[Fwd: Re: XP reboots funny after Windows Update]

[William B. Lurie]

Subject: Re: XP reboots funny after Windows Update
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 06:07:27 -0400
From: "William B. Lurie" >
Reply-To:
To: "Kent W. England [MVP]" >
References: >
>
>

Thank you very much, Ron and Kent....but before I proceed I want to
explain a bit more about my setup and let you comment again. I do not
use any boot manager, no BootitNG and no Boot Magic......the hard drive
I am describing was clean and new, formatted, and then partitioned
so that I could install Win98 on first partition and XP Pro on second
partition. I found both boot managers took over too much control, and
the technique I use (see below) seemed simple and straightforward to me.

Normally I have that hard drive jumpered and running as 'Slave', with
a simple unpartitioned Windows XP as my Master hard drive. When I want
to run that Slave drive, I simply interrupt the boot-up with 'Del' and
change
the bootup from HDD0 to HDD1. I have found this to be simple and
foolproof, and I don't give up control over my machine to any
'third-party'
software. I copy whatever I want to from 'Master' to 'Slave'.

The status of the faulty hard drive I have described, applies to it when
I have it installed as the only hard drive on the system, jumpered as
'Master' or 'Single', and I am unable to do as you say, Kent.... you
said
"Boot from the CD"...... When I put my XP Pro Installation CD into the
CD reader it seems to ignore it. The only way I am able to bootup with
that
drive alone in the system, is by using my XP-Pro six-floppy Setup set.

I hope I have explained it well enough so that you can modify your
instructions......as they stand now, I am unable to do Step One, i.e.,
"Boot from the CD".......

W B L
----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> I wouldn't go so far as to repair XP, but I would run Recovery Console
> and repair the NT boot loader. Both work (AFAIK), but repairing the boot
> loader is more focused and risks less damage to your Windows install.
>
> Boot from the CD and select the first repair option. This is the
> Recovery Console.
>
> "fixboot" writes a new partition boot sector to the system partition.
>
> "fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0" repairs the master boot record of the boot
> disk. Run "map" first to verify the device where the MBR is located.
>
> "bootcfg /list" to show OSes in boot.ini and "bootcfg /scan" to check
> the disks for installed OSes. "bootcfg /rebuild" to fix the boot.ini
> file.
>
> That should do it unless you get a "ntldr is missing" error, which means
> you need to copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the CD in \i386 folder to
> C:
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> "Ron Martell" > wrote in message
> ...
> > "William B. Lurie" > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >However, on bootup, it gets to where it flashed by like "Boot from
> CD"
> > >but there's no CD so it should go for hard drive. Except now it stops
> > >in a DOS-prompt with this message:
> > >
> > >Type the name of the command iterpreter (e.g.,
> C:\windows\command.com)
> > >
> > >or something like that, and I have found no way for it to continue,
> > >nothing I
> > >can do except Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot, and then back to that same
> prompt....
> > >
> >
> > That message you are getting about the command interpreter is from the
> > Windows 9x system files and not from XP. So it appears that the
> > system files have been replaced or corrupted in some way.
> >
> > A Repair Install of Windows XP would fix this. See
> > http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm for detailed
> > instructions.

--

William B. Lurie

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

You broke the thread. You're lucky I found this.

When you switch OSes using the BIOS boot device setting, each boot
device needs the NT loader software installed. The drive that doesn't
boot needs its boot loader repaired. The easiest course of action is to
disconnect the other drive so that your faulty boot device is the only
hard drive.

Insert the CD and boot the system. When the BIOS boot screen comes up,
there should be a description of which key to press to select a
temporary boot device or to enter the BIOS setup. Select the CD device
as the boot device or place it higher in the boot list in the BIOS setup
than the hard drive(s).

Once the CD boots, then select the first repair option and you are in
Recovery Console. Note that the six diskette boot disk set also contains
an updated Recovery Console, so you can use the floppies or the CD.

If the CD is a recovery CD, it cannot boot the system.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
...
> Subject: Re: XP reboots funny after Windows Update
> Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 06:07:27 -0400
> From: "William B. Lurie" >
> Reply-To:
> To: "Kent W. England [MVP]" >
> References: >
> >
> >
>
> Thank you very much, Ron and Kent....but before I proceed I want to
> explain a bit more about my setup and let you comment again. I do not
> use any boot manager, no BootitNG and no Boot Magic......the hard
drive
> I am describing was clean and new, formatted, and then partitioned
> so that I could install Win98 on first partition and XP Pro on second
> partition. I found both boot managers took over too much control, and
> the technique I use (see below) seemed simple and straightforward to
me.
>
> Normally I have that hard drive jumpered and running as 'Slave', with
> a simple unpartitioned Windows XP as my Master hard drive. When I want
> to run that Slave drive, I simply interrupt the boot-up with 'Del' and
> change
> the bootup from HDD0 to HDD1. I have found this to be simple and
> foolproof, and I don't give up control over my machine to any
> 'third-party'
> software. I copy whatever I want to from 'Master' to 'Slave'.
>
> The status of the faulty hard drive I have described, applies to it
when
> I have it installed as the only hard drive on the system, jumpered as
> 'Master' or 'Single', and I am unable to do as you say, Kent.... you
> said
> "Boot from the CD"...... When I put my XP Pro Installation CD into the
> CD reader it seems to ignore it. The only way I am able to bootup with
> that
> drive alone in the system, is by using my XP-Pro six-floppy Setup set.
>
> I hope I have explained it well enough so that you can modify your
> instructions......as they stand now, I am unable to do Step One,
i.e.,
> "Boot from the CD".......
>
> W B L
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
>
> > I wouldn't go so far as to repair XP, but I would run Recovery
Console
> > and repair the NT boot loader. Both work (AFAIK), but repairing the
boot
> > loader is more focused and risks less damage to your Windows
install.
> >
> > Boot from the CD and select the first repair option. This is the
> > Recovery Console.
> >
> > "fixboot" writes a new partition boot sector to the system
partition.
> >
> > "fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0" repairs the master boot record of the
boot
> > disk. Run "map" first to verify the device where the MBR is located.
> >
> > "bootcfg /list" to show OSes in boot.ini and "bootcfg /scan" to
check
> > the disks for installed OSes. "bootcfg /rebuild" to fix the boot.ini
> > file.
> >
> > That should do it unless you get a "ntldr is missing" error, which
means
> > you need to copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the CD in \i386 folder
to
> > C:
> >
> > --
> > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> >
> > "Ron Martell" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > "William B. Lurie" > wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > >However, on bootup, it gets to where it flashed by like "Boot
from
> > CD"
> > > >but there's no CD so it should go for hard drive. Except now it
stops
> > > >in a DOS-prompt with this message:
> > > >
> > > >Type the name of the command iterpreter (e.g.,
> > C:\windows\command.com)
> > > >
> > > >or something like that, and I have found no way for it to
continue,
> > > >nothing I
> > > >can do except Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot, and then back to that same
> > prompt....
> > > >
> > >
> > > That message you are getting about the command interpreter is from
the
> > > Windows 9x system files and not from XP. So it appears that the
> > > system files have been replaced or corrupted in some way.
> > >
> > > A Repair Install of Windows XP would fix this. See
> > > http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm for detailed
> > > instructions.
>
> --
>
> William B. Lurie

[William B. Lurie]

"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> You broke the thread. You're lucky I found this.

Sorry, I couldn't post it in thread. Maybe this time.

>
>
> When you switch OSes using the BIOS boot device setting, each boot
> device needs the NT loader software installed. The drive that doesn't
> boot needs its boot loader repaired. The easiest course of action is to
> disconnect the other drive so that your faulty boot device is the only
> hard drive.
>

Yes, I do that. The only time I set up systems differently is like
now, when I have to reconfigure to use Master drive so that I can
interface with you.

>
> Insert the CD and boot the system. When the BIOS boot screen comes up,
> there should be a description of which key to press to select a
> temporary boot device or to enter the BIOS setup. Select the CD device
> as the boot device or place it higher in the boot list in the BIOS setup
> than the hard drive(s).
>

Yes, I do that. In BIOS I tell it the sequence... I most recently tried all
3 in the sequence as CD Rom--CD Rom--CD Rom.

>

I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because the CD does not
reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it is not any
kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen briefly,
and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen inventory of things,
and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final line reads
"C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g. C:\windows\command.com)"
and the C> again,
and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which it will take.
It just
repeats that line.

> I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you feel it will

lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as one of the
three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to proceed,
following the information I've given above.
W B L


>
> Once the CD boots, then select the first repair option and you are in
> Recovery Console. Note that the six diskette boot disk set also contains
> an updated Recovery Console, so you can use the floppies or the CD.
>
> If the CD is a recovery CD, it cannot boot the system.
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Subject: Re: XP reboots funny after Windows Update
> > Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 06:07:27 -0400
> > From: "William B. Lurie" >
> > Reply-To:
> > To: "Kent W. England [MVP]" >
> > References: >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Thank you very much, Ron and Kent....but before I proceed I want to
> > explain a bit more about my setup and let you comment again. I do not
> > use any boot manager, no BootitNG and no Boot Magic......the hard
> drive
> > I am describing was clean and new, formatted, and then partitioned
> > so that I could install Win98 on first partition and XP Pro on second
> > partition. I found both boot managers took over too much control, and
> > the technique I use (see below) seemed simple and straightforward to
> me.
> >
> > Normally I have that hard drive jumpered and running as 'Slave', with
> > a simple unpartitioned Windows XP as my Master hard drive. When I want
> > to run that Slave drive, I simply interrupt the boot-up with 'Del' and
> > change
> > the bootup from HDD0 to HDD1. I have found this to be simple and
> > foolproof, and I don't give up control over my machine to any
> > 'third-party'
> > software. I copy whatever I want to from 'Master' to 'Slave'.
> >
> > The status of the faulty hard drive I have described, applies to it
> when
> > I have it installed as the only hard drive on the system, jumpered as
> > 'Master' or 'Single', and I am unable to do as you say, Kent.... you
> > said
> > "Boot from the CD"...... When I put my XP Pro Installation CD into the
> > CD reader it seems to ignore it. The only way I am able to bootup with
> > that
> > drive alone in the system, is by using my XP-Pro six-floppy Setup set.
> >
> > I hope I have explained it well enough so that you can modify your
> > instructions......as they stand now, I am unable to do Step One,
> i.e.,
> > "Boot from the CD".......
> >
> > W B L
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> > > I wouldn't go so far as to repair XP, but I would run Recovery
> Console
> > > and repair the NT boot loader. Both work (AFAIK), but repairing the
> boot
> > > loader is more focused and risks less damage to your Windows
> install.
> > >
> > > Boot from the CD and select the first repair option. This is the
> > > Recovery Console.
> > >
> > > "fixboot" writes a new partition boot sector to the system
> partition.
> > >
> > > "fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0" repairs the master boot record of the
> boot
> > > disk. Run "map" first to verify the device where the MBR is located.
> > >
> > > "bootcfg /list" to show OSes in boot.ini and "bootcfg /scan" to
> check
> > > the disks for installed OSes. "bootcfg /rebuild" to fix the boot.ini
> > > file.
> > >
> > > That should do it unless you get a "ntldr is missing" error, which
> means
> > > you need to copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the CD in \i386 folder
> to
> > > C:
> > >
> > > --
> > > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> > >
> > > "Ron Martell" > wrote in message
> > > ...
> > > > "William B. Lurie" > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >However, on bootup, it gets to where it flashed by like "Boot
> from
> > > CD"
> > > > >but there's no CD so it should go for hard drive. Except now it
> stops
> > > > >in a DOS-prompt with this message:
> > > > >
> > > > >Type the name of the command iterpreter (e.g.,
> > > C:\windows\command.com)
> > > > >
> > > > >or something like that, and I have found no way for it to
> continue,
> > > > >nothing I
> > > > >can do except Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot, and then back to that same
> > > prompt....
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > That message you are getting about the command interpreter is from
> the
> > > > Windows 9x system files and not from XP. So it appears that the
> > > > system files have been replaced or corrupted in some way.
> > > >
> > > > A Repair Install of Windows XP would fix this. See
> > > > http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm for detailed
> > > > instructions.
> >
> > --
> >
> > William B. Lurie

--

William B. Lurie

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

For whichever reason, you cannot boot the CD. You have to use the boot
floppies. The Recovery Console is the first option to "repair". Select
"repair" instead of "install".

