Lost Win ME boot sector on updgrade?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dennis Doherty
  • Start date Start date
D

Dennis Doherty

I performed a clean install on W2K Pro on my Win ME
machine. This left me with a dual boot system, which was
fine - except for the fact that there were NO files in the
root directory when I was done! Fortunately, I had another
hd where I had gone through the same exercise, and copied
the root directory files from it, which allowed me to boot
in W2K Pro. However, when I try to boot in Win ME, the
system treats the hd as unbootable.

I didn't really care about keeping ME except for the fact
that I had some education programs that were installed
under subscription, which has since expired. I'd like to
know if anyone can tell me how to get my Win ME boot back,
or how I can migrate my registry so that I can get those
programs to run again.

Thanks for any help you can provide!
 
Sounds like the drive was formatted. You'll need to delete the options you
want removed from the boot.ini, it's a system, hidden file in the root of
the system partition C:\. So you'll need to show-all-files, hidden, system,
in Explorer. You should end up with something like this. The timeout value
is not functional when there is only one startup choice. The line your going
to remove from the boot.ini will be similar to;

C:\="Microsoft Windows"

[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"
/fastdetect


--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| I performed a clean install on W2K Pro on my Win ME
| machine. This left me with a dual boot system, which was
| fine - except for the fact that there were NO files in the
| root directory when I was done! Fortunately, I had another
| hd where I had gone through the same exercise, and copied
| the root directory files from it, which allowed me to boot
| in W2K Pro. However, when I try to boot in Win ME, the
| system treats the hd as unbootable.
|
| I didn't really care about keeping ME except for the fact
| that I had some education programs that were installed
| under subscription, which has since expired. I'd like to
| know if anyone can tell me how to get my Win ME boot back,
| or how I can migrate my registry so that I can get those
| programs to run again.
|
| Thanks for any help you can provide!
 
Dave,

You do great work here - I hope someone pays you for this!

In this particular case, the drive was not formatted,
though it seems to partially behave that way. Only the
files were missing from the root directory, not the
folders. I copied the root directory files from another
similarly configured hd to get Windows 2K to boot - but,
when I try to boot in Windows ME, I get the
message "Invalid system disk - replace and strike any key."

It's not that I'm in love with Windows ME, but I had some
important programs installed under ME. All the files are
there, but I can't run the programs because they weren't
installed under Win 2K. If there was some way to import
them into the Win 2K registry, then getting Win ME back
wouldn't be necessary. I can't reinstall the programs
since the keys were provided to me as part of a
subscription which has since expired.

I'm thinking some important system file is still missing,
but I can't figure out what it might be. Any help you can
provide will be deeply deeply appreciated.

Thanks,

Dennis
-----Original Message-----
Sounds like the drive was formatted. You'll need to delete the options you
want removed from the boot.ini, it's a system, hidden file in the root of
the system partition C:\. So you'll need to show-all- files, hidden, system,
in Explorer. You should end up with something like this. The timeout value
is not functional when there is only one startup choice. The line your going
to remove from the boot.ini will be similar to;

C:\="Microsoft Windows"

[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"
/fastdetect


--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| I performed a clean install on W2K Pro on my Win ME
| machine. This left me with a dual boot system, which was
| fine - except for the fact that there were NO files in the
| root directory when I was done! Fortunately, I had another
| hd where I had gone through the same exercise, and copied
| the root directory files from it, which allowed me to boot
| in W2K Pro. However, when I try to boot in Win ME, the
| system treats the hd as unbootable.
|
| I didn't really care about keeping ME except for the fact
| that I had some education programs that were installed
| under subscription, which has since expired. I'd like to
| know if anyone can tell me how to get my Win ME boot back,
| or how I can migrate my registry so that I can get those
| programs to run again.
|
| Thanks for any help you can provide!


.
Click to expand...
 
Can you start WinME if you boot with your WinME startup disk? The registry
structures are completely different so importing from one OS to the other
wouldn't be possible.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| You do great work here - I hope someone pays you for this!
|
| In this particular case, the drive was not formatted,
| though it seems to partially behave that way. Only the
| files were missing from the root directory, not the
| folders. I copied the root directory files from another
| similarly configured hd to get Windows 2K to boot - but,
| when I try to boot in Windows ME, I get the
| message "Invalid system disk - replace and strike any key."
|
| It's not that I'm in love with Windows ME, but I had some
| important programs installed under ME. All the files are
| there, but I can't run the programs because they weren't
| installed under Win 2K. If there was some way to import
| them into the Win 2K registry, then getting Win ME back
| wouldn't be necessary. I can't reinstall the programs
| since the keys were provided to me as part of a
| subscription which has since expired.
|
| I'm thinking some important system file is still missing,
| but I can't figure out what it might be. Any help you can
| provide will be deeply deeply appreciated.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Dennis
 
Dave,

That was an interesting idea... unfortunately, for some
reason my WinME startup disk just gets me to a DOS prompt,
from which I can run diagnostics.

Do you know if it's possible to merge a registry from one
WinME disk to another? I have another dual-boot system,
same configuration, and I can mount the problem hard drive
as a secondary drive.

Thanks very much for all your help.

Best Regards,
Dennis
 
You'll want to ask in a win9x group. The '9Xish' and the 'NTish' registries
are greatly different. However I still suspect it wouldn't work reliably.
Also ask them how to start the OS from the floppy. I'm afraid it's been far
too long for me to remember these things.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| That was an interesting idea... unfortunately, for some
| reason my WinME startup disk just gets me to a DOS prompt,
| from which I can run diagnostics.
|
| Do you know if it's possible to merge a registry from one
| WinME disk to another? I have another dual-boot system,
| same configuration, and I can mount the problem hard drive
| as a secondary drive.
|
| Thanks very much for all your help.
|
| Best Regards,
| Dennis
 
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