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Question about booting Windows XP

P

Pyramix

Senior member
I have a machine with two hard-drives and a different OS on each: Win98 and WinXP. The hard-drive that had Win98 crashed and I disconnected it. The other hard-drive that has WinXP won't boot now. It seems the boot information was on the hard-drive that crashed. Any clues as to how I can get the other OS to boot now? I don't have a WinXP CD.
 
You could try reconnecting the drive with Win98 and look for these files. ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini.
If you don't see them go to tools>folder options>view>click show hidden files and folders and uncheck
hide protected operating system files. Copy those three files over to the drive with WinXP. Then boot with the WinXP CD and access the Recovery Console. From there you will be interested in the command
Bootcfg /rebuild. Just type that into the command line. For more info on the Recovery Console check here.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314058
 
Okay, I booted up using an old DOS floppy disk. I see that the hard-drive that had WinXP on it has no boot.ini. So I guess that's the problem. I'll try and create my own boot.ini to see if that fixes the problem.
 
Basie, the hard-drive that had Win98 on it is gone. It makes a weird noise when I connect it, is not detected on boot up, and seems to be beyond resuscitation. I guess I need the .ntldr and ntdect.com files as well. I'll try and copy them from my laptop which has WinXP (and which is what I'm currently using). I don't have a WinXP CD.
 
Okay, I copied the three files, but that didn't fix it. I guess I need to find a way to somehow run the recovery console.
 
I installed WinMe on the same drive that WinXP was installed. I was hoping it would detect the WinXP and give me the option to boot to either OS. But it didn't do that. Weird.

Any other ideas?
 
What happens when you format a floppy (full format, not quick) and copy boot.ini ntldr and ntdetect and boot from that? Is the boot/system partition arrangement the same between the laptop and desktop?
 
No, the desktop hard-drive has 5 partitions (one of which is not being recognized for some reason in DOS or WinME), whereas the laptop one has 2 partitions. Would ntldr or ntdetect.com vary based on this?
 
where is your XP cd? Should be able to boot and do a recovery, then fix the mbr. Copying files isn't going to cut it
 
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