Re: Unable to boot to existing 2003 server

Pegasus & Dave,

I have done the following as you explained:
1. Formatted a floppy using 2003 server. Copied ntldr, ntdetect.com and
boot.ini with the four options.
2. Tried to boot with each option.
3. For the first option, it made me wait for some time and finally showed an
error.
4. For the other options also, it showed the same error as above but quicker
than the first option.
5. The error shown is
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration
problem. Could not read from selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk
hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk
configuration and your hardware disk configuration and your hardware
reference manuals for additional information. "

Thanks,
Mallik


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

It seems this thread is full of replies that do not line up with
what we all know about booting a problem installation. Let
me recap what Dave Patrick tried to say, but in some greater
detail:
1. Format a floppy disk on some Win2000/XP/Server machine,
using the "format" command from the Command Prompt.
2. Copy the files e:\i386\ntldr and e:\i386\ntdetect.com from
your server CD to this floppy disk. (E: denotes your CD drive
letter).
3. Create a text file a:\boot.ini and paste into it the lines that
Dave suggested.
4. Set the BIOS on the problem server so that the floppy drive
is the primary boot device.
5. Boot the server with this flooppy disk, trying each and
every option.
6. Report the result.

"Mallik" <Mallik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:806F48D9-C243-442D-A0B1-216AD387F2BD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,

Thanks for the help. When I try the steps you gave me, it actually boots
to
the A drive. Then, when I try to access the C drive, it says invalid drive
specification. IT DID NOT SHOW ME THE OS OPTIONS AT ALL. It directly
booted
to the DOS OS on A drive.

Thanks,
Mallik


"Dave Patrick" wrote:

For the floppy to successfully boot Windows 2003 the disk must contain
the
"NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows 2003 machine, not a
DOS/Win9x, so the NT boot sector gets written to the floppy), and copy
Windows 2003 versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it. Edit
the
boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot.
Below is an example of boot.ini. The default is to start the operating
system located on the first partition of the primary or first drive
(drive0). Then drive0 partition 2 and so on.

[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="Windows 2003 0,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Windows 2003 0,2"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="Windows 2003 1,1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\Windows="Windows 2003 1,2"

Another option is a win98 startup disk. Boot this floppy, run fdisk and
mark
the correct partition as active.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Mallik" wrote:
| Hi,
|
| I have tried that as well. It does not display these choices at all.
It
does
| not seem to recognize the disk. "When I connect to another machine
with
2003
| server on it and use dskprobe.exe, it shows the NTFS Boot Record View
with
| all zeroes."
|
| Thanks,
| Mallik






.

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