can i reinstall my Win2K?

[Guest promicro]

Hi

 

I can no longer boot my Win2K sp4, the erd and repair mode doesn't fix

it; I can only boot from my floppy boot disk. I've replaced my boot.ini

and edited them to see all of the drives and partitions with no success.

 

I would like to re-install the system over the existing system, so my

question is: can I do this without having to re-install the service

packs and additional installed software ??

 

thanks for all your help

 

rob

[Guest John John]

Re: can i reinstall my Win2K?

 

promicro wrote:

> Hi

>

> I can no longer boot my Win2K sp4, the erd and repair mode doesn't fix

> it; I can only boot from my floppy boot disk. I've replaced my boot.ini

> and edited them to see all of the drives and partitions with no success.

>

> I would like to re-install the system over the existing system, so my

> question is: can I do this without having to re-install the service

> packs and additional installed software ??

>

> thanks for all your help

>

> rob

 

You say that you can boot from your floppy boot diskette, can you

elaborate some more? If yo can properly boot the Windows 2000

installation with the floppy boot diskette then you should be able to

copy the files Boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM & ntldr from the floppy diskette

to the root of the system partition and you with the files in their

proper location you should be able to boot from the hard disk. What

happens when you try to boot with the hard disk?

 

If you can in fact boot properly with the floppy boot disk but not the

hard disk then I think that one or more of the following may be the cause:

 

1- The active flag has been removed from the System partition. Use the

Disk Management tool and verify that System Partition is "Active". You

can also verify that with a Windows 98 startup diskette and fdisk.

 

2- The MBR is damaged, the code instructing it to read & execute ntldr

is damaged. To fix this use the Recovery Console and run the FIXMBR

command on the hard disk.

 

3- The boot sector of the active (System) partition is damaged and

ntldr cannot be found by the boot record code. To fix this use the

Recovery Console and run the FIXBOOT command on the System partition.

 

John

 

PS. If you reinstall Windows 2000 you will have to reinstall SP4 and

post SP4 hotfixes, (unless it is slipstreamed to the intstallation media).

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: can i reinstall my Win2K?

 

 

"promicro" <promicro@cox.net> wrote in message

news:%23e5QA%23NQIHA.5016@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Hi

>

> I can no longer boot my Win2K sp4, the erd and repair mode doesn't fix it;

> I can only boot from my floppy boot disk. I've replaced my boot.ini and

> edited them to see all of the drives and partitions with no success.

>

> I would like to re-install the system over the existing system, so my

> question is: can I do this without having to re-install the service packs

> and additional installed software ??

>

> thanks for all your help

>

> rob

 

If you can successfully boot into Windows with your floppy

disk then you don't need to re-insall Windows. The problem

can probably be fixed but you need to give full details about

what happens when you boot with your hard disk and what

you did before things went wrong.

[Guest philo]

Re: can i reinstall my Win2K?

 

 

"promicro" <promicro@cox.net> wrote in message

news:%23e5QA%23NQIHA.5016@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Hi

>

> I can no longer boot my Win2K sp4, the erd and repair mode doesn't fix

> it; I can only boot from my floppy boot disk. I've replaced my boot.ini

> and edited them to see all of the drives and partitions with no success.

>

> I would like to re-install the system over the existing system, so my

> question is: can I do this without having to re-install the service

> packs and additional installed software ??

>

> thanks for all your help

>

> rob

 

 

you would need to perform a repair install ...

but before you do that...

boot from your win2k cd

and from the repair console try (either or both)

 

fixmbr

 

 

fixboot

[Guest promicro]

thankx - here's what i did

 

thankx - here's what i did

 

 

Thanks to you all for your replies, here's what I've done:

 

booted on Win cd and did fixmbr, fixboot (numerous times)

 

booted on XP cd and did fixmbr, fixboot (numerous times)

 

checked that the partition is 'active'

 

checked and modified my boot.ini file for different logical drives

 

my system setup is as follows:

 

physical drive C: = 2 partitions S: (a small FAT partition) & F: (NTFS

part for files) == 80GB ATA drive

physical drive D: = 3 partitions C:(my Win2K part), D:(future use), &

E:(file use) == 200GB SATA drive all NTFS

 

this problem began when I installed Windows XP Pro on my D drive - I

replaced my W2K ntdetect & ntldr with the XP version and modified my

boot.ini

 

I found that I could only run W2K with its ntdetect & ntldr and only

run the XP with its ntdetect & ntldr, not both...

 

so, I have been switching and swapping these parameters hoping to find

the right combination, but now not even able to now get back to where I

can boot from any hard drive.

 

I don't know what else to try or even how to get back to square 1.

 

thanks for all your help and suggestions..

