2nd copy of win2k pro?

My old computer DELL optiplex 733mhz has 2 hard disk( 40 and 20 gigs ). Windows 2000 pro was installed on the first partition of the first hard disk. This hark disk has many partitions: C,D,G,H,I,J ( E and F are 2 CD roms ).

Recently I installed a small windows 2k pro in partition G and then added in the boot.ini file this line:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT= "Windows 2000 Pro" /fastdetect

When I tried to boot into this windows, it does not work. Why?

 

re: hard disk options

I looked at the disk management image and here is what I found:

C= 7.33 gig
D= 2.21 gig
G= 4.67 gig
H= 6.35 gig
I= 6.35 gig
J= 6.35 gig
K= 5.03 gig

So, G is partition 3 as I had posted.
(C to K are in hard disk 0).

 

Partitions are not always numbered the same as their position on the hard drive. For e.g. if you create two 10gig partitions in order on a drive then they will indeed be numbered one and two. If you later split the first partition into two partitions then the part that does not move its starting position will remain number one and the new partition will be number 3. The original second partition will remain number 2 even though it has become the third partition on the drive.

So it can be worth trying other numbers in your boot.ini file. The mbrwiz utility can resort partition numbers so that they match their position on the hard drive. When "it does not work" do you get any error messages? How did you install the second 2K?

 

re: hard disk options

I will try to answer Arie first.
I am not sure why you ask about partitions in disk 1(second disk); I thought it's irrelevant. But here they are: L, M, N.
And as I posted before, E and F are the two cdroms.

BTW I made an image of the 2 disks but don't know how to include it into my reply.

 

re: options of hard disk in Bios

Here is my answers to McTavish:

When I ran "mbrwiz" with the command (mbrwiz.exe /list), I got only 2 partions for hard disk 0:

07-NTFS 7.5 G
0F-extend 32 G

No, the computer stopped at the "windows 2000" screen.

My computer got a blue screen and I could not gain access to my windows 2000. So I installed a small new copy of it into partition D. I tried different ways but the only way that gave me the option to install a new copy of windows 2000 is turning off hard disk options in bios then reboot.

When I restarted the machine, I got the old windows 2000 back.

Note: I think if I can have another copy of win2k then it will help if I get into trouble like that again.

 

re: options of hard disk

I installed the new copy of windows 2000 in parttion G.

It was an error when I wrote partition D.

So do I learn something out of my original question or not?

 

All but your first partition on the 40gig are logicals, which means they will be numbered consecutively, so G is indeed number 3. You can’t install to a logical without Windows setting up the bootmanager, so you should have automatically been given a boot menu and the line you added to the boot.ini should have already been there.

I don’t know what option in the bios you turned off. If you mean you disabled the first drive then perhaps you installed 2K to the second drive. That’s the only way that the Windows bootmanager would not have been configured for you.

If you are getting as far as the "Windows 2000" screen then your problem is unlikely to be with the boot.ini because you have well and truly started booting into Windows which means the boot.ini has already done its job.