The description of the Windows 98 logo screen indicates that somehow a
"sys c:" was done on the drive in trouble from a w98 bootable floppy.
This replaced (but did not delete) the NT boot loader. You should simply
have to issue the RC command "fixboot" to replace the DOS boot loader
with the NT boot loader code in the boot sector. Everything else should
be fine. If a partition has gone missing, then a "fixmbr" is necessary.
You can check these settings in RC.

You might want to read Help and Support Center about Recovery Console
(and later "recovery options") and print out the RC commands before you
boot into RC.


As you can see "my XP won't boot" requires very careful description of
your boot environment before good advice can be given.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
>
> >
> > Insert the CD and boot the system.
>
> I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because the CD
does not
> reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it is not
any
> kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen briefly,
> and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen inventory of
things,
> and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final line
reads
> "C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.
C:\windows\command.com)"
> and the C> again,
> and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which it will
take.
> It just repeats that line.
>
> > I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you feel it
will
> lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as one of
the
> three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to proceed,
> following the information I've given above.

[William B. Lurie]

Proceeding as instructed, I first read quite a bit of the Help and
Support....and then did the six-floppy setup. At end, I chose R
option for Repair. Recovery Console gave me only one option
as to which system to correct..... D:\WINDOWS ...... I mention
this because on that drive there were two systems. I believe that
when it was dual-booting happily, I could choose between WINDOWS
and Windows XP PRO. Here I selected Option 1 since it only gave
me one.

It asked for administrator password, where I hit ENTER as usual.

It got me to another prompt, where I entered 'fixboot'.... Not much
happened, and I think I simply rebooted. When it came back up,
(I had removed all floppies hoping it would recognize the XP PRO CD
which I had placed in the CD drive,) it stopped instead someplace
along the line with the DOS-type error message 'ntldr is missing'.
So it seems to want an NT loader... (you said that some operation
has replaced but did not delete the NT boot loader).

I'm not sure of the exact sequence of what happened, but I did record
all of the above. I hope you can follow my steps and give me a follow-on
sequence to continue with. Right now I am comfortable up to where I
hit 'R' and then entered 'fixboot'.......so I'd like what to do from there.
W B L

"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> For whichever reason, you cannot boot the CD. You have to use the boot
> floppies. The Recovery Console is the first option to "repair". Select
> "repair" instead of "install".
>
> The description of the Windows 98 logo screen indicates that somehow a
> "sys c:" was done on the drive in trouble from a w98 bootable floppy.
> This replaced (but did not delete) the NT boot loader. You should simply
> have to issue the RC command "fixboot" to replace the DOS boot loader
> with the NT boot loader code in the boot sector. Everything else should
> be fine. If a partition has gone missing, then a "fixmbr" is necessary.
> You can check these settings in RC.
>
> You might want to read Help and Support Center about Recovery Console
> (and later "recovery options") and print out the RC commands before you
> boot into RC.
>
> As you can see "my XP won't boot" requires very careful description of
> your boot environment before good advice can be given.
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> >
> > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Insert the CD and boot the system.
> >
> > I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because the CD
> does not
> > reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it is not
> any
> > kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen briefly,
> > and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen inventory of
> things,
> > and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final line
> reads
> > "C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.
> C:\windows\command.com)"
> > and the C> again,
> > and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which it will
> take.
> > It just repeats that line.
> >
> > > I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you feel it
> will
> > lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as one of
> the
> > three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to proceed,
> > following the information I've given above.

--

William B. Lurie

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

The operation I mentioned was a "sys c:" but it would appear that ntldr
and possibly ntdetect.com and boot.ini were all deleted or cannot be
read.

Enter Recovery Console again (sigh) and copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from
your CD to the root of C:. Those files should be in \i386 on the CD or
on the XP C: drive.

C:\>copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
C:\>copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\

where D is the CD drive.

Change attributes on copied files

C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntldr
C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntdetect.com

To recover boot.ini, run "bootcfg /rebuild".

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
...
> Proceeding as instructed, I first read quite a bit of the Help and
> Support....and then did the six-floppy setup. At end, I chose R
> option for Repair. Recovery Console gave me only one option
> as to which system to correct..... D:\WINDOWS ...... I mention
> this because on that drive there were two systems. I believe that
> when it was dual-booting happily, I could choose between WINDOWS
> and Windows XP PRO. Here I selected Option 1 since it only gave
> me one.
>
> It asked for administrator password, where I hit ENTER as usual.
>
> It got me to another prompt, where I entered 'fixboot'.... Not much
> happened, and I think I simply rebooted. When it came back up,
> (I had removed all floppies hoping it would recognize the XP PRO CD
> which I had placed in the CD drive,) it stopped instead someplace
> along the line with the DOS-type error message 'ntldr is missing'.
> So it seems to want an NT loader... (you said that some operation
> has replaced but did not delete the NT boot loader).
>
> I'm not sure of the exact sequence of what happened, but I did record
> all of the above. I hope you can follow my steps and give me a
follow-on
> sequence to continue with. Right now I am comfortable up to where I
> hit 'R' and then entered 'fixboot'.......so I'd like what to do from
there.
> W B L
>
> "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
>
> > For whichever reason, you cannot boot the CD. You have to use the
boot
> > floppies. The Recovery Console is the first option to "repair".
Select
> > "repair" instead of "install".
> >
> > The description of the Windows 98 logo screen indicates that somehow
a
> > "sys c:" was done on the drive in trouble from a w98 bootable
floppy.
> > This replaced (but did not delete) the NT boot loader. You should
simply
> > have to issue the RC command "fixboot" to replace the DOS boot
loader
> > with the NT boot loader code in the boot sector. Everything else
should
> > be fine. If a partition has gone missing, then a "fixmbr" is
necessary.
> > You can check these settings in RC.
> >
> > You might want to read Help and Support Center about Recovery
Console
> > (and later "recovery options") and print out the RC commands before
you
> > boot into RC.
> >
> > As you can see "my XP won't boot" requires very careful description
of
> > your boot environment before good advice can be given.
> >
> > --
> > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> >
> > "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > >
> > >
> > > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Insert the CD and boot the system.
> > >
> > > I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because the
CD
> > does not
> > > reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it is
not
> > any
> > > kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen
briefly,
> > > and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen inventory
of
> > things,
> > > and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final line
> > reads
> > > "C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.
> > C:\windows\command.com)"
> > > and the C> again,
> > > and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which it
will
> > take.
> > > It just repeats that line.
> > >
> > > > I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you feel
it
> > will
> > > lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as one
of
> > the
> > > three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to
proceed,
> > > following the information I've given above.
>
> --
>
> William B. Lurie
>
>

[William B. Lurie]

Kent, I wil try to do as you suggest, but I've found that the last
repair trials have made it so that now I cannot access, on the
Slave running as a slave, the XP system either. When we started this,
I could, but couldn't access the 98. And of course couldn't boot
to that drive at all when it was running solo. I'm almost ready to
believe that this is, to coin a phrase, "bigger than both of us".

I started this mainly because I felt that XP PRO on a drive only
6 GB in size would eventually run out o space. That's my present
Master. My Slave is 13 GB with 9 GB intended for XP. Having
a 98 partition was really to accomodate some older engineering
programs (in APL) that won't run under XP.

I fear that I've lost the 98, and maybe the XP on Slave too. Maybe I
should just make a new Slave drive by reformatting the whole 13 GB
drive an start all over again (ugh!) with new XP, and reinstall all the
programs (ugh!), and do the same with the 98. Each on its own hard drive,
alone, and never partition again. I'm personally of the opinion that this
mess would never have occurred if that Slave drive were not split.

You've suggested I try once more. Maybe this try will be successful.
Sunday is a long day.
Bill Lurie

"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> The operation I mentioned was a "sys c:" but it would appear that ntldr
> and possibly ntdetect.com and boot.ini were all deleted or cannot be
> read.
>
> Enter Recovery Console again (sigh) and copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from
> your CD to the root of C:. Those files should be in \i386 on the CD or
> on the XP C: drive.
>
> C:\>copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
> C:\>copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
>
> where D is the CD drive.
>
> Change attributes on copied files
>
> C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntldr
> C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntdetect.com
>
> To recover boot.ini, run "bootcfg /rebuild".
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Proceeding as instructed, I first read quite a bit of the Help and
> > Support....and then did the six-floppy setup. At end, I chose R
> > option for Repair. Recovery Console gave me only one option
> > as to which system to correct..... D:\WINDOWS ...... I mention
> > this because on that drive there were two systems. I believe that
> > when it was dual-booting happily, I could choose between WINDOWS
> > and Windows XP PRO. Here I selected Option 1 since it only gave
> > me one.
> >
> > It asked for administrator password, where I hit ENTER as usual.
> >
> > It got me to another prompt, where I entered 'fixboot'.... Not much
> > happened, and I think I simply rebooted. When it came back up,
> > (I had removed all floppies hoping it would recognize the XP PRO CD
> > which I had placed in the CD drive,) it stopped instead someplace
> > along the line with the DOS-type error message 'ntldr is missing'.
> > So it seems to want an NT loader... (you said that some operation
> > has replaced but did not delete the NT boot loader).
> >
> > I'm not sure of the exact sequence of what happened, but I did record
> > all of the above. I hope you can follow my steps and give me a
> follow-on
> > sequence to continue with. Right now I am comfortable up to where I
> > hit 'R' and then entered 'fixboot'.......so I'd like what to do from
> there.
> > W B L
> >
> > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> > > For whichever reason, you cannot boot the CD. You have to use the
> boot
> > > floppies. The Recovery Console is the first option to "repair".
> Select
> > > "repair" instead of "install".
> > >
> > > The description of the Windows 98 logo screen indicates that somehow
> a
> > > "sys c:" was done on the drive in trouble from a w98 bootable
> floppy.
> > > This replaced (but did not delete) the NT boot loader. You should
> simply
> > > have to issue the RC command "fixboot" to replace the DOS boot
> loader
> > > with the NT boot loader code in the boot sector. Everything else
> should
> > > be fine. If a partition has gone missing, then a "fixmbr" is
> necessary.
> > > You can check these settings in RC.
> > >
> > > You might want to read Help and Support Center about Recovery
> Console
> > > (and later "recovery options") and print out the RC commands before
> you
> > > boot into RC.
> > >
> > > As you can see "my XP won't boot" requires very careful description
> of
> > > your boot environment before good advice can be given.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> > >
> > > "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> > > ...
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Insert the CD and boot the system.
> > > >
> > > > I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because the
> CD
> > > does not
> > > > reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it is
> not
> > > any
> > > > kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen
> briefly,
> > > > and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen inventory
> of
> > > things,
> > > > and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final line
> > > reads
> > > > "C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.
> > > C:\windows\command.com)"
> > > > and the C> again,
> > > > and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which it
> will
> > > take.
> > > > It just repeats that line.
> > > >
> > > > > I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you feel
> it
> > > will
> > > > lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as one
> of
> > > the
> > > > three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to
> proceed,
> > > > following the information I've given above.
> >
> > --
> >
> > William B. Lurie
> >
> >

--

William B. Lurie

[William B. Lurie]

Well, Kent, I agree with the (sigh). I followed instructions, went to RC,
was unable to locate ntdlr on any drive anywhere. I put in the CD and
tried just to see what is on it, to try to find \i386 without success. They
may be,
as you say, on the XP C: drive (presumably my good drive) but I don't
have anything available when I'm running the damaged drive all alone,
except for floppy and CD ROM drives. When I get to RC, I can get
D:\WINDOWS >and a non-blinking prompt dot and really can't
go anywhere from there.

Fixing this hard drive is getting to be more work than reformatting
the whole drive and (ugh again) reinstalling all the many programs.
I wish there existed a decent COPY program which would simply copy
the whole Master drive over to a newly formatted drive. If XP Pro
provides such a utility, I'd love to hear about it. Meanwhile, you probably
feel that we've just about exhausted all possibility of resuscitating my
broken hard drive, and I wouldn't blame you for giving up.

W B L
-------------------------------------------------------
"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> The operation I mentioned was a "sys c:" but it would appear that ntldr
> and possibly ntdetect.com and boot.ini were all deleted or cannot be
> read.
>
> Enter Recovery Console again (sigh) and copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from
> your CD to the root of C:. Those files should be in \i386 on the CD or
> on the XP C: drive.
>
> C:\>copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
> C:\>copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
>
> where D is the CD drive.
>
> Change attributes on copied files
>
> C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntldr
> C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntdetect.com
>
> To recover boot.ini, run "bootcfg /rebuild".
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Proceeding as instructed, I first read quite a bit of the Help and
> > Support....and then did the six-floppy setup. At end, I chose R
> > option for Repair. Recovery Console gave me only one option
> > as to which system to correct..... D:\WINDOWS ...... I mention
> > this because on that drive there were two systems. I believe that
> > when it was dual-booting happily, I could choose between WINDOWS
> > and Windows XP PRO. Here I selected Option 1 since it only gave
> > me one.
> >
> > It asked for administrator password, where I hit ENTER as usual.
> >
> > It got me to another prompt, where I entered 'fixboot'.... Not much
> > happened, and I think I simply rebooted. When it came back up,
> > (I had removed all floppies hoping it would recognize the XP PRO CD
> > which I had placed in the CD drive,) it stopped instead someplace
> > along the line with the DOS-type error message 'ntldr is missing'.
> > So it seems to want an NT loader... (you said that some operation
> > has replaced but did not delete the NT boot loader).
> >
> > I'm not sure of the exact sequence of what happened, but I did record
> > all of the above. I hope you can follow my steps and give me a
> follow-on
> > sequence to continue with. Right now I am comfortable up to where I
> > hit 'R' and then entered 'fixboot'.......so I'd like what to do from
> there.
> > W B L
> >
> > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> > > For whichever reason, you cannot boot the CD. You have to use the
> boot
> > > floppies. The Recovery Console is the first option to "repair".
> Select
> > > "repair" instead of "install".
> > >
> > > The description of the Windows 98 logo screen indicates that somehow
> a
> > > "sys c:" was done on the drive in trouble from a w98 bootable
> floppy.
> > > This replaced (but did not delete) the NT boot loader. You should
> simply
> > > have to issue the RC command "fixboot" to replace the DOS boot
> loader
> > > with the NT boot loader code in the boot sector. Everything else
> should
> > > be fine. If a partition has gone missing, then a "fixmbr" is
> necessary.
> > > You can check these settings in RC.
> > >
> > > You might want to read Help and Support Center about Recovery
> Console
> > > (and later "recovery options") and print out the RC commands before
> you
> > > boot into RC.
> > >
> > > As you can see "my XP won't boot" requires very careful description
> of
> > > your boot environment before good advice can be given.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> > >
> > > "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> > > ...
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Insert the CD and boot the system.
> > > >
> > > > I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because the
> CD
> > > does not
> > > > reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it is
> not
> > > any
> > > > kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen
> briefly,
> > > > and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen inventory
> of
> > > things,
> > > > and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final line
> > > reads
> > > > "C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.
> > > C:\windows\command.com)"
> > > > and the C> again,
> > > > and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which it
> will
> > > take.
> > > > It just repeats that line.
> > > >
> > > > > I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you feel
> it
> > > will
> > > > lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as one
> of
> > > the
> > > > three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to
> proceed,
> > > > following the information I've given above.
> >
> > --
> >
> > William B. Lurie
> >
> >