 

rob

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

"promicro" <promicro@cox.net> wrote in message

news:%23ToMRFQQIHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>

> Thanks to you all for your replies, here's what I've done:

>

> booted on Win cd and did fixmbr, fixboot (numerous times)

>

> booted on XP cd and did fixmbr, fixboot (numerous times)

>

> checked that the partition is 'active'

>

> checked and modified my boot.ini file for different logical drives

>

> my system setup is as follows:

>

> physical drive C: = 2 partitions S: (a small FAT partition) & F: (NTFS

> part for files) == 80GB ATA drive

> physical drive D: = 3 partitions C:(my Win2K part), D:(future use), &

> E:(file use) == 200GB SATA drive all NTFS

>

> this problem began when I installed Windows XP Pro on my D drive - I

> replaced my W2K ntdetect & ntldr with the XP version and modified my

> boot.ini

>

> I found that I could only run W2K with its ntdetect & ntldr and only run

> the XP with its ntdetect & ntldr, not both...

>

> so, I have been switching and swapping these parameters hoping to find

> the right combination, but now not even able to now get back to where I

> can boot from any hard drive.

>

> I don't know what else to try or even how to get back to square 1.

>

> thanks for all your help and suggestions..

>

> rob

 

You really need to tell us what exactly happens when you

attempt to boot into Win2000. Without this information you

leave us guessing.

[Guest promicro]

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:

> "promicro" <promicro@cox.net> wrote in message

> news:%23ToMRFQQIHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> Thanks to you all for your replies, here's what I've done:

>>

>> booted on Win cd and did fixmbr, fixboot (numerous times)

>>

>> booted on XP cd and did fixmbr, fixboot (numerous times)

>>

>> checked that the partition is 'active'

>>

>> checked and modified my boot.ini file for different logical drives

>>

>> my system setup is as follows:

>>

>> physical drive C: = 2 partitions S: (a small FAT partition) & F: (NTFS

>> part for files) == 80GB ATA drive

>> physical drive D: = 3 partitions C:(my Win2K part), D:(future use), &

>> E:(file use) == 200GB SATA drive all NTFS

>>

>> this problem began when I installed Windows XP Pro on my D drive - I

>> replaced my W2K ntdetect & ntldr with the XP version and modified my

>> boot.ini

>>

>> I found that I could only run W2K with its ntdetect & ntldr and only run

>> the XP with its ntdetect & ntldr, not both...

>>

>> so, I have been switching and swapping these parameters hoping to find

>> the right combination, but now not even able to now get back to where I

>> can boot from any hard drive.

>>

>> I don't know what else to try or even how to get back to square 1.

>>

>> thanks for all your help and suggestions..

>>

>> rob

>

> You really need to tell us what exactly happens when you

> attempt to boot into Win2000. Without this information you

> leave us guessing.

>

>

hi - the message I get trying to boot is 'Windows 2000 could not start

because the following file is missing or corrupt <windows 2000

root>system32\ntoskrnl.exe - please re-install a copy of the above file'

 

this file does exist but I have also replaced it from the system disk...

 

rob

[Guest Dave Patrick]

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Are you swapping disks? Are you swapping boot.ini? Sounds like an incorrect

pointer to the Windows 2000 boot partition or invalid boot.ini

 

If you can post someone can help.

 

 

 

--

 

Regards,

 

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft MVP [Windows]

http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

"promicro" wrote:

> hi - the message I get trying to boot is 'Windows 2000 could not start

> because the following file is missing or corrupt <windows 2000

> root>system32\ntoskrnl.exe - please re-install a copy of the above file'

>

> this file does exist but I have also replaced it from the system disk...

>

> rob

[Guest promicro]

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Dave Patrick wrote:

> Are you swapping disks? Are you swapping boot.ini? Sounds like an

> incorrect pointer to the Windows 2000 boot partition or invalid boot.ini

>

> If you can post someone can help.

>

>

>

I did swap my primary boot disk in the cmos setup - my ata 80gig drive

seems to have to be the primary and my 200gig sata drive designated as

C: d: e: must be the secondary drive in my cmos, which is the reverse of

what I would like, but I can once again boot from my 80gb hard drive and

run Win2K on my C: 200gb drive...

 

I'm disappointed I can't boot on my secondary 200gig but at least I

don't need the boot floppy.

 

thanks to all, rob

[Guest Dave Patrick]

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

Re: thankx - here's what i did

 

You can't swap the disk and expect to be able to dual boot (not natively

anyway) The boot sector for both operating systems will always reside on the

system partition.

 

Also note the possible limitations here with regard to a system partition

greater than ~137 gB in size.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098

 

 

--

 

Regards,

 

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft MVP [Windows]

http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

"promicro" wrote:

> I did swap my primary boot disk in the cmos setup - my ata 80gig drive

> seems to have to be the primary and my 200gig sata drive designated as C:

> d: e: must be the secondary drive in my cmos, which is the reverse of what

> I would like, but I can once again boot from my 80gb hard drive and run

> Win2K on my C: 200gb drive...

>

> I'm disappointed I can't boot on my secondary 200gig but at least I don't

> need the boot floppy.

>

> thanks to all, rob