Ooopsie

[BrianR]

I done a BAAAAAD thing!

I accidentally hosed my boot.ini file trying to restore my multiboot after reformatting C:\ and installing WinXP Pro. Now I can't get back in to fix it.

No rescue disk (that'll teach me) and it won't boot from the CDROM.

My only chance right now as I see it is to redo another computer and install WinXP Pro on THAT, then make a rescue disk and then get into mine to fix the boot.ini. How to fix the multiboot thing, I have no idea yet. Now I'm afraid to jack with the system files!

Anyone know what the boot.ini should look like for a WinXP Pro/Mandrake Linux multiboot?

Brian

[Radar]

You can create a boot.ini file using any text editor. It's really easy. Then you boot up to the command line and copy it over.

If you need to know the commands, I can give you a generic one, but I'm not sure Win2k uses the same one as XP, so you may want someone to copy the text in their boot.ini file from XP and post it on here.

[BrianR]

I canna get to a command prompt. I can get into the BIOS and that's about it. I can get the Advanced Options menu, but no matter what I choose, I get the same error message. "Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and selected hardware."

Nothing else happens. I can boot from a floppy, if I can get one that is for WinXP Pro, but that's what I don't have.

And my project to install WinXP Pro on another machine has failed, but damn if I know why. I ran the install normally and it went swimmingly, until it booted WinXP for the first time, which is when it goes to a black screen and stops there. No booting, no HD activity, nothing. Frozen. Trying again does the same thing. I wonder if that PC isn't able to handle the OS? I think it's a PII, which is what *I* have, and it worked on mine until I buggered it, so WTF? Where's that number for Dial-A-Geek?

I wonder if a neighbor has a machine that can produce a rescue disk?

Brian

[tw]

Numerous ways to fix the Boot.ini file. Queston one - what is the file system. If FAT32, then careful use of DOS can even create a new Boot.ini. If NTFS filesystem, then a program from www.sysinternals.com could help so that DOS can access the NTFS disk.

Then you can boot from the XP CD-Rom to fix the file. Or you can use the same CD-Rom to repair the XP installation. Just a few of the many options that come immediately to mind.

[Bitman]

Google is your friend.
Microsoft's XP Pro boot disk
XP bootdisk howto

Also, if you can make another XP machine or borrow a friend's, you can transfer your hard drive over, and copy the boot.ini right there.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Doesn't XP shut down if it detects it's on a different machine than it was originally installed on?

[BrianR]

I have managed to install WinXP Pro on the other machine. Actually, I had it right the first time, but I didn't know it had an ATI Radeon 9800 card in it and that wasn't installed yet. Switching from the card to the MB fixed things up.

Bitman, I am trying your suggestion next.

Brian

[BrianR]

Fixed!


It only took three hours, but we managed to fix it. It seems that my E: drive (first CDROM) died on me and the BIOS was trying to access it to boot, but couldn't. We switched the cable around and made F: the only CDROM and then it would boot from the CDROM. Whew! I was scared for a while there.

Now, the next little glitch, how oh how do I get my multiboot back? I'm afraid to change anything else lest this happen again. Anyone have any ideas?

Brian

[404Error]

I'm no computer expert by any means but this site helped me boot a new hard drive I installed on an older computer that my father owns. I also made a floppy boot disc downloaded from that site to reinstall windows98se on that same computer. Google really is a friend!

[tw]

Originally Posted by BrianR

Now, the next little glitch, how oh how do I get my multiboot back? I'm afraid to change anything else lest this happen again. Anyone have any ideas?

NT's Boot.ini should look something like this to multiboot both an NT and a Linux partition:
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition
(1)\winnt="Windows NT
Workstation 4.0"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition
(1)\winnt="Windows NT
Workstation 4.0 [VGA mode]"
/basevideo /sos
C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"

This says Windows NT 4.0 can be booted from Disk controller zero, Hard drive zero on that first controller, and from the first partition on that disk. The switches (words that begin with / ) provide additional information on how that bootup procedes. Meaning of switches in boot.ini can be learned in http://www.sysinternals.com

Normally, Linux loads by overwriting a boot sector with information unique to that drive and computer. Your previous installation may have copied that boot sector into the file bootsect.lnx using a program such as:
/usr/sbin/rdev/boot/vmlinuz .

Now you must copy that file bootsect.lnx to the root directory of the NT partition so that Boot.ini can find and execute the unique bootstrap loader for your disk and computer.

bootsect.lnx should not be larger than 512 bytes.

There are other methods to multiboot an NT machine. This is just the one I am more familiar with. Of course this procedure assumes both the NT partitions and Linux partitions were intact and that the bootstrap loader did already exist in the Linux partition (or can be found in the NT partition). That Linux file in the NT partition would be saved with the attributes of system and read only meaning that special considerations are necessary to see the file. For example, the Windows Explorer must be optioned to see hidden and system files. Or using Windows command prompt, the command might be:
dir c:\*.lnx /ah or
dir c:\bootsect.* /ah or
dir c:\bootsect.* /ah /s