Back to multi-booting the RAID - again. . .

February 19, 2008

Over the years, I've kept my multi-boot configurations in a fairly short

leash and they've come and gone with regularity. When I set up the present

64bit system, I wanted a RAID and I wanted to keep it reasonably clean with

just the XP x64 and one Linux (to keep abreast with RAID support on Linux).

Things got complicated when several of the simulators I depend on turned out

to install, but not run in a 64bit environment and soon I fell back to

spinal reactions and I had three systems booting on that RAID. All was well

and completely uneventful for the last couple of years, but RAID support on

Linux is closely attached to the Uncertainty Principle (unless you want

Software RAID), and I didn't feel I could depend on the frequent updates to

'slip in there' in the seemless fashion you'd like for a workhorse

production system. So, Linux was elbow'ed out of there, but I kept the Grub

boot manager hanging around out of sentimentality.

Then, updates took care of the simulators one-by-one, and I was in a

situation where I could see myself having most everything installed in one

single system on that RAID. Since the simulators are of the Racing kind, I

needed something else beyond the Joystick, and I bought a very expensive

Racing Wheel Controler, and even that had 64bit drivers and all was as

'honky-dorey' as can be.

I removed the 32bit XP system, and I felt that Grub wasn't making much sense

any longer so I inserted the 64bit XP system DVD and ran FIXMBR. Before

removing Grub, but after removing XP, I had installed everything onto XP 64

and all went well, the Simulators started up fine, and the Controler was

functioning and calibrated on the system, but then setting it up promptly

crashed one of the games. I re-installed several times without any luck. The

controler runs fine - the Simulators run fine and there is no trouble

configuring the Controler in the one game, but it is crashing the other.

This is the point where you'd like to rip off an arm, or something, because

I was absolutely sure that running the 64bit FIXMBR tool would preserve the

bootsector for that system. This is like having a zoo of perfectly well

trained and dependable Lions, Tigers, Bears and Seals and you wake up

wondering: "Where is the zoo?"

O.K. - So I wade through the XP DVD looking for the Boot Config files, but I

can only find NTLDR and NTDETECT. There has to be one or two more, surely?

Worse, there is absolutely nothing on the XP 64 partition root directory,

except some HP *.DLL that belongs to the printer.

So, I'm back to square one, more or less. I re-installed XP Home to it's old

partition and it boots and I can access everything from there, but I need to

restore the XP 64 boot option. I have lost count of how many times John

(Barnes) has suggested people to make a copy of those files, and I honestly

believed I had them stowed away somewhere, but where?

Apparently, the complexity of having a multi-boot configuration on a RAID

hasn't quite hit home with me yet. I was certain that the boot-sector was

still inhabiting a well defined physical domain on the first HD, but it now

seems as though there is no knowledge maintained of what goes where outside

of some mathematical algorithm.

Please, I have some chestnuts in the fire - if I can somehow save myself the

trouble of the 'Repair Install', I'd appreciate a 'rake' right now!

Tony. . .

February 19, 2008

Re: Back to multi-booting the RAID - again. . .

OK, so you installed XP 32 bit after the XP x64, correct? And now you can't

see the XP x64, of course.

Blogged in November of 2005...

http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64/archive/2005/11/21/76180.aspx

Check the Wrong Order section.

--

Charlie.

http://msmvps.com/xperts64

http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel

"Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message

news:%23df2EYucIHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> Over the years, I've kept my multi-boot configurations in a fairly short

> leash and they've come and gone with regularity. When I set up the present

> 64bit system, I wanted a RAID and I wanted to keep it reasonably clean

> with just the XP x64 and one Linux (to keep abreast with RAID support on

> Linux).

>

> Things got complicated when several of the simulators I depend on turned

> out to install, but not run in a 64bit environment and soon I fell back to

> spinal reactions and I had three systems booting on that RAID. All was

> well and completely uneventful for the last couple of years, but RAID

> support on Linux is closely attached to the Uncertainty Principle (unless

> you want Software RAID), and I didn't feel I could depend on the frequent

> updates to 'slip in there' in the seemless fashion you'd like for a

> workhorse production system. So, Linux was elbow'ed out of there, but I

> kept the Grub boot manager hanging around out of sentimentality.

>

> Then, updates took care of the simulators one-by-one, and I was in a

> situation where I could see myself having most everything installed in one

> single system on that RAID. Since the simulators are of the Racing kind, I

> needed something else beyond the Joystick, and I bought a very expensive

> Racing Wheel Controler, and even that had 64bit drivers and all was as

> 'honky-dorey' as can be.

>

> I removed the 32bit XP system, and I felt that Grub wasn't making much

> sense any longer so I inserted the 64bit XP system DVD and ran FIXMBR.

> Before removing Grub, but after removing XP, I had installed everything

> onto XP 64 and all went well, the Simulators started up fine, and the

> Controler was functioning and calibrated on the system, but then setting

> it up promptly crashed one of the games. I re-installed several times

> without any luck. The controler runs fine - the Simulators run fine and

> there is no trouble configuring the Controler in the one game, but it is

> crashing the other.

>

> This is the point where you'd like to rip off an arm, or something,

> because I was absolutely sure that running the 64bit FIXMBR tool would

> preserve the bootsector for that system. This is like having a zoo of

> perfectly well trained and dependable Lions, Tigers, Bears and Seals and

> you wake up wondering: "Where is the zoo?"

>

> O.K. - So I wade through the XP DVD looking for the Boot Config files, but

> I can only find NTLDR and NTDETECT. There has to be one or two more,

> surely?

>

> Worse, there is absolutely nothing on the XP 64 partition root directory,

> except some HP *.DLL that belongs to the printer.

>

> So, I'm back to square one, more or less. I re-installed XP Home to it's

> old partition and it boots and I can access everything from there, but I

> need to restore the XP 64 boot option. I have lost count of how many times

> John (Barnes) has suggested people to make a copy of those files, and I

> honestly believed I had them stowed away somewhere, but where?

>

> Apparently, the complexity of having a multi-boot configuration on a RAID

> hasn't quite hit home with me yet. I was certain that the boot-sector was

> still inhabiting a well defined physical domain on the first HD, but it

> now seems as though there is no knowledge maintained of what goes where

> outside of some mathematical algorithm.

>

> Please, I have some chestnuts in the fire - if I can somehow save myself

> the trouble of the 'Repair Install', I'd appreciate a 'rake' right now!

>

> Tony. . .

>

February 19, 2008

Re: Back to multi-booting the RAID - again. . .

Hi, Tony.

> O.K. - So I wade through the XP DVD looking for the Boot Config files, but

> I can only find NTLDR and NTDETECT. There has to be one or two more,

> surely?

There are NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM, plus Boot.ini, which is not copied from

the CD but built on the HD by Setup. And then there is the boot sector,

which is not a file at all; you can't use "normal" tools to copy it, delete

it or even read it. It is simply the first physical sector of the System

Partition. It also is written by Setup.

This is been the startup file configuration ever since WinNT4.0, at least;

that's where I started dual-booting, first with Win95, which I quickly

upgraded to Win98. Then I replaced WinNT with Win2K for about 20 months,

until Win XP arrived. Since I phased out Win98 several years ago, I ran

only multiple installations of WinXP Pro until I added WinXP x64, which I

never did get comfy with, mostly because ATI never produced adequate drivers

for my All-In-Wonder card and Symantec never updated NIS 2005 to work with

x64.

FIXMBR, as the name suggests, fixes the MBR (Master Boot Record) which,

along with the partition table, is on the first physical sector of the hard

drive. This is NOT the boot sector, which is the first physical sector of

each partition on the drive. Each physical hard disk will have a single

MBR, plus one boot sector for each volume with an operating system

installed. But the MBR and the boot sector are alike in that they are not

files. They are outside the FAT or NTFS file structure and can't be touched

by normal file handlers. You can't Xcopy or Del the MBR or boot sector; you

can't Edit one in Notepad, either. They are created by the modern

equivalents of FDISK and Format and by WinXP or Vista's Setup utilities and

are not easily changed. That's why we need the Recovery Console for WinXP,

to handle these sectors while not actually booted into Windows.

I'm sure you know all this, Tony, but it helps to review it, just to be sure

that we're on the same page. ;^}

RC

--

R. C. White, CPA

San Marcos, TX

rc@grandecom.net

Microsoft Windows MVP

(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message

news:#df2EYucIHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...