• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Dual Boot wont work with promise 100 ports

H

HTcracker

Member
When setting up a dual boot system using a A7V motherboard that has 2 promise 100 ports,
and installing one ata100 HD on each port, why will windows 2000 pro not find the second
port to install on (with win 98se on the pri. port)? both HDs are configured as masters
and the win 98 drive runs great. I have swapped or changed the cables,Im on my second
replacement HD (secondary port)I have loaded from floppy boot discs and from the CD
(under win 98) and I have sucessfully installed the latest promise drivers when win 2000
says to do so. IBMs drive fitness tester identifies the drive untill I tell it to test
the drive and then says it cant find the device. IBMs driveguide/disk install identifies
the HDs size improperly then asks if I want to format(which I certainly do) then the utillity
errs and cannot complete the format. IBM service personal while trying to help are clueless.
I have been trying to figure this out for a little over a month now and I am also clueless.
Ive read every post on the different forums ive found that seem to have similar problems
but havent found any with my exact problem. Can anyone make any suggestions.
 
NO, someone else comented that this might be necesasary but I have not been able
to install a second one. I have one driver showing up in the control panel..
system..device manager..SCSI controlers,Ive tried the add new hardware wizard
with no sucess.These two HDs were installed at different times, could it be
that I have to delete the one driver that is installed already and then let
windows find both at the same time?
 
I have sucessfully installed the latest promise drivers when win 2000 says to do so -- do it twice.
 
Obenton.. you are the man! that was just the ticket. funny how I could get
so deep into the problem and not see the obvious. But I am not completly out
of the woods yet. So if would carry me a little farther.
The OS installed with out any problems after I double installed the promise
driver. It finished and then when I came back and re-started it gets to the
windows 2000 logo and is starting up and evidentlly it doesnt find the
before mentioned drivers because it drops out of the logo window and gives me
the blue screen I have come to know so well and tells me it isnt finding the
boot device (same error Ive gotton for the last month) I went into windows 98
and looked around in the files/folders installed on the win 2000 HD and Im
convinced there is a complete install there (except for the drivers)I suspect
I need to manually install the promise drivers. Does this sound right?
How do I go about this?
 
Wouldn't have installed if w2k couldn't find it. Likely it's another problem. Check boot.ini disk address - maybe it's not correct. Also, for troubleshooting I'd put the w2k drive on an IDE33 controller (as long as there's no HD there it should still come up as D:, so you wouldn't have the drive letter logon problem) and see if it works.
 
Now im not sure if the OS was finished installing or not. The last thing it said before
it re-booted was congrats. on a sucessful install(or words to that effect)then it rebooted
and came back up to the win 2000 logo with a bar graph at the bottom showing percent of
loading. about half way through it bounced to the "no_boot_device" screen.
Ive looked through all the files and folders (win 2000) and used "find" (from win 98)
but I dont find "boot.ini" at all. I wouldnt know if it was correct if I did find it
since Ive now officialy reached my level of incompetance. Ive found in the past that with
earlier versions of windows I could do a re install of the OS (no re-format) when there
were problems I had no solution for and about 50% of the time this would clean things up,
but evidentlly win 2000 doesnt like this, I tried a clean up install which it said it wouldnt
do and then went right ahead and tried anyway. for my trouble I now have a third option
in my boot selections at startup and Im no further along. I agree that putting the HD on a
IDE 33 port could help,ufortunatlly I have had the system devices connected and disconnected too
many times in the last few weeks and Im starting to attract grimlins. Im very careful about
connections but the various ribbon cables have been on and off enough times that I am bound to
stress or distort or break something pretty soon. Since even haveing the D: drive recognized and
a OS more or less installed on it is light years ahead of where I was 2 days ago I am going to
leave the Hardware alone for now and try to work out what I believe is now a software problem.
I apreciate your help and if you have lost interest in this problem or just got bored I will
certainly understand but any further suggestions,comments or critisisms will be much appreciated.
 
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Setup"

Here is my C:\boot.ini
 
Nikepete I did try IBMs download utillity "driveguide/disk install" as one of
my last resorts before Obenton came to my aid. I dont know for sure if it is
based on EZ-Drive but I wouldnt be surprised. If I had thought about it at the
time I never would have used it since I had night mares a few years ago using
EZ-Drive to install a HD in another system. The utility was not able to format this HD
but did say that it had setup the boot record, ( which is where EZ-Drive would be lurking
now to haunt me if it could) When obenton told me what to do I was able to install
and I had the win 2000 setup do a complete format and delete of the few files already
on the drive. Unfortunatly I dont think that the windows format would do anything to
the boot record, so therefore I MIGHT have EZ-Drive waiting to bite me. If this is the case
and I cant fix it any other way I can use another IBM utillity I have "drive Fitness" to
wipe the drive AND bootrecord.But I havent had a lot of luck with this procedure and if
windows setup cant write a new boot record as well as format then im stuck with the
"driveguide/disk install" and right back where I am now. Time to buy another new HD?
more comments ???
 
Try changing boot.ini to:

Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top