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FIXED! Oh oh, now I can't boot at all! Help! FIXED!

Muse

Muse

Lifer
See this short thread here I made today:

Reinstalling XP, a question or two

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2076619

I wanted to reinstall XP on the first partition of a dual boot XP box. I deleted the partition ( C: ), installed XP fresh on it. But I found my boot menu gone when I started Windows. IOW, I couldn't boot to my 2nd XP installation. I looked around for backup boot.ini files and edited the new boot.ini file manually and rebooted. I thought it was OK to boot to either XP installation, and the boot menu comes up fine when I start the computer but no matter which of the two installations I pick I get this message (and Windows refuses to start):

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

<Windows root>system32\hal.dll

Please reinstall a copy of the above file

If I then press enter, the machine reboots and I wind up at the same screen. Help!
 
Well, I failed to restore my old boot.ini file, couldn't even see it when booting to a floppy so I went WTH, I'll insert the XP install disk. I basically reinstalled on C:, didn't reformat. Now I can boot. Actually, the Windows install altered my dual boot boot.ini, it didn't replace it. I get the same error message if I try to boot to D, but if I leave the cursor on the top line, it successfully boots to the newly installed C: installation. I replaced the text in the boot.ini with what was in the original boot.ini (I'd saved that to a .txt file), and now I get a regular boot, no boot menu.

So, the question is: How can I get a boot menu and a choice of which XP installation I want to boot to? Or do I have to reinstall on D??????? TIA for any help.
 
shit man! sorry if i misdirected you...argh!! freakin dual booting!

i really don't know what you can do now unfortunately. maybe someone else who has run into this can help?
 
Chiefcrowe said:
shit man! sorry if i misdirected you...argh!! freakin dual booting!

i really don't know what you can do now unfortunately. maybe someone else who has run into this can help?
Click to expand...

I LOVE dual booting. Has saved me bunches of times. For instance, this is an HTPC with HDTV and if it isn't working in one partition, I can boot into the other and run there. Did that last week. Decided to fix things and this is turning out harder than I anticipated.
 
lxskllr said:
See this page for dual boot examples...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mosaddique/Boot&#37;20INI Sample files.html
Click to expand...
Thanks. I could have probably worked up a working boot.ini file based on what's on that page. By the time I saw this, though, I'd already resolved the problem. In fact, I wasn't thinking that the contents of the boot.ini were the problem. I thought it was something else. Trying one last time to rework the boot.ini file was a last ditch attempt. To my surprise, it worked.

I fortunately had a boot.ini backup file that was evidently created by Partition Magic 7 when I ran it sometime in 2008. It looked to be verbatim what I needed in my boot.ini and I edited the file, saved and rebooted and voila! I have my dual boot back. I was afraid I'd have to reinstall XP on my other partition! :twisted:

The mistake I made was assuming that Windows would automatically create a boot loader for me. It usually does, but in this instance it failed to. Then I couldn't find a way to create one. Worse, when I screwed up the boot.ini file (trying manually to recreate the boot loader), I couldn't boot to either Windows! Nutty stuff.
 
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Muse said:
I fortunately had a boot.ini backup file that was evidently created by Partition Magic 7. It looked to be verbatim what I needed in my boot.ini and I edited the file, saved and rebooted and voila! I have my dual boot back. I was afraid I'd have to reinstall XP on my other partition! :twisted:

The mistake I made was assuming that Windows would automatically create a boot loader for me. It usually does, but in this instance it failed to. Then I couldn't find a way to create one. Worse, when I screwed up the boot.ini file (trying manually to recreate the boot loader), I couldn't boot to either Windows! Nutty stuff.
Click to expand...
I have to believe that Windows failed to create a dual boot loading boot.ini file because the install was on the primary C: partition. So, even though there was a perfectly good XP install on the next partition, it was ignored. Lesson is, if you need to reinstall your Windows on a dual booting machine to the first primary partition you better squirrel away your boot.ini file before wiping the partition.
 
I prefer to dual boot by changing hard drive priority during BIOS bootup. This was each OS is completely independent, on different hard drives. For this to work, you should really unplug one or the other drive while installing your different operating systems. Once it is installed, you can plug your other drive back in.
 
Lesson is, if you need to reinstall your Windows on a dual booting machine to the first primary partition you better squirrel away your boot.ini file before wiping the partition.
Click to expand...

The real lesson is that dual booting should be a last resort. VMs and rescue discs/USB sticks are almost always the better, simpler solution.
 
Nothinman said:
The real lesson is that dual booting should be a last resort. VMs and rescue discs/USB sticks are almost always the better, simpler solution.
Click to expand...
I guess I'm living in the stone age. I don't know how to do the virtual machine thing and I'm not sure I have a flash drive that will boot. My notes indicate I did succeed in it, but I don't know that I have that stick at the moment. Links?
 
SimMike2 said:
I prefer to dual boot by changing hard drive priority during BIOS bootup. This was each OS is completely independent, on different hard drives. For this to work, you should really unplug one or the other drive while installing your different operating systems. Once it is installed, you can plug your other drive back in.
Click to expand...
Do you get a boot menu on startup or do you have to go into the BIOS and change the first boot drive in the boot sequence?
 
Muse said:
I guess I'm living in the stone age. I don't know how to do the virtual machine thing and I'm not sure I have a flash drive that will boot. My notes indicate I did succeed in it, but I don't know that I have that stick at the moment. Links?
Click to expand...

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ has lots of info on booting virtually any flavor of Linux from a USB drive. Windows is another matter, but I believe there's stuff out there that tells you how to boot BartPE from a USB drive.
 
Muse said:
Do you get a boot menu on startup or do you have to go into the BIOS and change the first boot drive in the boot sequence?
Click to expand...
I like the fact the OS's are completely independent, which means I change the boot sequence in the BIOS whenever I want to switch OS. In my case, I use one 95% of the time and only use the other for special programs or circumstances. I developed a strong distaste for using a startup bootmenu when I had to reformat one of them and reinstall and suddenly I lost the ability to boot to the other one. Or if one drive goes bad, the one that has the boot ini, the second one won't boot without some kind of repair process. I hate it when that happens.
 
Nothinman said:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ has lots of info on booting virtually any flavor of Linux from a USB drive. Windows is another matter, but I believe there's stuff out there that tells you how to boot BartPE from a USB drive.
Click to expand...
Yes, I went to a professional user group meeting a few years ago and a wizard told us about it (booting Windows from a USB stick) and he provided me with the document that explains how to go about it. My notes indicate that I finally succeeded. It wasn't easy. I'm not sure that I actually did succeed. I've never done much of anything with Linux.

The main reason I want to multiboot is because my main box serves as an HTPC (there are certainly times when I want to test something in a different OS installation as a troubleshooting ploy). It does other stuff too including unattended scheduled MP3 recording of radio programs. The HDTV stuff often goes haywire so being able to boot into a different installation on a different OS install is handy. I don't know that this stuff wold work in Linux. I can investigate by posting in the appropriate user thread at AVS Forums.
 
Muse said:
Yes, I went to a professional user group meeting a few years ago and a wizard told us about it (booting Windows from a USB stick) and he provided me with the document that explains how to go about it. My notes indicate that I finally succeeded. It wasn't easy. I'm not sure that I actually did succeed. I've never done much of anything with Linux.

The main reason I want to multiboot is because my main box serves as an HTPC (there are certainly times when I want to test something in a different OS installation as a troubleshooting ploy). It does other stuff too including unattended scheduled MP3 recording of radio programs. The HDTV stuff often goes haywire so being able to boot into a different installation on a different OS install is handy. I don't know that this stuff wold work in Linux. I can investigate by posting in the appropriate user thread at AVS Forums.
Click to expand...

If you're just using the second installation for testing things then a VM makes a lot more sense. It doesn't require rebooting and you can take a snapshot, do your testing then roll back to the snapshot and undo whatever you were testing.

I'm sure Windows is a lot more work to get running from a USB stick, pretty much anything in Windows that is beyond basic program usage is a PITA in Windows. Putting Linux on a USB stick and being able to change settings, install programs, etc inside that Linux instance is dead simple. Ubuntu even comes with an app that will do the work for you.
 
Nothinman said:
If you're just using the second installation for testing things then a VM makes a lot more sense. It doesn't require rebooting and you can take a snapshot, do your testing then roll back to the snapshot and undo whatever you were testing.

I'm sure Windows is a lot more work to get running from a USB stick, pretty much anything in Windows that is beyond basic program usage is a PITA in Windows. Putting Linux on a USB stick and being able to change settings, install programs, etc inside that Linux instance is dead simple. Ubuntu even comes with an app that will do the work for you.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Can you point me in the direction of going the VM route instead of multibooting XP? I'm pretty hip to multibooting but not even a newbie at VM. Don't know what or where to stick my toes into the water.

I'm running some stuff that might not play nice with Linux, including MS FoxPro and Visual FoxPro which MS has officially banned from running on Linux. It's in the EULA. I heard that it can be run on something banned, but have no experience and don't know if I want to go there. Also, my HDTV card might not run easily on Linux. So, maybe a VM using XP would work whereas a stick booting to Linux might not be a good way to go, at least for this machine. I run FoxPro on all my machines, actually.
 
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Muse said:
Do you get a boot menu on startup or do you have to go into the BIOS and change the first boot drive in the boot sequence?
Click to expand...
I think pretty much every modern motherboard includes a hot key (F12 on Dells and ESC on my Foxconn motherboards) to go directly to a Boot Disk menu where you can select the disk you want to boot from. You can also select an option in the BIO to get the boot to pause for a few seconds at the Boot Disk selection menu.
 
RebateMonger said:
I think pretty much every modern motherboard includes a hot key (F12 on Dells and ESC on my Foxconn motherboards) to go directly to a Boot Disk menu where you can select the disk you want to boot from. You can also select an option in the BIO to get the boot to pause for a few seconds at the Boot Disk selection menu.
Click to expand...
Oh. I presume my mobo supports that although it's probably from around 2004. I guess it's better to boot from separate HDs, in case the boot HD dies. Has never happened to me. Probably less trouble booting from separate HDs than from the same one. Plus I don't have to sweat the bootloader.

I just came up with another issue on the machine. I've suspected for a while that the CMOS battery was dieing. Some funny things had happened, most notably that the machine sometimes wouldn't automatically turn on as set in the BIOS. I bought new CR2032 batteries but hadn't gotten around to swapping in a new one. Tonight the machine forgot what time it was, the date, forgot that I'd disabled AC97 Audio, and didn't see the SATA drive! Now that it's on, it's working, but the next time I turn it on, I'm swapping out the battery before hitting the power button!
 
Muse said:
Thanks! I'll check it out.

Edit: Will that work on an XP system? The site says it's for server machines.
Click to expand...

Yea, that'll work on XP. You may want to look into VMWare Player also. I think you can create VMs with that now.
 
the reason it didnt create a dual boot is because you installed from a booted to XP disk, which is a dead fish. If you had installed from WITHIN the running D XP partition with the autostarted CD, picking the prepartitioned "C" for install, it would have.
 
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