Dual-boot, driveletters, and formatting

[packman 0]

I currently run a dualboot setup of Win2K and WinXP, both using the NT file system. Win2K is on partition C, there are two logical partitions D and E, and WinXP is on partition F.

 

I now want to format (not delete, format) partition C, using the Win2K Setup on the Win2K installation CD. The idea is to eradicate all that I currently have on partition C and to reinstall Win2K and some of my apps on C again. WinXP and the two logical partitions will remain unaltered.

 

So, in the Setup for Win2K, it'll be easy enough to format C but, in so doing. will the driveletters of the Win2K and WinXP partitions change? Bear in mind that we'd still be in the Setup for Win2K and that therefore we wouldn't have rebooted with the new Win2K yet.

 

I'm simply wondering if, while still in the Setup, C might become F, and F might become C. Will it?

 

The sequence would be: format C, install Win2K on C, before then booting back into Win2k.

 

It seems to me that, if the driveletters do get swapped over, there'll be no way of changing them back (I don't want to involve any third-party utilities).

 

Or would the fact that I would be formatting the C partition - and specifically not deleting it - preserve the original order of the driveletters? In other words, does deleting only cause the driveletters to change?

 

[DosFreak 2]

Drive letters will be the same. You have to boot from the XP CD and go into the recovery console to repair your NTLDR/BOOT.INI since when you format your C:\ you'll be wiping those out and the 2K boot files may not be compatible.

 

Why are you dual-booting 2k/XP anyway?

[packman 0]

As long as the new Win2K will boot to screen at the end of the Win2K Setup, it won't be necessary to run the Recovery Console. Instead, all I'd need to do is copy the ntldr and ntdetect.com files from the XP installation CD across into the root of 2K, to replace 2K's versions. I suspect that that's the equivalent of running the Console.

[DosFreak 2]

Yeah, it is. Just didn't know how experienced you were with doing it.

[pezo 0]

Drive letters won't change if you have only one physical drive. Otherwise you have to temporarily disconnect 2nd drive or it becomes drive D: most of the time.

Plus why would you want Win2K and XP on same machine? I could understand if you had win98 or even Millenium.

Xp is basically an updated os of the win2k/NT line as is Vista [NT 6]

 

[DosFreak 2]

Actually if you dual-boot Vista with another MS OS, even if you install Vista on "D:\", when you boot into Vista it will always shows as "C:\" even if it shows as "D:\" in XP/2003. heh.

[packman 0]

Actually, I think there IS a problem here and that is that, irrespective of whichever radical changes I now make to Win2K - either formatting and reinstalling it, or restoring to an earlier version of it that doesn't contain the requisite WinXP boot files - when Win2K then attempts to boot, it will fail, won't it (because it simply won't have, at that stage, the required boot file versions)?

 

I was hitherto thinking that, with the Win2K Setup completed, it would boot immediately to screen, regardless. But I think it will go instead to the boot menu again, but then fail to actually boot.

 

Surely, the method I should use should be to ensure that the boot menu is set to default to WinXP instead and so, when Win2K exits its Setup, I should instead let WinXP boot. Then, in WinXP, I should use Windows Explorer to access the root folder of Win2K, use the WinXP installation CD, and transfer the ntldr and ntdetect files across. Then restart the PC and select to boot into Win2K. Do you agree?

 

As for why I'm dual-booting with Win2K and WinXP, well, I'm (as it were) migrating off of Win2K on to WinXP, having been a Win2K devotee for several years. Really, the main reason why I've recently introduced XP on to my system is that some of my more-recent applications have neither installed properly nor function at best under Win2K, despite the applications being claimed to be also Win2K-compatible. Not only are application-writers making less and less provision for Win2K but also Microsoft themselves are waning in their support for Win2K - even though, historically, Win2K is only about 18 months older than WinXP. So, I've kinda been forced to make the change to WinXP. There are a myriad of other reasons also why I want to keep Win2K for a while yet, but these are very much down to backup design, personal preferences, and niggling differences between the two OSs, and I don't really want to go into all of that in this particular Topic.

[packman 0]

HELP, it's gone wrong!

