Boot problem and MBR

  • Thread starter Thread starter Netmasker
  • Start date Start date
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Netmasker

My system was running the following OS's

- windows 2000 Server (c:)
- windows 2003 Server (d:)

I just installed
- windows 2000 proffesional in a free disk partition (e:)

and now I can not boot windows 2003 Server (with windows 2000 server is ok).

I booted with windows 2003 server cd-rom and from the recovery console I
made a "fixboot" but it didn't work. I don't have an Emergency Repair Disk
also.

What if I use the "fixmbr" command ? It warns me that it may destroy the
partitions table.
Should I use the "fixmbr" command or what else???

Any other help appreciated!
TIA
 
Netmasker said:
My system was running the following OS's

- windows 2000 Server (c:)
- windows 2003 Server (d:)

I just installed
- windows 2000 proffesional in a free disk partition (e:)

and now I can not boot windows 2003 Server (with windows 2000 server is
ok).

I booted with windows 2003 server cd-rom and from the recovery console I
made a "fixboot" but it didn't work. I don't have an Emergency Repair Disk
also.

What if I use the "fixmbr" command ? It warns me that it may destroy the
partitions table.
Should I use the "fixmbr" command or what else???

Any other help appreciated!
TIA
Click to expand...

Wow!

Greetings Sir,

First idea is that Win2003 is <newer> than 2000 so the Pro, during install,
will write it's own boot loader to the MBR. It doesn't recognize 2003 so
it dropped it out.

What partition scheme do you have? Pri, Pri, Pri? Pri, Pri, Ext? Is 2003
on it's own primary partition?

Why can't you boot 2003? Not available in the list of OSes? BSOD? missing
file(s)?

fixboot deals with the OS files that start the OS loading (such as
ntdetect.com and ntldr) fixmbr deals with when the BIOS passes control to
the MBR on the disk. Rewriting the MBR causes other OSes to "disappear"
because the MBR only points to that one OS. I can't logically see why
using fixmbr will destroy the <partition table> -- it shouldn't be
modifying the table, it should just be modifying the code to start the OS
loader files (what fixboot deals with)

On your C: drive, do you see (may be hidden from view) boot.ini? is it on
one of the other drives? Where is it?

Got a backup? :)

We need more data. Provide and you may obtain enlightenment.


GL, Tim
 
fixmbr re-writes the MBR, fixboot marks one of the partitions as Active and
writes its boot sector.
The system BIOS reads the master boot record (MBR) and loads it into memory.
The system BIOS then transfers the execution of the startup process to the
MBR. After the MBR loads a copy of the active partition's boot sector into
memory, the boot sector code starts the OS as defined by the OS.
 
Tim Judd said:
Wow!

Greetings Sir,

First idea is that Win2003 is <newer> than 2000 so the Pro, during install,
will write it's own boot loader to the MBR. It doesn't recognize 2003 so
it dropped it out.

What partition scheme do you have? Pri, Pri, Pri? Pri, Pri, Ext? Is 2003
on it's own primary partition?

Why can't you boot 2003? Not available in the list of OSes? BSOD? missing
file(s)?

fixboot deals with the OS files that start the OS loading (such as
ntdetect.com and ntldr) fixmbr deals with when the BIOS passes control to
the MBR on the disk. Rewriting the MBR causes other OSes to "disappear"
because the MBR only points to that one OS. I can't logically see why
using fixmbr will destroy the <partition table> -- it shouldn't be
modifying the table, it should just be modifying the code to start the OS
loader files (what fixboot deals with)

On your C: drive, do you see (may be hidden from view) boot.ini? is it on
one of the other drives? Where is it?

Got a backup? :)

We need more data. Provide and you may obtain enlightenment.


GL, Tim
Click to expand...

Tim is right. You have the install the OSes in order from oldest to
newest. Make a copy of the boot.ini files, they're Protected OS files.
Copy the Win2003 boot.ini onto the Win2000 drive, overwriting the
Win2000 boot.ini file.
 
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