Files Missing???

Hi All,
My putta has been working like a dream recently
I've even bought a few new games! unfortunatly this required me to change some partition sizes. I Run triple boot, 2 x XP and a Win2k. I used Partition magic to take some free space from my Win2k and give it to my XP partition that runs the games - something I have done before in the past with no problems. But this time something's happened and my Win2k gives me a inaccessible boot device BSOD

Now after looking at my Win2k installation from my XP, I notice that there's no ntldr - which I'm sure is wrong, and when comparing it to both my XP installations I notice other differences which I'm not 100% sure about.

My XP Music has:
autoexec.bat
boot.ini
config.sys
io.sys
msdos.sys
ntdetect.com
ntldr
pagefile.sys

My Windows 2000 has:
$RJ$.dat - ???
pagefile.sys
virtpart.dat - to do with norton ghost I believe

While my XP Games has:
boot.ini
hiberfil.sys
ntdetect.com
ntldr
pagefile.sys

The only thing I'm sure of is that ntldr is needed for Win2k.
Can I just copy one from XP, and if so which one - they're both different sizes so I imagine they must have differences
And does each installation need a boot.ini ?

Many thanks in advance, spotta

 

Boot to recovery console and run the fixboot command.

 

Hi Newt,
tried booting to the recovery console, but it will not reconise my win2k partition - maybe due to the missing files???

it only comes up with C:winnt - when my win2k partition is D:

Is there any other ways of fixing this???

 

I'm really not sure how having 2 XP partitions will affect things. I wouldn't normally expect to see multiple copies of some of those files.

Question - did you install 2K first and then XP & XP?

Question 2 - which load is on what partition?

And one other tidbit - the default name for %systemroot% when you install 2K is WINNT. A clean install of XP will offer a default of Windows. But an XP upgrade of an existing 2K install will (default again) retain WINNT for the %systemroot% folder. So if you have an XP load on C: and the folder is named WINNT, it usually means an upgrade.

 

Hi Newt,
I'm trying to set my mind back!! I thought that both XP's were clean install's but after reading what you said, my XP Music Installation must be an upgrade

I used to run 2 x 98SE with Boot US as a boot manager and I did try win2k for making music before going on to XP and as the systemroot is WINNT - I must have upgraded it.
My XP Music was the first installation, it's on a 8gig drive all to itself as Primary Master.

Win2k was installed next, on a 80gig drive hooked up to one of my Raid connectors ( I don't actually use a Raid array, but treat them just as extra IDE connectors ) dual booting with XP Music the micro$oft way. I use this installation for testing my websites and it runs webservers etc. I have had problems with this partition before, mainly with the webservers, and since my initial install I have done a complete clean reinstall slipstreamed with sp3 (with your help I seem to recall )

this all worked fine until I networked the house and me and my housemates discovered multiplayer LAN games ( we've really taken to shooting each other with large machine guns!!! ) as my webservers didn't like having the games installed fine I thought - time for another OS!! My XP Games was a clean install (slipstreamed with sp1) I initially used System Commander to help my set up 3 OS's, but once set up I came to realise that after choosing my OS in System Commander at boot, I then got the micro$oft boot manager also giving me the choice of 3 OS's and could see no reason for system commander to be there! I eventually managed to uninstall it and leave all three OS's bootable - quite a challenge if you've ever tried it as it tries to rip the *£$%* out of all of them apart from the OS it's installed in!

this treble boot set up has worked fine until I changed partition sizes with Partition Magic. I got no error messages from PM when it had finished doing it's thing, and have done it a few times before with no problems, indeed i'm not at all sure the PM is to blame, it might just be a coincedence

so,
XP Music is C: drive installed first ( on own drive )
win2k installed next, is D: drive if booted from,
but is E: drive if booted from XP Games
XP Games installed next, is D: drive if booted from,
but is E: drive if booted from win2k
- a slight niggle, but one I can live with if it means having 3 OS's working together - I just assumed that as you're only meant to be able to boot 2 XP's or Win2k's that each one thinking it's the second OS when booting is neccersary for it to work. ( both Win2k and XP Games on same drive hooked up to raid )

If this treble booting IS really a bad idea then maybe I'll junk my XP Music, I don't use it much anymore - too old to become a superstar!! and more interested nowadays in trying to make a reasonable living from web design


thanks for the help newt - again!!

 

Spotta - to tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea at this point. Amazed that it worked the first time. I'd have expected that at the 3rd OS install of XP the second time, that your CD drawer would have opened and drool started dripping.

With a true multi-boot system, I'd only expect to see one boot.ini file and only one set of the boot-files that actually did the deed. But that's only what my guess would have been.

If you want to get the thing running solidly and can take the time, I'd strongly suggest scrubbing the whole thing and then putting 2K on followed by XP from the slipstreamed CD. There may well be a dozen other ways to do it and have a working system but they are all beyond me.

I do have to say you are a brave soul for having tried it the first time and even braver to have tried tweaking the thing after it was working. Sorry it blew up on you. Maybe some of the other folks on here who enjoy strange tweaks can offer good advice.

 

ah well...
s**t 'appens

tis 7 o'clock friday night and I need a beer or eight!!!

might give myself the weekend to try and fix,
if not will wipe on monday

at least each time this happens - I learn something new!!

thanks again for your help newt

chris