This has stumped everyone...

hmmmmmmm

Billybob,

Went into computer management to view disk status. My XP disk (which Iam booted into right now) is listed as "Boot" and the 2k disk is showing as "Active ". Does that qualify both as active?

thanks
Heydre

P.S. Mahmud I am thinking of doing that if I can't this to work. Still hoping....as it worked before.

 

Here's something else you may want to look into. Enter BIOS setup and check you hard drives for any setting that would protect the MBR from virus. Disable such if found since it would prevent the Fixmbr command from working although wouldn't render any error to notify you. Just a wild stab but though I'd pass it along.

 

Just my 2 cents here, but is it possible the ntldr on the winxp partition is past the 1024 cylinder? If so, XP boot loader may not be able to read that far into the disk to locate the XP kernel. Having those files on the boot floppy by passes this step and allows the kernel to boot properly.

 

Yeah, Bursley, that's another thought. Heydre, if you don't have any disk geometry reading software, you can get a free Partition Table editor at:

ftp://ftp.powerquest.com/pub/utilities/ptedit32.zip

That is a nice little stand alone executable program that will give you enough information about your drives to see if one of them inadvertently got laid out beyond the 1023 limit for normal booting.

The full version of Partition Magic will also do that but don't think you have that since it also has a boot manager that would probably lick this problem for you in the first place.

Good luck and keep scratching, you'll get it.

 

Here's something more to expand on Bursley's 2¢ a little.

http://bbs.bbc.org/newsletter/dec98nl/drivecpy.htm I don't know if you may have used a drive imaging software for either of these drives but we must consider all options. I would dearly love to track this beast down a slay it rather than having to roll over and let it eat us alive.

 

I appreciate all the input but I won't be able to do anything until tomorrow. I'll keep you posted...

Heydre

 

Good nuf, please do.

BillyBob I didn't mean to ignore your suggestion but I think the multi-active drive problem only applies to win98 and earlier systems. I remember reading that somewhere. My system presently has two physical drives that are set active and it works like a champ.

 

Hey Zepher

No Problem. It is just something that I had problems and figures I would toss it in. But after I wrote it I realized that it might not fit as mine would not boot at all.

As to PM and Boot Magic. It does work just fine and dandy when things go right. I used it for years booting between 95 & 98. But I did have to be carefull of warm booting between the two. Cold boot worked fine. It all tied to IRQ differences.

But I just tried it lately to use 98SE and XP. Something went WRONG. ( probably the Operator ) Even though XP was supposed to be on its own partition I think it still got into 98SE. And now I am fighting hard to keep from the dreaded Format and start over.

Is it all possible that this has happened to heydre ?

In good plain no nonsense English. I think the Old BillyBob fouled up. ( or out LOL )

BillyBob

 

he's back...................

Billy,

Thx for the input, guess we both are learning huh?

Zeph and Bursley,

BIOS protection is turned OFF but good call. Downloaded and ran PTedit and not sure where the info is that I am looking for.

Under "boot" for either XP or 2k disk the number 80 is shown. Also for "MFT start cluster" it shows 4 for XP disk and 786432 for 2k disk.

I also d/l NTFSInfo and here's the dump:

2k disk..


Volume size = 57.26 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 1.47 GB
Free space = 55.79 GB
Percent free space = 97 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 2 %
File fragmentation = 4 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 10,448
Average file size = 175 KB
Total fragmented files = 173
Total excess fragments = 1,590
Average fragments per file = 1.15

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 0 bytes
Total fragments = 0

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 288
Fragmented folders = 21
Excess folder fragments = 553

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 11 MB
MFT record count = 10,758
Percent MFT in use = 99 %
Total MFT fragments = 2




XP disk..


Volume size = 57.26 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 1.87 GB
Free space = 55.39 GB
Percent free space = 96 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 6 %
File fragmentation = 12 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 20,020
Average file size = 119 KB
Total fragmented files = 2,764
Total excess fragments = 5,344
Average fragments per file = 1.26

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 768 MB
Total fragments = 1

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 578
Fragmented folders = 30
Excess folder fragments = 672

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 20 MB
MFT record count = 20,616
Percent MFT in use = 99 %
Total MFT fragments = 2


BTW Zeph I like your attitude. I HATE to quit too and not know how to fix it. Thanks for your persistence.

Bursley thx for contributing your expertise...it's helping.


Heydre

 

Hi heydre,

Let's look using PTedit and note the partition type as listed for each drive. I'm expecting it to say 0C (zero C).

Then look at the End Cylinder for each. I'm expecting that to say 1023.

That would be my understanding of a standard layout for a bootable drive.

 

Ok

Zeph,

The type is listed as 07 (zero 7) for all drives which is "installable file system- NTFS, HPFS" and end cylinder is 1023 for all drives. Looks like another dead end.

Heydre

 

Sounds good. I gave you the 0C type designation by mistake since that's what mine is, but I'm running FAT32 format. The 07 is correct for your NTFS formatted partitions. The end cylinder being 1023 was the important factor and you have that proper.

This just about delivers us up on the plate for the main course. We are being devoured by this beast!

Anyone else out there? We welcome all comers.

 

The one thing...

Zeph,

The one thing that bugs the s*it out of me is that this hardware setup worked fine for 6 months until windowsupdate hosed my XP setup. It hasn't worked the same since.

I am guessing it's a hardware issue that coincided with the windowsupdate incident since reformatting should have fixed it. I think I'll try boot drives on the same controller now.


Heydre

 

Often I blame unrelated things and it keeps me from looking in the right place for an answer. Hardware incompatibility has always been by cop out on this issue that you have. The trial of the common channel will be interesting and perhaps revealing.

Keep us posted.

 

figurin'.....

Zeph,

Time for more bafflin'...I'll start with the fact that it now boots into both OS'es with both disks on the primary HPT controller...whew.

Now for a few observations:
1) Still no power management features (no hibernate or standby)
2) I don't see a boot.ini file on each disk (only on XP disk)
3) Here's the new boot.ini and old:

new
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT= "Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

old
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT= "Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

Problem solved but WHAT was the answer?

Heydre

 

That's good news. We won't be devoured after all but we may not know for what reason.

See if power managment is enabled in the BIOS as well as in Windows Control Panel applet.

You only need one boot.ini file and it must be on the default drive. If you ever change this configuration and expect to solo boot the 2k drive, you may need to do the repair boot thing or else manually create your own boot.ini file.

I'll just have to conclude that the 2k drive can't be used as a dual boot default drive and let it go at that. Let's just say there is an obscure hardware compatibiltity issue and let it lapse into further obscurity.

Thanks for the epic, it may come in handy some day to be able to cite this thread and cut right to the chase for some other poor soul. With that in mind, it would help if you would post what brand these drives are and the model numbers.

Best regards.