 

I decided that, rather than format the root (boot) partition and reinstall Win2K into it, I'd try restoring an earlier image of it. That went okay and it booted the earlier Win2K to screen. I then ran the WinXP installation CD and copied the WinXP versions of ntldr and ntdetect.com to the root of Win2K. But when I then rebooted, I didn't get the full menu of Win2K and WinXP. I only got Win2K and its Command Console. How do I regain WinXP? Clearly, the boot.ini file isn't right, now.

 

I vaguely recall that you can use the Command Console to fix the bootfile. Can someone remind me how to do that? Remember that, at present, I'm only able to boot into Win2K. I want to get it so that I see the dualboot menu at startup and that WinXP is the default OS.

 

Actually, the earlier image of Win2K turned out not to be of much use, so later I'll do what I originally intended and completely format the Win2K partition and reinstall Win2K.

[packman 0]

Ugh! I think that, by restoring an earlier image of Win2K, I may have broken a rule that says that you must always install Win2K BEFORE WinXP - or is that only in the case where you don't then copy WinXP's ntldr and ntdetect.com files across to Win2K?

 

Either way, the boot files are now obviously wrong, because the menu at bootup is not showing Windows XP at all and I can't therefore boot into WinXP. Is there any way of correcting this?

 

If I were to restore a WinXP image I made just a day or two ago, would that put matters right, or are the affected boot file(s)actually in a reserved, different part of the hard drive, and therefore not restorable?

 

Incidentally, there's a 'Make Partition Active' setting in Win2K's Disk Management window (when you right-click on that partition) and at present the WinXP partition is non-active. Does this influence this problem?

 

Oh and it's Windows 2K's Command Console that's showing at present in the boot menu, alongside 2K itself.

 

I've just looked at the boot.ini file in Win2K's root and it says:

 

[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

C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Recovery Console" /cmdcons

 

Is it possible to actually edit this, to put matters right? If so, how, exactly? Or do I have to somehow do it using the Command Console?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DosFreak 2]

IIRC, the XP recovery console has some options.

 

FIXMBR - to make the partition bootable

FIXBOOT - IIRC, scans your HD for NT installations and adds them to the boot.ini

 

I think there's another one as well. FIX something.

 

You can always just modify the BOOT.INI yourself.

 

If your XP is on the second partiton then you would just duplicate your 2000 entry but change "partition(1)" to "partition(2)". or "disk" if you have XP on another disk.

 

 

[packman 0]

Thanks for the advice. I'm more inclined to modify the boot.ini myself, as it's not clear to me as to how exactly you're supposed to run FixBoot. For example, do I ignore the current Win2K Recovery Console that I see when the machine boots up? Do I instead boot with the Win2k CD or the WinXP CD and, from that, choose Repair Console? And what commands/changes would I make in that?

 

If I decide to modify Boot.ini, how exactly do I do that? Boot.ini can be viewed in Notepad. So, do I just click on Edit, at the top?

 

Win2K is on C:\, WinXP is actually on F:\. There are two logical partitions, D and E, in between. I'd like to keep it like that. So, I'm not 100% certain of the required syntax for modifying the boot.ini. Would WinXP be regarded as being on partition (2) or partition (4)?

 

Here's my stab at what the modified boot.ini would be. This assumes I'd make WinXP the default OS, rather than WinXP:-

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Recovery Console" /cmdcons

 

To change the default OS, would I have to use 'rem' followed by a space, before the existing line?

 

 

POSTSCRIPT: I've just found something on the Web that suggests that, if I can boot with the system partition (which I can), I could go to Start/Run and then type

 

bootcfg /add

 

Apparently, that causes the system to look for other bootable OSs on the same physical disc and adss them to the boot.ini.

 

Is bootcfg /add known to work?

 

 

 

[packman 0]

Have just discovered that bootcfg can only be run in WinXP.

[packman 0]

Actually, I've now managed to restore (using Ghost) the dualboot setup I originally had and so I can now boot into either WinXP or Win2K.

 

Interestingly, when I look at boot.ini now, it has the line:

 

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

I presume that that variation is to give the user a choice of selecting either operating system when the menu's displayed?

