Multi boot XP & w2k problem

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I have had a working multi-boot system (98se, 2000 & xp) for some time with
no problems.

I now have a new machine that I am setting up, and W2K will only boot with
its own copies of ntldr & ntdetect.com. If I use the XP versions then w2k
complains that \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is missing or corrupt, although
the XP ones are supposed to recognise w2k and work (as they have been in my
old system).

Has anyone seen this and figured a solution that doesn't require batch files
to swap the files out, or can guess as to why this is happening?

On the old system I had the OSs on 3 different (SCSI) drives, whilst on the
new one they are on 1 partitioned RAID mirror array.

As far as I can tell the files don't get customized in any way during
install, as I have compared the ones from the new and old machines.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tony
 
Double check the ARC statement in boot.ini for the Win2K instance.

You did install each OS instance in it's own partition did you not?
 
Walter, thanks for your reply.

Yes, each OS is in its own partition: 1st WIN98SE c:, 2nd W2K d:, 3rd XP e:

The same boot.ini works fine for both w2k & XP as long as w2k has its own
ntldr & ntdetect.com - or is there something I might be missing?

Here is the boot.ini file nin case you can see anything wrong with it.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98SE"


Tony
 
Some more questions. :-)

What's the service pack level of the Win2K image?

When you made the switch from SCSI, did you reinstall in order of 9x, Win2K,
XP or did you use 3rd party tools?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


TonyNunan said:
Walter, thanks for your reply.

Yes, each OS is in its own partition: 1st WIN98SE c:, 2nd W2K d:, 3rd XP
e:

The same boot.ini works fine for both w2k & XP as long as w2k has its own
ntldr & ntdetect.com - or is there something I might be missing?

Here is the boot.ini file nin case you can see anything wrong with it.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98SE"


Tony

Walter Clayton said:
Double check the ARC statement in boot.ini for the Win2K instance.

You did install each OS instance in it's own partition did you not?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Walter,

Thanks for your replies.

The WIN2K was SP4, and I did install in the correct order. However, what I
did do that may have caused the problem is copy the prior WIN2K image to the
new disc (using Ghost) and doing a repair on it, in order to get it to
recognize the new hardware etc.

It appears that this route may have introduced smething into the SYSTEM hive
that the WIN2K ntldr & ntdetect were OK with, but the XP ones choked on. I
have since done a complete reinstall of WIN2K and all seems to work OK.

Once again, thanks for your ideas,

Tony

Walter Clayton said:
Some more questions. :-)

What's the service pack level of the Win2K image?

When you made the switch from SCSI, did you reinstall in order of 9x, Win2K,
XP or did you use 3rd party tools?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


TonyNunan said:
Walter, thanks for your reply.

Yes, each OS is in its own partition: 1st WIN98SE c:, 2nd W2K d:, 3rd XP
e:

The same boot.ini works fine for both w2k & XP as long as w2k has its own
ntldr & ntdetect.com - or is there something I might be missing?

Here is the boot.ini file nin case you can see anything wrong with it.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98SE"


Tony

Walter Clayton said:
Double check the ARC statement in boot.ini for the Win2K instance.

You did install each OS instance in it's own partition did you not?

--
Walter Clayton
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.


I have had a working multi-boot system (98se, 2000 & xp) for some time
with
no problems.

I now have a new machine that I am setting up, and W2K will only boot
with
its own copies of ntldr & ntdetect.com. If I use the XP versions then
w2k
complains that \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is missing or corrupt,
although
the XP ones are supposed to recognise w2k and work (as they have been
in
my
old system).

Has anyone seen this and figured a solution that doesn't require batch
files
to swap the files out, or can guess as to why this is happening?

On the old system I had the OSs on 3 different (SCSI) drives, whilst on
the
new one they are on 1 partitioned RAID mirror array.

As far as I can tell the files don't get customized in any way during
install, as I have compared the ones from the new and old machines.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tony
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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