MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

March 8, 2008

Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive is essentially

a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup. Supposedly the backup

drive should be bootable and act just as the primary drive should the primary

drive fail.

It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running for my

system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this possible?) so

that I can boot from the primary drive by itself and the backup drive by

itself - but have both drives running at the same time (for backup purposes)?

Thanks for any advice you may have.

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 20:01:01 -0800

John66 <John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>

> I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive is

> essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

> Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just as the

> primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>

> It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

> for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>

> So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

> possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself and

> the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at the same

> time (for backup purposes)?

>

> Thanks for any advice you may have.

Do you mirror the drives, or do you image them?

disconnect the secondary drive, boot from the xp cd, select repair

(make sure you know your admin password) at the prompt type

fixboot - press enter and Y to confirm

fixmbr press enter and Y to confirm

exit to reboot.

re-plug the second drive.

--

Live & let live, or leave.

:-)

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Thank you for the information. I will follow your instructions.

Which admin password are you referring to?

Thanks again

"Holz" wrote:

> On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 20:01:01 -0800

> John66 <John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>

> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

> >

> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive is

> > essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just as the

> > primary drive should the primary drive fail.

> >

> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

> >

> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself and

> > the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at the same

> > time (for backup purposes)?

> >

> > Thanks for any advice you may have.

>

> Do you mirror the drives, or do you image them?

> disconnect the secondary drive, boot from the xp cd, select repair

> (make sure you know your admin password) at the prompt type

> fixboot - press enter and Y to confirm

> fixmbr press enter and Y to confirm

> exit to reboot.

> re-plug the second drive.

>

> --

> Live & let live, or leave.

> :-)

>

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 21:16:01 -0800

John66 <John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Which admin password are you referring to?

The original machine administrator password, the one you use in order

to log the Administrator account on the machine. If you did not add any

other accounts, that it is probably the only one.

--

Live & let live, or leave.

:-)

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

>> On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 20:01:01 -0800

>> John66 <John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>>

>> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>> >

>> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive is

>> > essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

>> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just as the

>> > primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>> >

>> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

>> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>> >

>> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

>> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself and

>> > the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at the same

>> > time (for backup purposes)?

>> >

>> > Thanks for any advice you may have.

> "Holz" wrote:

>> Do you mirror the drives, or do you image them?

>> disconnect the secondary drive, boot from the xp cd, select repair

>> (make sure you know your admin password) at the prompt type

>> fixboot - press enter and Y to confirm

>> fixmbr press enter and Y to confirm

>> exit to reboot.

>> re-plug the second drive.

"John66" <John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:09A32852-3034-4BA7-8C92-D7EF5D2B9ED7@microsoft.com...

> Thank you for the information. I will follow your instructions.

>

> Which admin password are you referring to?

>

> Thanks again

John66:

If Holtz's suggestion re using the XP Repair Console with the commands

he/she indicated works, fine. But I don't think that's the answer to your

problem.

What probably happened (as Holtz apparently suspects) is that you used a

disk-cloning program to clone the contents of your "source" HDD to your

secondary ("destination") HDD. (Although when you make comments like "The

second drive is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close)", that's

somewhat unnerving. "but close"??

Anyway, assuming that secondary HDD is a "true" clone of your source HDD and

should be bootable & functional in & of itself...

What probably happened is that *immediately* following the disk-cloning

operation (I'm assuming that secondary HDD is an *internal* HDD) you booted

the machine with *both* HDDs connected. In many (but not all) cases this is

a "no-no" following a disk-cloning operation. Immediately following the

disk-cloning operation you should *disconnect* the source HDD and boot

*directly* to your cloned HDD *without* the source HDD connected in the

system.

Determine that the cloned HDD is bootable & functional. After doing this,

power down the machine and reconnect your source HDD. (You can leave the

secondary cloned HDD still connected at this point. Thereafter you should be

able to boot to either HDD without any problem either through a change in

the BIOS boot order setting or simply disconnecting your source (primary)

HDD should you want to boot to your second HDD.

What's apparently happening now is that the system boot files are located on

your cloned secondary HDD so that when the system boots with both HDDs

connected it looks for those boot files (and finds them!) on the cloned

secondary HDD. So it needs both HDDs connected for a functional boot. As

I've indicated above I do not think a fixboot/fixmbr commands will correct

your present problem in this instance but try it and see what happens. It

would certainly make your life easier!

(As an aside...another reason that we prefer the Casper 4 disk-to-disk

cloning program (see http://www.fssdev.com) is that it avoids the type of

problem you have run into (assuming our diagnosis has been correct). We've

never run into a single problem with that program along the lines of the one

you described. We can leave both HDDs connected immediately following the

disk-cloning operation and there's no subsequent problem booting to either

HDD.)

Anna

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

"John66" wrote:

> Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>

> I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

> is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

> Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

> as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>

> It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

> for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>

> So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

> possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

> and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

> the same time (for backup purposes)?

I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

to the 2nd HD as well?

2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

*TimDaniels*

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

"Anna" wrote:

>

> (As an aside...another reason that we prefer the Casper 4 disk-to-disk cloning

> program (see http://www.fssdev.com) is that it avoids the type

> of problem you have run into (assuming our diagnosis has been correct).

> We've never run into a single problem with that program along the lines

> of the one you described. We can leave both HDDs connected immedi-

> ately following the disk-cloning operation and there's no subsequent

> problem booting to either HDD.)

> Anna

This is good news! That also means that OSes can be cloned to

other partitions on the same HDD without having to kludge around

with 3rd-party utilities to "hide" the parent partition when the clone is

first booted. I might have to break down and buy the new Casper.

*TimDaniels*

March 8, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

> "Anna" wrote:

>> (As an aside...another reason that we prefer the Casper 4 disk-to-disk

>> cloning program (see http://www.fssdev.com) is that it avoids the type

>> of problem you have run into (assuming our diagnosis has been correct).

>> We've never run into a single problem with that program along the lines

>> of the one you described. We can leave both HDDs connected immedi-

>> ately following the disk-cloning operation and there's no subsequent

>> problem booting to either HDD.)

>> Anna

"Timothy Daniels" <NoSpam@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message

news:%23cFtCpUgIHA.5752@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> This is good news! That also means that OSes can be cloned to

> other partitions on the same HDD without having to kludge around

> with 3rd-party utilities to "hide" the parent partition when the clone is

> first booted. I might have to break down and buy the new Casper.

>

> *TimDaniels*

It would be a wise choice...

Anna

March 10, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Thank you Tmothy and Anna for your replies.

I apologize for not responding more quickly - I was out of town.

When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning software. It was

not Ghost nor Casper. I want to say it was XXClone or the software that came

with the hard drive or some other demo version of software. It was so long

ago that I really can't remember what I used. I just recall that some of the

software just wouldn't clone without 'errors' of some sort so I would go on

to the next piece of software. I'm learning my lesson from that choice

now.... I now have an older version (7) of Acronis True Image that I will

probably try to use once I get this problem sorted out.

Timothy,

It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions. Drive 2

(backup) has the active partition.

The OS is in the BOOT partition

The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each other - on

different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the root

direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the ntldr

and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and ..\i386

directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the associated backup

drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

Thanks again for your time - it is very much appreciated.

John

"Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> "John66" wrote:

> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

> >

> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

> >

> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

> >

> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

>

> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

> to the 2nd HD as well?

> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

>

> *TimDaniels*

>

March 10, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

"fixmbr" command:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

(i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

(I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

Can they each do that separately?

It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

what their order is on the HD.

Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

*TimDaniels*

"John66" wrote:

> When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

> software.

> [.......]

> It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

> Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

>

> The OS is in the BOOT partition

>

> The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

> other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

>

> I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the root

> direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

> ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

> ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the associated

> backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

>

> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>

>> "John66" wrote:

>> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>> >

>> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

>> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

>> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

>> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>> >

>> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

>> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>> >

>> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

>> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

>> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

>> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

>>

>> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

>> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

>> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

>> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

>> to the 2nd HD as well?

>> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

>> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

>> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

>>

>> *TimDaniels*

>>

March 10, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Timothy,

I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper use of

terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Management window is

telling me.

In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a primary partition

that says 'system' in the status column. Also on disk 1 I have a logical

drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the status

column. No other partitions are marked with different statuses - all do say

'healthy'.

The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which has a status

of 'system'

[boot loader]

timeout=10

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly the same.

I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but was unable to

do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the problem I do. I had been

trying to come up with a better backup system to meet my needs.

Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which points

to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as 'boot' in the

disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of this found in the

associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to figure out which is the

correct one. I would assume the one found on the 'system' partion where the

ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as active, can

this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what steps would I take to

set things back to how they are now? I assume that I would just leave the

current disk 2 - system partition as active.

Here is the partition information

1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk management

- on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

3 - extended

4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

5 - logical

6 - primary

I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot from.

Thanks again,

John

"Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

> Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

> documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

> "fixmbr" command:

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

>

> I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

> that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

> HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

> only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

> can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

> (i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

>

> BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

> MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

> MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

> (I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

> Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

> should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

> pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

>

> Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

> be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

> Can they each do that separately?

>

> It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

> from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

> point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

> correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

> what their order is on the HD.

>

> Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

> for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

> Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

> that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

>

> *TimDaniels*

>

> "John66" wrote:

> > When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

> > software.

> > [.......]

> > It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

> > Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

> >

> > The OS is in the BOOT partition

> >

> > The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

> > other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

> >

> > I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the root

> > direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

> > ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

> > ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the associated

> > backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

> >

> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> >

> >> "John66" wrote:

> >> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

> >> >

> >> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

> >> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

> >> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

> >> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

> >> >

> >> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

> >> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

> >> >

> >> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

> >> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

> >> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

> >> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

> >>

> >> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

> >> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

> >> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

> >> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

> >> to the 2nd HD as well?

> >> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

> >> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

> >> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

> >>

> >> *TimDaniels*

> >>

>

March 10, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Since you didn't specify, I'll assume that the partition scheme that

you gave is identical for both HDs. Your boot.ini files both say to

load the OS from partition 4 or HD0 (your HD 1, probably, although

some BIOSes would allow you to set any HD to "HD0"). In my

experience, and conforming to MS documentation, the Primary

partitions are numbered first, followed by the logical drives (i.e.

logical partitions) in the Extended partition. And if your PC is like

the Dell machines, your OEM utility partition isn't entered in the

Partition Table. In that scheme, your first "logical partition" would

be numbered as "3". Why one or the other OS boots with

"partition(4)" in the boot.ini file, is a mystery to me. First, try

marking the1st Primary partition in HD0 (your HD 1) as "active".

To do that, in Disk Management, rt-click that partition in the

GUI and select "Mark Partition as Active". If you can't do that,

there is a problem beyond by knowledge. Next, in the boot.ini file

of HD0 (your HD 1), add lines under "[operating systems]" identical

to the line that is there, except that the value of "x" in "rdisk(x)" ranges

from 1 to 5. Also add this no. in the character string (between the

quotes) to let you know which line the screen menu corresponds to.

This should result in 5 lines. Then make that hard drive the only hard

drive in the system, and try booting, each time selecting a different

line from the boot menu that appears on the screen. Post which

no'd entry works. Do the same for your HD 2.

Remember that the boot files have to be in the Primary partition

that is marked "active". If you're finding boot files in Primary

partitions that are NOT marked "active", something has been hosed

since the time of installation.

*TimDaniels*

"John66" wrote:

> I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

> In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper

> use of terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Manage-

> ment window is telling me.

>

> In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a

> primary partition that says 'system' in the status column. Also on

> disk 1 I have a logical drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

>

> On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the

> status column. No other partitions are marked with different

> statuses - all do say 'healthy'.

>

> The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which

> has a status of 'system'

> [boot loader]

> timeout=10

> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

> [operating systems]

> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft

> Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>

> The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly

> the same.

>

> I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but

> was unable to do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the

> problem I do. I had been trying to come up with a better backup

> system to meet my needs.

>

> Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which

> points to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as

> 'boot' in the disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of

> this found in the associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to

> figure out which is the correct one. I would assume the one found

> on the 'system' partion where the ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

>

> Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as

> active, can this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what

> steps would I take to set things back to how they are now? I

> assume that I would just leave the current disk 2 - system partition

> as active.

>

> Here is the partition information

> 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

> 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk

> management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

> 3 - extended

> 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

> 5 - logical

> 6 - primary

>

> I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot

> from.

>

> Thanks again,

> John

>

> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>

>> If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

>> Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

>> documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

>> "fixmbr" command:

>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

>>

>> I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

>> that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

>> HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

>> only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

>> can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

>> (i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

>>

>> BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

>> MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

>> MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

>> (I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

>> Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

>> should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

>> pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

>>

>> Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

>> be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

>> Can they each do that separately?

>>

>> It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

>> from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

>> point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

>> correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

>> what their order is on the HD.

>>

>> Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

>> for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

>> Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

>> that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

>>

>> *TimDaniels*

>>

>> "John66" wrote:

>> > When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

>> > software.

>> > [.......]

>> > It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

>> > Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

>> >

>> > The OS is in the BOOT partition

>> >

>> > The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

>> > other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

>> >

>> > I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the root

>> > direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

>> > ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

>> > ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the associated

>> > backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

>> >

>> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>> >

>> >> "John66" wrote:

>> >> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>> >> >

>> >> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

>> >> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

>> >> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

>> >> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>> >> >

>> >> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

>> >> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>> >> >

>> >> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

>> >> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

>> >> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

>> >> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

>> >>

>> >> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

>> >> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

>> >> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

>> >> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

>> >> to the 2nd HD as well?

>> >> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

>> >> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

>> >> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

>> >>

>> >> *TimDaniels*

>> >>

>>

March 10, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

"John66" wrote:

> The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which has a status

> of 'system'

> [boot loader]

> timeout=10

> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

> [operating systems]

> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

> Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

I notice that in mid-June of last year you reported the identical

problem, only the boot.ini file then said "partition(3)". Would you

care to elaborate on what you've been doing with the HDs in the

meantime?

*TimDaniels*

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

The default Windows setup proceedure is to install "System" files in one

partition and "Boot" files in another partition (resulting in a system

designated partition and a boot designated partition)- if the partitions are

available.

However usually the "C" drive, as one partition, is selected for Windows

installation - in which case "System" and "Boot" files are installed in the

same partition - resulting in one system/boot partition.

"John66" <John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:58A5D545-9D3E-4CBA-9EC2-6DA8748A1F6C@microsoft.com...

> Timothy,

>

> I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

> In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper use of

> terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Management window is

> telling me.

>

> In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a primary partition

> that says 'system' in the status column. Also on disk 1 I have a logical

> drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

>

> On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the status

> column. No other partitions are marked with different statuses - all do

> say

> 'healthy'.

>

> The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which has a

> status

> of 'system'

> [boot loader]

> timeout=10

> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

> [operating systems]

> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

> Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>

> The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly the same.

>

> I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but was unable

> to

> do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the problem I do. I had

> been

> trying to come up with a better backup system to meet my needs.

>

> Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which points

> to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as 'boot' in

> the

> disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of this found in the

> associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to figure out which is the

> correct one. I would assume the one found on the 'system' partion where

> the

> ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

>

> Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as active,

> can

> this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what steps would I take

> to

> set things back to how they are now? I assume that I would just leave the

> current disk 2 - system partition as active.

>

> Here is the partition information

> 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

> 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk management

> - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

> 3 - extended

> 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

> 5 - logical

> 6 - primary

>

> I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot from.

>

> Thanks again,

> John

>

> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>

>> If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

>> Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

>> documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

>> "fixmbr" command:

>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

>>

>> I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

>> that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

>> HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

>> only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

>> can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

>> (i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

>>

>> BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

>> MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

>> MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

>> (I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

>> Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

>> should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

>> pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

>>

>> Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

>> be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

>> Can they each do that separately?

>>

>> It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

>> from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

>> point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

>> correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

>> what their order is on the HD.

>>

>> Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

>> for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

>> Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

>> that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

>>

>> *TimDaniels*

>>

>> "John66" wrote:

>> > When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

>> > software.

>> > [.......]

>> > It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

>> > Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

>> >

>> > The OS is in the BOOT partition

>> >

>> > The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

>> > other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

>> >

>> > I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the

>> > root

>> > direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

>> > ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

>> > ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the

>> > associated

>> > backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

>> >

>> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>> >

>> >> "John66" wrote:

>> >> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>> >> >

>> >> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

>> >> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

>> >> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

>> >> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>> >> >

>> >> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

>> >> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>> >> >

>> >> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

>> >> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

>> >> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

>> >> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

>> >>

>> >> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

>> >> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini,

>> >> ntdetect.com).

>> >> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

>> >> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

>> >> to the 2nd HD as well?

>> >> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

>> >> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

>> >> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

>> >>

>> >> *TimDaniels*

>> >>

>>

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

The installer does not select the "C:" partition in which to

install Windows. It names the partition into which it

installs Windows "C:" if that letter is available on the HD.

Otherwise it will choose another letter. But these letters

do not exist outside the running OS, so if a clone is made

of an OS which called its own partition "C:", and if that

clone is placed on a HD which contains other clones which

call their own partitions "C:", the OS among them which is

running will always refer to its own partition as "C:", and it

will refer to the patitions containing the other OSes by other

letter names. Since this behavior implies that the letter name

of a partition does not exist in the partition table, but rather

in the registry of the OS, it appears that the installer, in

searching for other Windows OSes in the system, inspects

the registries of those OSes that it finds on the local HD to

find out what those local OSes call their own partitions.

This fluidity of the identity of the "C:" drive seems, from my

reading of the NGs, to have started with the possibility of having

2 HDs, perhaps with Win95. My vague understanding is that

prior to that, "C:" was always the first partition on the single HD.

*TimDaniels*

"AJR" wrote:

> The default Windows setup proceedure is to install "System"

> files in one partition and "Boot" files in another partition

> (resulting in a system designated partition and a boot

> designated partition)- if the partitions are available.

>

> However usually the "C" drive, as one partition, is selected

> for Windows installation - in which case "System" and "Boot"

> files are installed in the same partition - resulting in one

> system/boot partition.

>

> "John66" wrote:

>> Timothy,

>>

>> I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

>> In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper use of

>> terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Management window is

>> telling me.

>>

>> In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a primary partition

>> that says 'system' in the status column. Also on disk 1 I have a logical

>> drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

>>

>> On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the status

>> column. No other partitions are marked with different statuses - all do say

>> 'healthy'.

>>

>> The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which has a status

>> of 'system'

>> [boot loader]

>> timeout=10

>> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

>> [operating systems]

>> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

>> Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>>

>> The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly the same.

>>

>> I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but was unable to

>> do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the problem I do. I had been

>> trying to come up with a better backup system to meet my needs.

>>

>> Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which points

>> to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as 'boot' in the

>> disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of this found in the

>> associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to figure out which is the

>> correct one. I would assume the one found on the 'system' partion where the

>> ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

>>

>> Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as active, can

>> this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what steps would I take to

>> set things back to how they are now? I assume that I would just leave the

>> current disk 2 - system partition as active.

>>

>> Here is the partition information

>> 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

>> 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk management

>> - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

>> 3 - extended

>> 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

>> 5 - logical

>> 6 - primary

>>

>> I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot from.

>>

>> Thanks again,

>> John

>>

>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>>

>>> If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

>>> Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

>>> documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

>>> "fixmbr" command:

>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

>>>

>>> I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

>>> that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

>>> HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

>>> only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

>>> can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

>>> (i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

>>>

>>> BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

>>> MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

>>> MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

>>> (I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

>>> Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

>>> should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

>>> pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

>>>

>>> Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

>>> be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

>>> Can they each do that separately?

>>>

>>> It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

>>> from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

>>> point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

>>> correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

>>> what their order is on the HD.

>>>

>>> Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

>>> for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

>>> Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

>>> that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

>>>

>>> *TimDaniels*

>>>

>>> "John66" wrote:

>>> > When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

>>> > software.

>>> > [.......]

>>> > It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

>>> > Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

>>> >

>>> > The OS is in the BOOT partition

>>> >

>>> > The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

>>> > other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

>>> >

>>> > I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the root

>>> > direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

>>> > ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

>>> > ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the associated

>>> > backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

>>> >

>>> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>>> >

>>> >> "John66" wrote:

>>> >> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>>> >> >

>>> >> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

>>> >> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

>>> >> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

>>> >> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>>> >> >

>>> >> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

>>> >> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>>> >> >

>>> >> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

>>> >> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

>>> >> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

>>> >> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

>>> >>

>>> >> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

>>> >> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

>>> >> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

>>> >> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

>>> >> to the 2nd HD as well?

>>> >> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

>>> >> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

>>> >> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

>>> >>

>>> >> *TimDaniels*

>>> >>

>>>

>

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:06:02 -0700, John66

<John66@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Timothy,

>

>I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

>In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper use of

>terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Management window is

>telling me.

>

>In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a primary partition

>that says 'system' in the status column. Also on disk 1 I have a logical

>drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

>

>On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the status

>column. No other partitions are marked with different statuses - all do say

>'healthy'.

>

>The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which has a status

>of 'system'

>[boot loader]

>timeout=10

>default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

>[operating systems]

>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

>Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>

>The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly the same.

>

>I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but was unable to

>do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the problem I do. I had been

>trying to come up with a better backup system to meet my needs.

>

>Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which points

>to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as 'boot' in the

>disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of this found in the

>associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to figure out which is the

>correct one. I would assume the one found on the 'system' partion where the

>ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

>

>Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as active, can

>this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what steps would I take to

>set things back to how they are now? I assume that I would just leave the

>current disk 2 - system partition as active.

The system partition has to be an active primary partition. Otherwise,

the partition would not be bootable, and therefore could not be the

system partition. In other words, the system partition is always

primary, and always active.

>

>Here is the partition information

>1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

>2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk management

> - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

>3 - extended

>4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

>5 - logical

>6 - primary

>

>I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot from.

>

>Thanks again,

>John

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Tim,

Basically I screwed up another computer around the same time I was working

on this problem - not a major loss but I lost confidence in what I was doing

and so just hoped for the best ( no failures). I did search for the previous

question I asked but could not find it - I still can't.

Since that time I have had two hard drive failures at work (not associated

with this problem or computer) - it put the scare back into me to make sure I

had a backup solution that worked. It was interesting how one of the failures

happened in the middle of making a complete backup. I lost the hard drive and

the backup at the same time - that is how my luck usually manfests itself.

As I mentioned in the previous post I found another boot.ini file which

pointed to partition 3 - so there are two boot.ini files on different

partitions. I don't think I did anything to the system to change things - at

least nothing I recall. I don't know which boot.ini file is actually being

used. I guess it would have to be the one that refers to partition 4 since

that one would be on the system partition based on my understanding.

To get the partition information I used the 'diskpart' command to list the

partitions. I'd never heard of it before, but assume it provides the correct

information.

Thanks again, I appreciate the opportunity you are affording me to learn and

stretch a bit out of my comfort zone.

John

"Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> "John66" wrote:

> > The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which has a status

> > of 'system'

> > [boot loader]

> > timeout=10

> > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

> > [operating systems]

> > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

> > Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>

> I notice that in mid-June of last year you reported the identical

> problem, only the boot.ini file then said "partition(3)". Would you

> care to elaborate on what you've been doing with the HDs in the

> meantime?

>

> *TimDaniels*

>

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Tim,

I am unsuccessful in setting the 1st primary partition as active. Here is a

summary of the partitions and if the option to set the partition to active is

available, greyed-out, or not available

1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows) ----Not Available

2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk ---Greyed-out

management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

3 - extended ---- Not applicable

4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition ----Not Available

5 - logical ----Not Available

6 - primary ----Available

These results are the same for the backup drive (disk 2 - HD(1)) as well.

Thanks,

John

"Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> Since you didn't specify, I'll assume that the partition scheme that

> you gave is identical for both HDs. Your boot.ini files both say to

> load the OS from partition 4 or HD0 (your HD 1, probably, although

> some BIOSes would allow you to set any HD to "HD0"). In my

> experience, and conforming to MS documentation, the Primary

> partitions are numbered first, followed by the logical drives (i.e.

> logical partitions) in the Extended partition. And if your PC is like

> the Dell machines, your OEM utility partition isn't entered in the

> Partition Table. In that scheme, your first "logical partition" would

> be numbered as "3". Why one or the other OS boots with

> "partition(4)" in the boot.ini file, is a mystery to me. First, try

> marking the1st Primary partition in HD0 (your HD 1) as "active".

> To do that, in Disk Management, rt-click that partition in the

> GUI and select "Mark Partition as Active". If you can't do that,

> there is a problem beyond by knowledge. Next, in the boot.ini file

> of HD0 (your HD 1), add lines under "[operating systems]" identical

> to the line that is there, except that the value of "x" in "rdisk(x)" ranges

> from 1 to 5. Also add this no. in the character string (between the

> quotes) to let you know which line the screen menu corresponds to.

> This should result in 5 lines. Then make that hard drive the only hard

> drive in the system, and try booting, each time selecting a different

> line from the boot menu that appears on the screen. Post which

> no'd entry works. Do the same for your HD 2.

>

> Remember that the boot files have to be in the Primary partition

> that is marked "active". If you're finding boot files in Primary

> partitions that are NOT marked "active", something has been hosed

> since the time of installation.

>

> *TimDaniels*

>

> "John66" wrote:

> > I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

> > In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper

> > use of terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Manage-

> > ment window is telling me.

> >

> > In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a

> > primary partition that says 'system' in the status column. Also on

> > disk 1 I have a logical drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

> >

> > On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the

> > status column. No other partitions are marked with different

> > statuses - all do say 'healthy'.

> >

> > The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which

> > has a status of 'system'

> > [boot loader]

> > timeout=10

> > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

> > [operating systems]

> > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft

> > Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

> >

> > The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly

> > the same.

> >

> > I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but

> > was unable to do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the

> > problem I do. I had been trying to come up with a better backup

> > system to meet my needs.

> >

> > Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which

> > points to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as

> > 'boot' in the disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of

> > this found in the associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to

> > figure out which is the correct one. I would assume the one found

> > on the 'system' partion where the ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

> >

> > Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as

> > active, can this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what

> > steps would I take to set things back to how they are now? I

> > assume that I would just leave the current disk 2 - system partition

> > as active.

> >

> > Here is the partition information

> > 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

> > 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk

> > management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

> > 3 - extended

> > 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

> > 5 - logical

> > 6 - primary

> >

> > I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot

> > from.

> >

> > Thanks again,

> > John

> >

> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> >

> >> If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

> >> Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

> >> documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

> >> "fixmbr" command:

> >> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

> >>

> >> I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

> >> that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

> >> HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

> >> only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

> >> can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

> >> (i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

> >>

> >> BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

> >> MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

> >> MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

> >> (I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

> >> Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

> >> should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

> >> pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

> >>

> >> Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

> >> be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

> >> Can they each do that separately?

> >>

> >> It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

> >> from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

> >> point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

> >> correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

> >> what their order is on the HD.

> >>

> >> Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

> >> for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

> >> Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

> >> that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

> >>

> >> *TimDaniels*

> >>

> >> "John66" wrote:

> >> > When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

> >> > software.

> >> > [.......]

> >> > It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

> >> > Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

> >> >

> >> > The OS is in the BOOT partition

> >> >

> >> > The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

> >> > other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

> >> >

> >> > I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the root

> >> > direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

> >> > ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

> >> > ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the associated

> >> > backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

> >> >

> >> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> >> >

> >> >> "John66" wrote:

> >> >> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

> >> >> >

> >> >> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

> >> >> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

> >> >> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

> >> >> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

> >> >> >

> >> >> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

> >> >> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

> >> >> >

> >> >> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

> >> >> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

> >> >> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

> >> >> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

> >> >>

> >> >> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

> >> >> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com).

> >> >> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

> >> >> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

> >> >> to the 2nd HD as well?

> >> >> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

> >> >> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

> >> >> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

> >> >>

> >> >> *TimDaniels*

> >> >>

> >>

>

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

"John66" wrote:

> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>> "John66" wrote:

>> > The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which

>> > has a status of 'system'

>> > [boot loader]

>> > timeout=10

>> > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

>> > [operating systems]

>> > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

>> > Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>>

>> I notice that in mid-June of last year you reported the identical

>> problem, only the boot.ini file then said "partition(3)". Would you

>> care to elaborate on what you've been doing with the HDs in the

>> meantime?

>>

>> *TimDaniels*

>>

>

> Basically I screwed up another computer around the same time

> I was working on this problem - not a major loss but I lost

> confidence in what I was doing and so just hoped for the best

> ( no failures). I did search for the previous question I asked but

> could not find it - I still can't.

Here it is:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/browse_thread/thread/8d94793e4a7fafda/51494bf99ca2f8d1?lnk=st&q=#51494bf99ca2f8d1

> Since that time I have had two hard drive failures at work

> (not associated with this problem or computer) - it put the scare

> back into me to make sure I had a backup solution that worked.

> It was interesting how one of the failures happened in the middle

> of making a complete backup. I lost the hard drive and the backup

> at the same time - that is how my luck usually manfests itself.

>

> As I mentioned in the previous post I found another boot.ini file

> which pointed to partition 3 - so there are two boot.ini files on

> different partitions. I don't think I did anything to the system to

> change things - at least nothing I recall. I don't know which boot.ini

> file is actually being used. I guess it would have to be the one that

> refers to partition 4 since that one would be on the system partition

> based on my understanding.

>

> To get the partition information I used the 'diskpart' command

> to list the partitions. I'd never heard of it before, but assume it

> provides the correct information.

>

> Thanks again, I appreciate the opportunity you are affording

> me to learn and stretch a bit out of my comfort zone.

> John

Would your computer by chance be a Dell? It seems that Dell

(and perhaps HP) use a special MBR that allows them to boot to

that proprietary utilities partition that is used for system diagnosis

by Dell's tech support staff when you call them with a problem

while the system is still under warranty. It is possible that the special

MBR got either mangled or replaced or rendered invalid by your

attempts at cloning. You can read background on this by going

to http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ and following *all* the links.

The solution to your problem might involve saying goodbye to that

utilities partition and using "fixmbr" to go with a standard MBR.

Also try adding those lines to the boot.ini file(s) to see which one

is successful in booting the OS in HD0.

Please use Disk Management to keep us on the same page.

*TimDaniels*

March 11, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

What do the nos. at the beginning of each line mean? Is there

really an Extended partition box in the 3rd place in the graphic

for Disk Management, followed by 2 boxes for logical partitions?

Where does the phrase "Not Available" appear?

Please say whether the current HD0 is the drive from the PC

manufacturer, or if it resulted from an attempt to clone HD1.

Please add the lines that I mentioned to the boot.ini files of

the system partitions on both HDs and try using them to see

which entry does what.

*TimDaniels*

"John66" wrote:

> I am unsuccessful in setting the 1st primary partition as active.

> Here is a summary of the partitions and if the option to set the

> partition to active is available, greyed-out, or not available

>

> 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows) ----Not Available

> 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk ---

> Greyed-out

> management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

> 3 - extended ---- Not applicable

> 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition ----Not Available

> 5 - logical ----Not Available

> 6 - primary ----Available

>

> These results are the same for the backup drive (disk 2 - HD(1))

> as well.

>

> Thanks,

> John

>

> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>

>> Since you didn't specify, I'll assume that the partition scheme that

>> you gave is identical for both HDs. Your boot.ini files both say to

>> load the OS from partition 4 or HD0 (your HD 1, probably, although

>> some BIOSes would allow you to set any HD to "HD0"). In my

>> experience, and conforming to MS documentation, the Primary

>> partitions are numbered first, followed by the logical drives (i.e.

>> logical partitions) in the Extended partition. And if your PC is like

>> the Dell machines, your OEM utility partition isn't entered in the

>> Partition Table. In that scheme, your first "logical partition" would

>> be numbered as "3". Why one or the other OS boots with

>> "partition(4)" in the boot.ini file, is a mystery to me. First, try

>> marking the1st Primary partition in HD0 (your HD 1) as "active".

>> To do that, in Disk Management, rt-click that partition in the

>> GUI and select "Mark Partition as Active". If you can't do that,

>> there is a problem beyond by knowledge. Next, in the boot.ini file

>> of HD0 (your HD 1), add lines under "[operating systems]" identical

>> to the line that is there, except that the value of "x" in "rdisk(x)" ranges

>> from 1 to 5. Also add this no. in the character string (between the

>> quotes) to let you know which line the screen menu corresponds to.

>> This should result in 5 lines. Then make that hard drive the only hard

>> drive in the system, and try booting, each time selecting a different

>> line from the boot menu that appears on the screen. Post which

>> no'd entry works. Do the same for your HD 2.

>>

>> Remember that the boot files have to be in the Primary partition

>> that is marked "active". If you're finding boot files in Primary

>> partitions that are NOT marked "active", something has been hosed

>> since the time of installation.

>>

>> *TimDaniels*

>>

>> "John66" wrote:

>> > I will start reading from the link you provided for fixing the MBR.

>> > In light of my possible getting things confused with my improper

>> > use of terminology I will restate a little of what the Disk Manage-

>> > ment window is telling me.

>> >

>> > In the Disk management window I see hard disk 1 having a

>> > primary partition that says 'system' in the status column. Also on

>> > disk 1 I have a logical drive partition which has a status of 'boot'

>> >

>> > On disk 2 I have a primary partition which says 'Active' in the

>> > status column. No other partitions are marked with different

>> > statuses - all do say 'healthy'.

>> >

>> > The following is the boot.ini file which comes off disk 1 which

>> > has a status of 'system'

>> > [boot loader]

>> > timeout=10

>> > default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS

>> > [operating systems]

>> > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft

>> > Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

>> >

>> > The boot.ini file from the associated backup (disk 2) is exactly

>> > the same.

>> >

>> > I have previously tried booting from each drive separately but

>> > was unable to do so. in fact that is how I found out I have the

>> > problem I do. I had been trying to come up with a better backup

>> > system to meet my needs.

>> >

>> > Now what is interesting is that I found another boot.ini file which

>> > points to a different partition (3) in the partion which is marked as

>> > 'boot' in the disk management screen. Likewise there is a copy of

>> > this found in the associated backup file on disk 2. --- I'll have to

>> > figure out which is the correct one. I would assume the one found

>> > on the 'system' partion where the ntldr and ntdetect files are found.

>> >

>> > Now if I mark Disk 1 ('system' partition as per disk manager) as

>> > active, can this cause the system to not boot up? If it can, what

>> > steps would I take to set things back to how they are now? I

>> > assume that I would just leave the current disk 2 - system partition

>> > as active.

