WinXP dual boot install to separate HD breaks Win2k

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rebus
  • Start date Start date
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Rebus

I have an Abit AN7 system with integrated SATA controller. C: drive
with the Win2kSP4 installation is a SATA drive. I added an IDE drive
and installed Win2KSP4 on it originally in a dual boot configuration.
That worked well for many months until this second installation became
corrupt. So I installed WinXPSP2 to this second drive, selecting the
delete partition and quick format options. Install went fine, but
afterwards the C:boot.ini shows both the original Win2k and the new
WinXP boot options at bootup and WinXP boots and operates fine on drive
D:, but now the main Win2k bootup reports, "Windows 2000 could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM". This occurs immediately after
selecting that boot option, not after the horizontal progress bar
appears like when this file is really corrupt. Replacing the reg hives
on C: from a backup set doesn't change anything either. This seems to be
a boot file problem rather than a registry problem. It appears the
WinXP install overwrote the Win2K ntldr and ntdetect.com files on C:
drive, as it's supposed to (dates and filesize match the CD files). I'm
not sure what else gets overwritten. I did find one old newsgroup post
reporting this problem with a WinXPSP1 install and the solution was to
replace these two files with original WinXP versions; that the SP1
versions were not compatible with Win2k. Is this an issue with SP2 also?

Scott
 
Rebus said:
I have an Abit AN7 system with integrated SATA controller. C: drive
with the Win2kSP4 installation is a SATA drive. I added an IDE drive
and installed Win2KSP4 on it originally in a dual boot configuration.
That worked well for many months until this second installation became
corrupt. So I installed WinXPSP2 to this second drive, selecting the
delete partition and quick format options. Install went fine, but
afterwards the C:boot.ini shows both the original Win2k and the new
WinXP boot options at bootup and WinXP boots and operates fine on drive
D:, but now the main Win2k bootup reports, "Windows 2000 could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM". This occurs immediately after
selecting that boot option, not after the horizontal progress bar
appears like when this file is really corrupt. Replacing the reg hives
on C: from a backup set doesn't change anything either. This seems to be
a boot file problem rather than a registry problem. It appears the
WinXP install overwrote the Win2K ntldr and ntdetect.com files on C:
drive, as it's supposed to (dates and filesize match the CD files). I'm
not sure what else gets overwritten. I did find one old newsgroup post
reporting this problem with a WinXPSP1 install and the solution was to
replace these two files with original WinXP versions; that the SP1
versions were not compatible with Win2k. Is this an issue with SP2 also?

Scott
Click to expand...

The message you saw usually means that the partition(x) number
in boot.ini is incorrect. Using different numbers (1, 2 or 3) will
usually fix the problem.

The WinXP versions of c:\ntldr and c:\ntdetect.com work
perfectly well with Win2000. However, the Win2000 versions
will NOT work with WinXP.
 
Pegasus said:
The message you saw usually means that the partition(x) number
in boot.ini is incorrect. Using different numbers (1, 2 or 3) will
usually fix the problem.

The WinXP versions of c:\ntldr and c:\ntdetect.com work
perfectly well with Win2000. However, the Win2000 versions
will NOT work with WinXP.
Click to expand...

Both HD's have only one partition. I did try different disk and rdisk
values, to no avail.

Scott
 
Rebus said:
Both HD's have only one partition. I did try different disk and rdisk
values, to no avail.

Scott
Click to expand...

Let's have a look at your boot.ini! In the lines

default=multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(y)partition(z)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(y)partition(z)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional"

x should be 0,
y should be 0 or 1
z could be anything larger than 0
 
Pegasus said:
Let's have a look at your boot.ini! In the lines

default=multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(y)partition(z)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(y)partition(z)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional"

x should be 0,
y should be 0 or 1
z could be anything larger than 0
Click to expand...

Well, I've made some progress. It's apparently not the boot.ini file.
What I did was to create a boot floppy and copied ntldr and ntdetect.com
from one of my backup sets from the Win2k installation prior to the
WinXP install. I also copied the boot.ini file to the diskette. With
that on A: it does indeed boot Win2k fine (but not unexpectedly does not
boot XP, giving the same error for it as it does for Win2k with the XP
files). I also tried the pair of files from a WinXPSP1 CD with the same
results as the WinXPSP2 files -- only booting XP. I'd like to try an
original XP set to see if they will boot both Win2k and XP, but now
can't find my original XP CD. It's probably somewhere safe... I'm still
looking.

Any ideas why the XPSP1/2 versions of these files do not load Win2k?

Scott
 
Rebus said:
Pegasus said:
Let's have a look at your boot.ini! In the lines

default=multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(y)partition(z)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(y)partition(z)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional"

x should be 0,
y should be 0 or 1
z could be anything larger than 0
Click to expand...

Well, I've made some progress. It's apparently not the boot.ini file.
What I did was to create a boot floppy and copied ntldr and ntdetect.com
from one of my backup sets from the Win2k installation prior to the
WinXP install. I also copied the boot.ini file to the diskette. With
that on A: it does indeed boot Win2k fine (but not unexpectedly does not
boot XP, giving the same error for it as it does for Win2k with the XP
files). I also tried the pair of files from a WinXPSP1 CD with the same
results as the WinXPSP2 files -- only booting XP. I'd like to try an
original XP set to see if they will boot both Win2k and XP, but now
can't find my original XP CD. It's probably somewhere safe... I'm still
looking.

Any ideas why the XPSP1/2 versions of these files do not load Win2k?

Scott
Click to expand...

Your post is a little too vague to provide any useful information.
Statements such as
- I copied the boot.ini file (which file? what does it look like?)
- giving the same error (what error might that be?)
may mean a lot to you but they mean nothing to the reader.

Let's have a look at your current boot.ini! Tell us where
exactly Win2000 and WinXP reside (drive and directory)!

As I said before, the WinXP versions ntldr and ntdetect.com
are perfectly OK for Win2000, regardless of the service pack.
 
Pegasus said:
Your post is a little too vague to provide any useful information.
Statements such as
- I copied the boot.ini file (which file? what does it look like?)
- giving the same error (what error might that be?)
may mean a lot to you but they mean nothing to the reader.

Let's have a look at your current boot.ini! Tell us where
exactly Win2000 and WinXP reside (drive and directory)!

As I said before, the WinXP versions ntldr and ntdetect.com
are perfectly OK for Win2000, regardless of the service pack.
Click to expand...

Well, I've already provided that information earlier in this thread.
I've been trimming the replies to keep the individual messages brief
(good etiquette). A click of a button on your newsgroup reader should
sort the messages by thread.

To repeat, in summary:

Win2KSP4 on C:/WINNT (SATA) (clean install)
Then WinXPSP2 installed to D:/WINDOWS (IDE) (clean install)
Win2K will no longer boot, with error "Windows 2000 could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" immediately after boot selection (no
progress bar).
Making a boot diskette A: with the same new boot.ini on C: after the
WinXP install but using the ntldr and ntdetect.com files from prior to
the WinXP install (retrieved from backup), allows Win2k to boot fine
(but WinXP won't).
Using ntldr and ntdetect.com files from a WinXPSP1 CD behaves the same
as the WinXPSP2 files. I still need to try original XP files (as soon
as I find them). I can also try just the prior ntldr file with the new
ntdetect file (and vice versa), as it likely is just one of the two
causing the problem, but I'm not sure if a mismatch in their versions
would cause a different problem.

boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional"
/fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Recovery Console" /cmdcons
 
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