Pegasus
Sat Mar 01 11:11:16 PST 2008
"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:s53js3t73o3qnlpmug2l5hnflri43nole7@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:06:31 +0100, "Pegasus \(MVP\)"
> <I.can@fly.com.oz> 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
You now need to create a new file c:\bootsect.dos. You can
do it like so:
1. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
2. Type this command:
bootpart.exe win95 c:\bootsect.dos "Windows 98"{Enter}
You can get bootpart.exe from here:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm