booting up 2

[Chrispr]

I am running windows XP home and Pro on the same box. Currently, I boot up to my primary slave and the windows XP bootloader comes up and asks me what I want load, Pro or Home. XP Home is on that drive and I have XP Pro on another drive. I want to change the boot sequence to boot from slave to master (XP Pro), but since I installed XP Pro from partition magic on XP Home, when I boot to my master I get the familiar missing ntdlr, so the only way I can boot XP Pro is from the bootloader on the other drive. Can someone tell me how I can fix the MBR so it will load windows XP Pro when I boot directly from that drive. It is the first partition on that drive. Thanks.

 

[bcastner]

Use the Recovery Console.

The commands you need are fixboot and bootcfg.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixboot.mspx

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;291980

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184

Make certain the Primary IDE hard disk is set to Active as a partition.

 

[Chrispr]

Thanks Bill, I will give it a try.

Regards,

 

[bcastner]

In the interest of completeness, I should have explained how to access the Recovery Console:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp&NoWebContent=1

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=314058

 

[Chrispr]

This is what I did. I changed the boot sequence to boot from the hard drive that is having the boot problems, known from here as C:. I went to the recovery console and typed fixboot C: and then it made a new boot sector. Afterwards, I typed in bootcfg /rebuild and it apparently rebuilt the boot.ini file, here is what it looks like:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
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

I restart the computer to see if it works and I am still getting the missing ntdlr file. I then go and log into XP Pro the only way I can and decide to look at the hidden system files for both home and Pro. In home, I have numerous hidden files including the ntdlr file. When I go to Pro, the only hidden files I have are the boot.ini file and something called pagefile.sys, and I have no idea what that is. I can see why I am getting that error message when I try to boot from that hard drive, it looks like I am missing a lot of the startup files. Am I looking at a new install of XP Pro?

Regards,

 

[linney]

You have a dual booting system and it is normal for the boot loading files for both systems to be on the C drive. The Boot.ini file gives you the choice of which operating system to boot into.

Your current boot.ini is pointing to your first available hard drive and to the first partition on that hard drive.

This is the location where it will be looking for the missing boot loading files, Ntldr and NtDetect.com. All three are hidden and system files.

I am not absolutely sure what you are trying to achieve. Do you want your machine to boot directly into Pro and forget about the option for Home? Are you hiding or disconnecting the hard drive that has Home on it?

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q289/0/22.asp

 

[Chrispr]

Yes you are correct linney, I am getting rid of the drive with XP Home on it so I will only have one hard drive. I never use XP Home anymore and the hard drive can find a better place elsewhere. Will copying the missing files directly to the hard drive with XP Pro on it fix the problem with the missing ntdlr? I would think that the files might be different between XP Home and Pro, or I wouldn't know which files to copy so I guess I could try copying them all.

 

[Chrispr]

Thanks for your info linney, copying the ntdlr file and and ntdetect.com file allowed me to boot directly to XP Pro without any problems. Those are the only hidden system files that are on the C:\ partition right now and I know that there are usually a few more. Are there any other necessary files that have to been copied there so that I won't have any problems later on when I try to do something?

Regards,

 

[linney]

You should be right with what you have there now.

Personally I like to have the Recovery Console loaded and ready to go. That would mean a boot option screen again, however.

This is always handy too.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp