
where your particular Windows installation might be.
It's most likely that only 1 will work, depending on what has happened
to your disk, and whether you've attempted a repair install and
actually ended up with a parallel install.
Make the floppy, and give it a try. You've really got nothing to lose,
and it just might start Windows.

Good Luck.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp
    ... Something like "Can't boot WinXP after formatting drive" would do a ... Or did you use Boot Magic or some other third-party boot loader? ... ALL Windows installations are kept, no matter where the rest of Windows is ... HOW did you reformat your Win98 drive? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Unmountable_Boot_Volume
    ... "John John" wrote: ... Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console ... I run WinXP Pro on my desktop. ... I was able to successfully Boot with a bootable LINUX CD & mount and access the internal hard drive. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Unmountable_Boot_Volume
    ... Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console ... I run WinXP Pro on my desktop. ... I was able to successfully Boot with a bootable LINUX CD & mount and access ... WinXP disk but I'm happy to purchase another copy if that will help. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: XP Boot up problems..
    ... When I boot, I get hung up on the exact same black ... Computer Stops Responding with a Black Screen When You Start Windows ... Create a Microsoft Windows XP boot disk to start the computer. ... Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Boot from 2 discs
    ... you can't switch between Windows installations without rebooting. ... is not a program that runs within a second WinXP; ... When you boot into WinXP on C:, you can use D: for applications and data, ... access the files on all drives. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers)