re dual boot

[S.L.NARASIMHAM]

my friend has xp loaded on a 10gb hdd.bought a new 80gb hdd. loaded xp on
it. so far fine. hdd formatted as c: 6.7gb with xp installed (fat32); d:e:f:
g: each 17gb formatted with fat32.
installed other applns. as needed.
connected the old hdd as slave and copied files and folders to the new hdd.
it had 3 partitions and now the partitions read c:xp d:xp(old drive) e: f:
g: h; i: j:.
installed Win Me on E:
removed the old drive after a shut down and reboot.
repaired the bootsect .dos after running Me as instructed in " repair xp
after win98/me install" from dougknox's site.
now the boot menu shows xp and me as options but doesnot load me and the
bootsect.dos when opened with notepad shows some symbols and says ntldr not
present etc.
what is to be done now to repair this botched install?

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Ok, the one thing I see is that when he added the old drive back into the
mix, it got letter D, where D was previously assigned to one of the
partitions on the new drive. If the drive letters changed again, after
Win ME was installed, then its no longer on E:, probably D:. And the
BOOTSECT.DOS file is pointing to the wrong partition. All he should need to
do is reinstall Me and repair the XP boot loader following the instructions
again, WITHOUT the old drive installed.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Associate Expert
ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"S.L.NARASIMHAM" > wrote in message
...
> my friend has xp loaded on a 10gb hdd.bought a new 80gb hdd. loaded xp on
> it. so far fine. hdd formatted as c: 6.7gb with xp installed (fat32);
d:e:f:
> g: each 17gb formatted with fat32.
> installed other applns. as needed.
> connected the old hdd as slave and copied files and folders to the new
hdd.
> it had 3 partitions and now the partitions read c:xp d:xp(old drive) e: f:
> g: h; i: j:.
> installed Win Me on E:
> removed the old drive after a shut down and reboot.
> repaired the bootsect .dos after running Me as instructed in " repair xp
> after win98/me install" from dougknox's site.
> now the boot menu shows xp and me as options but doesnot load me and the
> bootsect.dos when opened with notepad shows some symbols and says ntldr
not
> present etc.
> what is to be done now to repair this botched install?
>
>
>

[S.L.NARASIMHAM]

ok! so far it is clear. but later, if the old drive is added with a os
either xp or linux according to his son, what will happen to the drive
assignment and boot files?
what is to be done in such a case?
btw i used the procedure outlined in your page and it worked well in my
brother's system.
s.l.narasimham.
ps: i didnot donate anything to the foundation but that week i treated 4
diabetics free and told them that it was in return of the help recd from
faraway america( i am in a semiurban location in india.)
S.L.Narasimham
"Doug Knox MS-MVP" > wrote in message
...
> Ok, the one thing I see is that when he added the old drive back into the
> mix, it got letter D, where D was previously assigned to one of the
> partitions on the new drive. If the drive letters changed again, after
> Win ME was installed, then its no longer on E:, probably D:. And the
> BOOTSECT.DOS file is pointing to the wrong partition. All he should need
to
> do is reinstall Me and repair the XP boot loader following the
instructions
> again, WITHOUT the old drive installed.
>
> --
> Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
> Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
> http://www.dougknox.com
> --------------------------------
> Associate Expert
> ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> --------------------------------
> Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
> Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.
>
> "S.L.NARASIMHAM" > wrote in message
> ...
> > my friend has xp loaded on a 10gb hdd.bought a new 80gb hdd. loaded xp
on
> > it. so far fine. hdd formatted as c: 6.7gb with xp installed (fat32);
> d:e:f:
> > g: each 17gb formatted with fat32.
> > installed other applns. as needed.
> > connected the old hdd as slave and copied files and folders to the new
> hdd.
> > it had 3 partitions and now the partitions read c:xp d:xp(old drive) e:
f:
> > g: h; i: j:.
> > installed Win Me on E:
> > removed the old drive after a shut down and reboot.
> > repaired the bootsect .dos after running Me as instructed in " repair
xp
> > after win98/me install" from dougknox's site.
> > now the boot menu shows xp and me as options but doesnot load me and the
> > bootsect.dos when opened with notepad shows some symbols and says ntldr
> not
> > present etc.
> > what is to be done now to repair this botched install?
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

I actually find it unusual that an added drive got a letter that was already
assigned. XP hasn't done that on any of my sytems. It will know that the D:
drive, for example, has already been assigned and will assign an unused
letter.

Now, booting into Me is a different story, since it uses DOS to assign drive
letters, and DOS doesn't remember anything. It assigns drive letters in the
following order:

Primary Master
Secondary Master
Primary Slave
Secondary Slave
Logical Partitions on the Primary Master drive
Logical Partitions on the Secondary Master drive
Logical Partitions on the Primary Slave drive
Logical Partitions on the Secondary Slave drive
CD drives

So if the computer had a Primary Master and Primary Slave drive, and you
added a Secondary Master, the Primary Slave drive, and all others after it
would be changed. The best bet in this case is to install Me on the
Secondary Master, that way it would always come up as D.

You can also use 3rd party boot managers, like BootIt Next Generation,
www.bootitng.com This utility will allow you to create boot menu items,
hide partitions from one another, and even rearrange the way the operating
system sees the partitions (via the Boot Menu Items), to work around this
limitation.

And as for the donation, your treating the four diabetic patients free of
charge is a very adequate donation in its own right :-) Thank you!!

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Associate Expert
ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"S.L.NARASIMHAM" > wrote in message
...
> ok! so far it is clear. but later, if the old drive is added with a os
> either xp or linux according to his son, what will happen to the drive
> assignment and boot files?
> what is to be done in such a case?
> btw i used the procedure outlined in your page and it worked well in my
> brother's system.
> s.l.narasimham.
> ps: i didnot donate anything to the foundation but that week i treated 4
> diabetics free and told them that it was in return of the help recd from
> faraway america( i am in a semiurban location in india.)
> S.L.Narasimham
> "Doug Knox MS-MVP" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Ok, the one thing I see is that when he added the old drive back into
the
> > mix, it got letter D, where D was previously assigned to one of the
> > partitions on the new drive. If the drive letters changed again,
after
> > Win ME was installed, then its no longer on E:, probably D:. And the
> > BOOTSECT.DOS file is pointing to the wrong partition. All he should
need
> to
> > do is reinstall Me and repair the XP boot loader following the
> instructions
> > again, WITHOUT the old drive installed.
> >
> > --
> > Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
> > Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
> > http://www.dougknox.com
> > --------------------------------
> > Associate Expert
> > ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> > --------------------------------
> > Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
> > Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.
> >
> > "S.L.NARASIMHAM" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > my friend has xp loaded on a 10gb hdd.bought a new 80gb hdd. loaded xp
> on
> > > it. so far fine. hdd formatted as c: 6.7gb with xp installed (fat32);
> > d:e:f:
> > > g: each 17gb formatted with fat32.
> > > installed other applns. as needed.
> > > connected the old hdd as slave and copied files and folders to the new
> > hdd.
> > > it had 3 partitions and now the partitions read c:xp d:xp(old drive)
e:
> f:
> > > g: h; i: j:.
> > > installed Win Me on E:
> > > removed the old drive after a shut down and reboot.
> > > repaired the bootsect .dos after running Me as instructed in " repair
> xp
> > > after win98/me install" from dougknox's site.
> > > now the boot menu shows xp and me as options but doesnot load me and
the
> > > bootsect.dos when opened with notepad shows some symbols and says
ntldr
> > not
> > > present etc.
> > > what is to be done now to repair this botched install?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>