--

William B. Lurie

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

You would benefit from a copy of Drive Image or some other imaging
software, but I urge you to check out BootIt Next Generation
(www.bootitng.com) This program is inexpensive, but it manages your
multi-booting for you, it can hide partitions and it comes with its own
imaging feature. If not BING, look at PartitionMagic. It's more
expensive and less powerful but many say it's easier to use than BING.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
...
> Well, Kent, I agree with the (sigh). I followed instructions, went to
RC,
> was unable to locate ntdlr on any drive anywhere. I put in the CD and
> tried just to see what is on it, to try to find \i386 without success.
They
> may be,
> as you say, on the XP C: drive (presumably my good drive) but I don't
> have anything available when I'm running the damaged drive all alone,
> except for floppy and CD ROM drives. When I get to RC, I can get
> D:\WINDOWS >and a non-blinking prompt dot and really can't
> go anywhere from there.
>
> Fixing this hard drive is getting to be more work than reformatting
> the whole drive and (ugh again) reinstalling all the many programs.
> I wish there existed a decent COPY program which would simply copy
> the whole Master drive over to a newly formatted drive. If XP Pro
> provides such a utility, I'd love to hear about it. Meanwhile, you
probably
> feel that we've just about exhausted all possibility of resuscitating
my
> broken hard drive, and I wouldn't blame you for giving up.
>
> W B L
> -------------------------------------------------------
> "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
>
> > The operation I mentioned was a "sys c:" but it would appear that
ntldr
> > and possibly ntdetect.com and boot.ini were all deleted or cannot be
> > read.
> >
> > Enter Recovery Console again (sigh) and copy ntldr and ntdetect.com
from
> > your CD to the root of C:. Those files should be in \i386 on the CD
or
> > on the XP C: drive.
> >
> > C:\>copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
> > C:\>copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
> >
> > where D is the CD drive.
> >
> > Change attributes on copied files
> >
> > C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntldr
> > C:\>attrib +H +S C:\ntdetect.com
> >
> > To recover boot.ini, run "bootcfg /rebuild".
> >
> > --
> > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> >
> > "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > Proceeding as instructed, I first read quite a bit of the Help and
> > > Support....and then did the six-floppy setup. At end, I chose R
> > > option for Repair. Recovery Console gave me only one option
> > > as to which system to correct..... D:\WINDOWS ...... I mention
> > > this because on that drive there were two systems. I believe that
> > > when it was dual-booting happily, I could choose between WINDOWS
> > > and Windows XP PRO. Here I selected Option 1 since it only gave
> > > me one.
> > >
> > > It asked for administrator password, where I hit ENTER as usual.
> > >
> > > It got me to another prompt, where I entered 'fixboot'.... Not
much
> > > happened, and I think I simply rebooted. When it came back up,
> > > (I had removed all floppies hoping it would recognize the XP PRO
CD
> > > which I had placed in the CD drive,) it stopped instead someplace
> > > along the line with the DOS-type error message 'ntldr is
missing'.
> > > So it seems to want an NT loader... (you said that some operation
> > > has replaced but did not delete the NT boot loader).
> > >
> > > I'm not sure of the exact sequence of what happened, but I did
record
> > > all of the above. I hope you can follow my steps and give me a
> > follow-on
> > > sequence to continue with. Right now I am comfortable up to where
I
> > > hit 'R' and then entered 'fixboot'.......so I'd like what to do
from
> > there.
> > > W B L
> > >
> > > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> > >
> > > > For whichever reason, you cannot boot the CD. You have to use
the
> > boot
> > > > floppies. The Recovery Console is the first option to "repair".
> > Select
> > > > "repair" instead of "install".
> > > >
> > > > The description of the Windows 98 logo screen indicates that
somehow
> > a
> > > > "sys c:" was done on the drive in trouble from a w98 bootable
> > floppy.
> > > > This replaced (but did not delete) the NT boot loader. You
should
> > simply
> > > > have to issue the RC command "fixboot" to replace the DOS boot
> > loader
> > > > with the NT boot loader code in the boot sector. Everything else
> > should
> > > > be fine. If a partition has gone missing, then a "fixmbr" is
> > necessary.
> > > > You can check these settings in RC.
> > > >
> > > > You might want to read Help and Support Center about Recovery
> > Console
> > > > (and later "recovery options") and print out the RC commands
before
> > you
> > > > boot into RC.
> > > >
> > > > As you can see "my XP won't boot" requires very careful
description
> > of
> > > > your boot environment before good advice can be given.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> > > >
> > > > "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> > > > ...
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Insert the CD and boot the system.
> > > > >
> > > > > I am not able to get to the step you indicate below, because
the
> > CD
> > > > does not
> > > > > reboot.The CD is my Master Installation CD for XP Pro.....it
is
> > not
> > > > any
> > > > > kind of a recovery CD. It flashes the Windows 98 Logo screen
> > briefly,
> > > > > and then reverts to the white on black DOS-like screen
inventory
> > of
> > > > things,
> > > > > and at the bottom it says (twice) Boot from CD, and the final
line
> > > > reads
> > > > > "C> Type the name of the command interpreter (e.g.
> > > > C:\windows\command.com)"
> > > > > and the C> again,
> > > > > and from there I have not yet found anything I can enter which
it
> > will
> > > > take.
> > > > > It just repeats that line.
> > > > >
> > > > > > I would be happy to boot using the 6-floppy boot set if you
feel
> > it
> > > > will
> > > > > lead me to a Recovery Console. I do not recall seeing that as
one
> > of
> > > > the
> > > > > three options the last time I ran them. Please tell me how to
> > proceed,
> > > > > following the information I've given above.
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > William B. Lurie
> > >
> > >
>
> --
>
> William B. Lurie
>
>