Cloned boot drive boots to windows, then automatically logs me off -- Help!

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I've got a dual-boot system (Windows 2000 Pro & Slackware).

I'm trying to upgrade my main drive in my laptop from a 40GB to 60GB drive.
I've tried cloning the old drive using both DriveImage 7 and just using
my Linux boot CD to make a 1-to-1 copy (the second, I know, is not a good
strategy, given different disk geometries).

What happens when Windows boots (and it *does* boot) on the cloned drive is,
it gets to the login screen, I log in, and then, after some disk access,
it says "Saving settings" and then gives me the login screen again.

Anybody seen this behavior? I'm assuming it can't find some important
system files, but I don't see why it would boot in the first place if
it couldn't find them.

My setup is as follows:

C: FAT Primary partition with BootMagic on it
D: Windows 2000 Pro partition (NTFS) (logical)
E: NTFS partition (logical)
- Linux boot partition (logical)
- Linux Swap partition (logical)
- Linux partition (logical)

Linux boots without any problems (of course :-) ).

Any ideas out there?

- Tim

P.S. For the cross-posted linux groups, I ask here because many of you use
a dual-boot scenario, and may have encountered this before.

--
 
Try MBRtool and have a reset the diskmanager signature bytes.

So far, 8 out of 10 it works.

Joep

--
D I Y D a t a R e c o v e r y . N L - Data & Disaster Recovery Tools

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl
http://www.diydatarecovery.com

Please include previous correspondence!

DiskPatch - MBR, Partition, boot sector repair and recovery.
iRecover - FAT, FAT32 and NTFS data recovery.
MBRtool - Freeware MBR backup and restore.
 
It sounds to me like Windows cannot locate any swapfile at all.

You may be able to boot the machine up to the login prompt and then use
another machine to attach to the registry remotely and modify the following
key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management

You want to change the PagingFiles value to reflect a currently-available
location and size.

Also, this value is of type RegMultiSZ, so you will need to use regedt32.exe
to modify it (unless you use Windows XP, where RegEdit contains this
functionality).

Regards

Oli
 
It sounds to me like Windows cannot locate any swapfile at all.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention -- when I cloned the drive using DriveImage 7, I
had this behavior, but no error messages.

However, when I did a straight disk copy from my Linux boot CD,
I got a message about the paging file being not large enough,
and instructions on how to modify it. All the same, it started
to log me in, then logged me out.

Is the paging file known to Windows by a block offset rather than
a filename (even though it appears as a regular file in NTFS)?
You may be able to boot the machine up to the login prompt and then use
another machine to attach to the registry remotely and modify the following
key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management

You want to change the PagingFiles value to reflect a currently-available
location and size.

Also, this value is of type RegMultiSZ, so you will need to use regedt32.exe
to modify it (unless you use Windows XP, where RegEdit contains this
functionality).
Click to expand...

I wonder why, if I did a straight copy, it wouldn't work... perhaps
drive-letter assignment isn't happening as expected? I'll research paging
file setup on Win2K, anyway. Thanks!

- Tim

--
 
In comp.os.linux.misc Spammay Blockay said:
Anybody seen this behavior?
Click to expand...

Yes, I saw it many times with other cloning tools. Solution: slap
a Windows CD in and reinstall Windows. Or just throw the bloody
Wincrap away.

Davide
 
Yes, I saw it many times with other cloning tools. Solution: slap
a Windows CD in and reinstall Windows. Or just throw the bloody
Wincrap away.
Click to expand...

Can't do either of those -- too much already on my Windows installation
(updates, mods, etc.). And I'm a software developer, and, sorry to say,
the Windows-based tools *are* generally better than current Linux and
Java-based tools. I've used 'em both. I *do* have Cygwin, tho'. :-)

- Tim

--
 
Spammay said:
Can't do either of those -- too much already on my Windows installation
(updates, mods, etc.).  And I'm a software developer, and, sorry to say,
the Windows-based tools are generally better than current Linux and
Java-based tools.  I've used 'em both.  I do have Cygwin, tho'. :-)
Click to expand...

.... if you're a *developer*, then the ONLY REAL solution is
to run winders under VMWare with Linux as the host. no more
duel-booting. install winOS, then all your tools, all the
patches, then, save off the image file someplace. when winOS
cr@ps out, copy over the saved-off image and voila', you're
back in business. plus you have the added advantage of adding
other OSes too, such as other Linuxes.

BTW, dont x-post to more than a couple of newsgroups
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
ADA, n.: Something you need only know the name of to be an Expert
in Computing. Useful in sentences like, "We had better develop
an ADA awareness."
 
... if you're a *developer*, then the ONLY REAL solution is
to run winders under VMWare with Linux as the host. no more
duel-booting. install winOS, then all your tools, all the
patches, then, save off the image file someplace. when winOS
cr@ps out, copy over the saved-off image and voila', you're
back in business. plus you have the added advantage of adding
other OSes too, such as other Linuxes.
Click to expand...

Naw, emulation's too slow for me. But thanks anyway. :-)
BTW, dont x-post to more than a couple of newsgroups
Click to expand...

If the newsgroups were unrelated, I could understand that. But they're
all possible sources of wisdom on the subject, and I so rarely crosspost
that I feel perfectly fine about it. <uselessBragging> 25 years on Usenet
should allow me SOME occasional priviledges </uselessBragging>

- Tim

--
 
This issue is occurring because the drive letter for the boot partition has
changed.

Run through the steps listed in the following article to resolve the issue:

249321 Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=249321

To prevent this issue from occurring in the future, delete the following key
in the registry before you create the image:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

For more information about the MountedDevices key, please refer to the
following article:

234048 How Windows 2000 Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=234048


Jeff Patterson
Microsoft Support
 
Spammay Blockay said:
Can't do either of those -- too much already on my Windows installation
(updates, mods, etc.). And I'm a software developer, and, sorry to say,
the Windows-based tools *are* generally better than current Linux and
Java-based tools. I've used 'em both. I *do* have Cygwin, tho'. :-)
Click to expand...

*WRONG* newsgroups for this, guys. Pick a group to followup to, and please
get it off the Linux newsgroups, although some of your most knowledgable
people will be there.

I'd recommend taking the Windows installation CD and doing an "Upgrade" with
it. In many cases of corrupted messes, this will reset enough of the core OS
but leave many if not all of the software and settings installed after the
fact unbroken.

And definitely take the disk out and do a *REAL* backup of the core data to
another machine or a tape drive or CD, first.
 
I've got a dual-boot system (Windows 2000 Pro & Slackware).

I'm trying to upgrade my main drive in my laptop from a 40GB to 60GB drive.
I've tried cloning the old drive using both DriveImage 7 and just using
my Linux boot CD to make a 1-to-1 copy (the second, I know, is not a good
strategy, given different disk geometries).

What happens when Windows boots (and it *does* boot) on the cloned drive is,
it gets to the login screen, I log in, and then, after some disk access,
it says "Saving settings" and then gives me the login screen again.

Anybody seen this behavior? I'm assuming it can't find some important
system files, but I don't see why it would boot in the first place if
it couldn't find them.
Click to expand...

It depends on how files are accessed, relative paths should work, but
once you stumble on a file addressed by a full path (with drive letter)
you're sunk.
P.S. For the cross-posted linux groups, I ask here because many of you use
a dual-boot scenario, and may have encountered this before.
Click to expand...

I've seen it. AFTER YOU CLONE THE DISK, YOU NEED TO SHUT DOWN AND
REMOVE THE CLONE. If you boot windows without doing so it will change
the drive letters on the second disk.

You need to do a secondary install, boot from it and change the affected
partitions to their previous drive letters.

One of many problems with drive letters. (Interestingly, if you have
telnet enabled on W2K, you can log in, which is how I found the problem.
The solution was found on the MS Knowledge Base.)

Michael C.
 
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