 

Actually, having restored to my more recent Win2K doesn't actually solve the original problem. But I've learnt a fair bit along the way. It rather looks as though my eventual formatting of Win2K and reinstalling it from scratch will render the same tricky result, ie. that although Win2K will then boot, WinXP won't - because Win2K, being the system partition, will not then contain the requisite boot.ini. It looks like the only way I'll be able to manually edit the boot.ini, when the time comes, is to uncover it in Win2K, double-click to open the file in Notepad and then edit it there. I've a few misgivings about that but I suppose I can now spend some time finding out exactly how to do it. I've not edited files like that for decades and can't recall all of the rules.

[packman 0]

Okay, so we have:

 

C: Win2K (primary,system)

D: logical

E: logical

F: WinXP (primary)

 

Would there be any way of simply swapping Win2K and WinXP around? In other words, of putting WinXP on C (making it the system) and Win2K on F? This would need to be done without use of a third-party utility and without losing WinXP.

[pezo 0]

just replace your boot.ini on c: with one that worked from your ghost image that is if you haven't copied it to an essential tool folder which keeps a copy to hand - a trick I learned when I used to dual boot.

You can also edit boot with line you described but don't forget to save as boot.ini

[packman 0]

Pezo,

 

To date, on my PC, I've never run WinXP as the system partition, because WinXP has been a recent addition. So, what Ghost images I do have of WinXP are ones where WinXP is not the system partition. So, if I were to try to restore one of those XP images to the C partition, I'm wondering whether I could ever then get the C partition to boot, quite apart from the fact that F would also contain WinXP and therefore might possibly cause a problem. I could format F before, I suppose, but then I want to avoid that, if at all possible. (Mind you, I could make another image of WinXP, before; I make the images to an external drive).

 

The thing is that, if I can't get WinXP in C to then boot, I won't be able to make any changes with the bootloader files and with boot.ini, to complete the exercise. Do you agree, or am I missing a trick here, somewhere?

 

I still keep wondering about 'Mark Partition as Active', in Disk Management. Know what that does, and whether it could be of use here?

[DosFreak 2]

The Active partition is the one where the system boot files (NTLDR,NTDETECT.COM,BOOT.INI) are located.

 

It must be the first partition on your HD unless your using a 3rd party boot manager to manage your partitions.

 

I've never had a problem editing Boot.ini if the system isn't bootable since I have my handy BartPE disc. IIRC, you cannot open a text editor from the XP Recovery console but running BOOTCFG should find all instances of NT installed and add them to your boot.ini so that should work fine.

[packman 0]

Bootcfg only works on WinXP, not on Win2K. I tried it on Win2K (and it's confirmed in a Microsoft KB article).

 

The problem, as I see it, is that if I delete the C partition in Win2K Setup, yes, WinXP will probably then take its place but it won't contain those bootloader files (or will it?), and because at that point WinXP won't be bootable, how would I be able to edit boot.ini?

 

 

[pezo 0]

To clarify. the boot.ini Should be on your c: partition even in a dual boot environment.

In a dual boot environment it will have the line as already mentioned above giving you option to change which to boot into.

This is the boot.ini that you Need on your c: partition - if you don't then if you have a copy anywhere - replace current with dual boot boot.ini You have to do this either in dos started from a boot floppy/cd or a live cd such as Bart's PE

otherwise cut and paste needed line in same spot in new boot.ini and save as boot.ini then do above if it doesn't show change. It may take trial and error-error but it does work.

[packman 0]

As things stand at present, the system is dualbooting with Win2K as the system partition. Why can't I open Windows in 2K or XP and then, in Windows Explorer, cut and paste the NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI files from 2K to XP. Then, in Disk Management, 'mark the WinXP partition as active', then reboot? Why won't that work? Why won't that give C as WinXP and F as Win2K?

[pezo 0]

windows won't let you modify essential files while in use - thus must be done from dos bootup disk or even a live disk [e.g. bart's PE or minixp PE

For booting drive letters - you maybe able to change them in windows but I don't see any advantage since you should have option of which to boot into at startup