Making a former Slave HD bootable

  • Thread starter Thread starter aa
  • Start date Start date
aa said:
Just as a last hope before I scrap it - suppose it IS letter C. What would
be the options?
Click to expand...

Rather than mucking around with boot sectors etc, boot
the machine with a WinXP boot diskette and see what
you get.
- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Note that the last three lines each start with the word "multi".
If your newsreader wraps them around then you must
unwrap them.

Now boot your machine with this floppy disk and try
each of the three boot options. Remember to instruct
your BIOS to boot off the floppy disk drive!
 
aa said:
Just as a last hope before I scrap it - suppose it IS letter C. What would
be the options?
Click to expand...

By the way, either your clock or your time zone is wrong.
You're posting in the past.
 
You probably have numerous problems. If you're still getting an MBR error
on booting, there is probably a problem with which drive the BIOS is labeling
as the boot device.
 
aa said:
Does XP/w2k automatically format a diskette as a bootable one? I recall that
to make a diskette bootable a special command has to be used but do not
remember which particular one
Click to expand...

Yes, it does make it bootable.
 
aa said:
Does XP/w2k automatically format a diskette as a bootable one? I recall
that
to make a diskette bootable a special command has to be used but do not
remember which particular one
Click to expand...

I note that you're still posting with an incorrect time
stamp. While this is irrelevant with respect to your
attempts at making your disk bootable, I hope that
it is not a reflection of a casual attitude towards
repairing your PC. Unless you carry out my instructions
carefully, you will fail.
 
I note that you're still posting with an incorrect time
stamp. While this is irrelevant with respect to your
attempts at making your disk bootable, I hope that
it is not a reflection of a casual attitude towards
repairing your PC. Unless you carry out my instructions
carefully, you will fail.
Click to expand...
It's not a casual attitude. It's consentration on the problem at hand and
ignoring the rest. I am bad at multitasking. A tunnel vision.
Do you mean my computer clock being 1 min behind? Now it is corrected
(within a reasonable precision)
 
aa said:
It's not a casual attitude. It's consentration on the problem at hand and
ignoring the rest. I am bad at multitasking. A tunnel vision.
Do you mean my computer clock being 1 min behind? Now it is corrected
(within a reasonable precision)
Click to expand...

No, your clock was many hours behind. It's easy to tell because
several answers in this thread were posted ***before*** you
asked the question . . .
 
No, your clock was many hours behind. It's easy to tell because
several answers in this thread were posted ***before*** you
asked the question . . .
Click to expand...

Then the problrm perhaps is with my friend's notebook I use while my PC is
down. He (the friend) came from Moscow, and though he set the UK time on it,
the NG server inteprets it as a Moscow time and adds the time differents (3
hours)
I do not feel like tampering with setting on this computer.
 
Microsoft is well aware of numerous problems, but it opts to igonore them
and dugs the same bags from one version into another for the customers have
no alternatives.
 
By the way, either your clock or your time zone is wrong.
You're posting in the past
Click to expand...

If every OE user, who has commented on this sort of thing in
newsgroups over the years, directed their discontent at Microsoft
instead, MS might, by now, have fixed OE so that it isn't a problem
for their users (i.e. like every other newsreader client out there).
 
Rather than mucking around with boot sectors etc, boot
the machine with a WinXP boot diskette and see what
you get.
- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Note that the last three lines each start with the word "multi".
If your newsreader wraps them around then you must
unwrap them.

Now boot your machine with this floppy disk and try
each of the three boot options. Remember to instruct
your BIOS to boot off the floppy disk drive!
Click to expand...
The trick did not work. I kept receiving the same message about
misconfigured bootable device though in BIOS I set the first, the second and
the third boot device as diskette. It looked as if it simply did not try to
read boot.ini from the diskette.
Do you mean that if ntldr, and ntdetect.com and boot.ini are on a bootable
diskette, the system reads them and acts on them, ignoring similar files on
a hard drive?
 
I finally followed this advice of yours and formated one of the partitions
on that HD and installed XP Home there.
When I booted I noticed that the OS we tried to restore was actually w2k and
in the new XP installation is shown under letter H.
There are couple of stange things there I wish to understand.
1. When booting I was given an option to boot into XP or into w2k. So diring
XP installation the presence of w2k on tha disk was detected and boot.ini
was formed accordingly.
2. XP boots well. An attempt to boot into w2k failed with the same
notification about wrongly configured HD.
I tried to use your diskette changing WINDOWS to WINNT and partition(1) to
partition(6) - same result.
Why would not it boot?
3. Earlier when I booted from w98 boot diskette I could list the directories
on all the partitions except the one with OS.
dir H returned that the drive is not available - why so?
 
Frank Booth Snr said:
The blue connector on the mobo is the primary hard drive controller.
Connect the ribbon to this (blue connector on the ribbon), and put the
hdd at thw other end (master position). Make sure the jumper position on
the hdd is set to master correctly. Then go into BIOS and check that it
reads the hdd correctly as master, before anything else.
Click to expand...

Thank you Frank, very useful.
 
"Pegasus (MVP)" <[email protected]> ÓÏÏÂÝÉÌ/ÓÏÏÂÝÉÌÁ × ÎÏ×ÏÓÔÑÈ ÓÌÅÄÕÀÝÅÅ:
When you report back, do not
write "misconfigured bootable device".
Instead you must quote the full error message ***verbatim***!
Click to expand...
I used this as a shortcut to an earlier quotet verbatim:
w2k could not start because of a computer hardware config problem. Could not
read from the selected boot disk. Check
boot path and disk hardware.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Would you care to give us some specific examples?
Don't mention the PC clock time issue - this is not a
problem but a design decision.
Click to expand...
Sorry, by bugs I meant what you call a design decision - numerous design
decisions in applications which are pain in the arse to use an application -
if examples are needed - you only need to go to one of websites called
something like Microsoft sucks or Microsoft must dye - there are collections
there. Microsoft made huge contribution to this technology when they
started, and Bill Gates deserves a monument in gold, but now they just twist
our balls and they actually set an example of a big company ingnoring
customer, so other companies followed the suit so no matter if you have
problems with a computer or with a washing machine, you are on your own like
it used to be in Old Good Soviet Union.
 
aa said:
Microsoft is well aware of numerous problems, but it opts to igonore them
and dugs the same bags from one version into another for the customers
have
no alternatives.
Click to expand...

Would you care to give us some specific examples?
Don't mention the PC clock time issue - this is not a
problem but a design decision.
 
aa said:
Rather than mucking around with boot sectors etc, boot
the machine with a WinXP boot diskette and see what
you get.
- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Note that the last three lines each start with the word "multi".
If your newsreader wraps them around then you must
unwrap them.

Now boot your machine with this floppy disk and try
each of the three boot options. Remember to instruct
your BIOS to boot off the floppy disk drive!
Click to expand...
The trick did not work. I kept receiving the same message about
misconfigured bootable device though in BIOS I set the first, the second
and
the third boot device as diskette. It looked as if it simply did not try
to
read boot.ini from the diskette.
Do you mean that if ntldr, and ntdetect.com and boot.ini are on a
bootable
diskette, the system reads them and acts on them, ignoring similar files
on
a hard drive?
Click to expand...

This is correct, but only if you formatted the floppy disk
on a Win2000 or XP PC.

When you report back, do not write "misconfigured bootable device".
Instead you must quote the full error message ***verbatim***!
 
aa said:
Just to exclude some stupid errors. To make sure that the HD is correctly
connected. I have two sockets on the motherboard, next to one another for
those flat ribbon cables. One socket is blue, the other one is black.
How shall I tell which one is for the master HD?
Also each ribbon has one connector at the end and another connector in the
middle - does it matter whether the master HD is connected to the center of
the ribbon or to its end?
Click to expand...
The blue connector on the mobo is the primary hard drive controller.
Connect the ribbon to this (blue connector on the ribbon), and put the
hdd at thw other end (master position). Make sure the jumper position on
the hdd is set to master correctly. Then go into BIOS and check that it
reads the hdd correctly as master, before anything else.
 
Pegasus said:
Would you care to give us some specific examples?
Don't mention the PC clock time issue - this is not a
problem but a design decision.
Click to expand...

My pet peeve is that, although IE allows you to turn off Active-X (which
many want to for security reasons) in return you get a reminder window
for EVERY SINGLE Active-X instance, each of which has to be individually
closed. Nor do they have the usual "Don't show this again" option.

It's mind-bogglingly annoying, has been soundly complained about all
over the web for many years since IE-5 days yet Microsoft has
consistently refused to address it until (I understand) IE7 (but still
no fix for IE-6 users).
 
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