Lost boot partition 3

[zebot]

I have multi-boot system 2 IDE drives. HDA is small/old 1.2GB, &2nd drive is 40GB. (first disk was only used to tinker in small linux distros and was mostly empty)
WHen I installed win2000pro, I was unfamiliar with directing what installed to where, the boot partition was installed on the first HD, system files installed on the other hard drive,in a primary partition. Installed a linux distro and GRUB bootloader wiped the MBR of the Win2000 booting-drive. Trying to repair it, had no luck,reinstalled win2k last night, thinking it might overwrite and reinstall its previous bootloader partition. Wrong>it installed another copy of win2000 on the small drive. I can see all my files/folders from the orig install, in Explorer, but cant boot to that system. I had all the fixes/updates installed, hate to loose it. IS there a way to reinstall so I can access the orig system again with my old username or admin account? Do I totally erase the new small drive/install, and try reinstalling again?
I'd leave it alone but with only about 500mb left, I will have no space left after I install the sp4 and other updates to the New win2000......anything appreciated here
charles//aka zebot

 

[vacunita]

format the small drive all over again, and try reinstalling Win2000. but make sure to point the installation to the old win2000 dir I'm assuming ws in D:.

this should recreate the boot files.

Alternatively you could boot off the Win2000 cd and access the reocvery console and run the fixmbr command.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[wolluf]

There are several options available here. Easiest is probably just to edit the boot.ini file in the root of the C: drive.

This should look something like:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

(denoting it will boot from first partition on first drive).

If you edit it to look like:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

then it will boot from first partition on second drive - which should still be as operational as when you last used it.

You could make it look like:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (disk2)" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (disk1)" /fastdetect

Then you'd get a choice.

boot.ini is hidden read only system file - so you'll need to adjust attributes accordingly to find and edit it.

If this doesn't work, repair reinstall might (though it often gets confused with 2 versions of 2k in the same machine & can't find either to perform the reinstall on)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292175&Product=win2000

Post back if still no good - there are several other options.

 

[zebot]

Vacunita-thanks I did try the FIXMBR but it couldnt find anything, IIRC. Maybe I did not understand how to issue the complete command tho. Or it could be that I wiped it out.
wolluf: I will read that link, I read a ton of MS Q-articles last night. This new install has id'd the drives as "E" for the small disk, and drive "C" for the old install. Are your
editing instructions correct for that order? The old install of win2k is on the slave disk in the 4th partition, FWIW.
I tried to find that boot.ini file this morning, after setting folder options to show Hidden files, but could not locate such a file on either partition. I dont understand that, I know it has to be there someplace.
thanks for the tips
charles/zebot

 

[wolluf]

With that partition location, you need boot.ini to look like

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

to boot the old installation.

The drive letters allocated by the new install are irrelevant - its disk & partition info that matters to the boot process. If you haven't touched the old installation, and it did work, using that boot.ini should boot it as before.

You can also create a floppy that would boot it - newly formatted floppy, copy ntldr, ntdetect.com (both in root of your small drive) and boot.ini as above to the floppy. Boot from floppy - and it will pick up your old installation.

Post back if you can't get this working.

 

[zebot]

Hey Wolluf=That absolutely worked! I am greatly relieved, and a little better educated now on the windows boot process. Or,
I suppose its called the nt-loader. I owe you a dinner.
Now, I can wipe the new install out,correct? or do I need to use fdisk and make a small partition, copy those 3 files to it like before. I dont mind booting from the floppy, I dont really use windows a lot but I do need it.
thanks a lot
charles/zebot

 

[wolluf]

I don't know if you used boot floppy or edited c: drive. Keep/make the boot floppy - if you edited C: drive then wiping new install will also wipe windows boot process. You can't just create a small partition with those 3 files - it needs to be active partition and you'd need to run fixboot C: from recovery console to give it a 2k boot sector - so for occasional use, the floppy would be best IMO (you may have found this already - been away for a few days).

 

[zebot]

Thanks wolluf>the boot floppy is what I did, works perfectly. I'll just leave the rest alone for now, no more than I boot into windows it should be sufficient (until Im forced to buy XP at least)
chas