>> >

>> > Here is the partition information

>> > 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows)

>> > 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk

>> > management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

>> > 3 - extended

>> > 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition

>> > 5 - logical

>> > 6 - primary

>> >

>> > I do not have a BIOS option for selecting which hard drive to boot

>> > from.

>> >

>> > Thanks again,

>> > John

>> >

>> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>> >

>> >> If you want to try repairing the MBR of HD1, you can use the

>> >> Recovery Console in your WinXP installation CD. Here is

>> >> documentation on the Recovery Console and the syntax of the

>> >> "fixmbr" command:

>> >> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

>> >>

>> >> I'm surprised that that there is no Primary partition on HD1

>> >> that is marked "active", but tha there is such a partition on

>> >> HD2. Usually there is no "active" flag visible in Disk Management

>> >> only if there is just one partition on the HD. Try seeing if you

>> >> can mark the partition with the ntldr/boot.ini/ntdetect.com files

>> >> (i.e. the "System" partition) as being "active". Then try booting.

>> >>

>> >> BTW, I'm not sure if you know Microsoft's partition terminology.

>> >> MS calls the partition with the boot files the "System" partitions.

>> >> MS calls the partition with the system files the "Boot" partition.

>> >> (I know, it's counter-intuitive, but it's for historical reasons.)

>> >> Thus, on your HDs, the "System" partition (the one with the boot files)

>> >> should be marked "active" for the executable code in the MBR to

>> >> pass control to the Boot Sector of that partition.

>> >>

>> >> Since both HDs have the same boot.ini and OSes, they each should

>> >> be able to boot their OSes if they are the only HD in the system.

>> >> Can they each do that separately?

>> >>

>> >> It would further help if you listed the contents of the boot.ini file

>> >> from each of the HDs. Then we could see if the values of rdisk()

>> >> point to the correct HDs and whether the values of partition() are

>> >> correct. Also tell us how many partitions there on each HD and

>> >> what their order is on the HD.

>> >>

>> >> Last question: Does your BIOS allow you to set the boot order

>> >> for the hard drives? (That is NOT the "Boot Sequence", but the

>> >> Hard Drive Boot Order.) Some BIOSes in pre-SATA days had

>> >> that, and it defined the meaning of the argument in "rdisk()".

>> >>

>> >> *TimDaniels*

>> >>

>> >> "John66" wrote:

>> >> > When I created my second hard drive I did use some cloning

>> >> > software.

>> >> > [.......]

>> >> > It appears that drive 1 has the system and boot partitions.

>> >> > Drive 2 (backup) has the active partition.

>> >> >

>> >> > The OS is in the BOOT partition

>> >> >

>> >> > The SYSTEM and ACTIVE partitions are essentially copies of each

>> >> > other - on different disks. They are not on the boot drive\partition.

>> >> >

>> >> > I searched for the BOOT.ini file, it is in the BOOT partition in the

>> >> > root

>> >> > direcory and the associated backup drive. The only references to the

>> >> > ntldr and ntdetect.com files are in the ..\$ntservicepackuninstall$ and

>> >> > ..\i386 directories of both the 'boot' drive\partition and the

>> >> > associated

>> >> > backup drive. I do have the 'show hidden' checkbox marked.

>> >> >

>> >> > "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>> >> >

>> >> >> "John66" wrote:

>> >> >> > Can anybody point me in the right direction here.

>> >> >> >

>> >> >> > I have 2 hard drives installed on my system. The second drive

>> >> >> > is essentially a copy (not a mirror but close) I use as my backup.

>> >> >> > Supposedly the backup drive should be bootable and act just

>> >> >> > as the primary drive should the primary drive fail.

>> >> >> >

>> >> >> > It turns out that I need to have both drives installed and running

>> >> >> > for my system to boot. I assume this is because of the MBR.

>> >> >> >

>> >> >> > So, how do I go about fixing the MBR on both drives (is this

>> >> >> > possible?) so that I can boot from the primary drive by itself

>> >> >> > and the backup drive by itself - but have both drives running at

>> >> >> > the same time (for backup purposes)?

>> >> >>

>> >> >> I will assume that the 2nd HD contains a clone of the OS that is

>> >> >> in the 1st HD, including the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini,

>> >> >> ntdetect.com).

>> >> >> 1) Did you make the clone with Ghost? If so, did you tell it to mark

>> >> >> the clone's partition "active", and/or did you tell it to copy the MBR

>> >> >> to the 2nd HD as well?

>> >> >> 2) Which partitions on both HDs are marked "active"?

>> >> >> 3) What do those "active" partitions contain?

>> >> >> 4) Which partitions are the OSes in?

>> >> >>

>> >> >> *TimDaniels*

>> >> >>

>> >>

>>

March 12, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Tim,

Sorry for not more carefully explaining things!

Regarding your question about the numbers and what they mean...The numbers

at the beginning of the lines referenced the partion numbers in the previous

posts (which were found by using the 'diskpart' command). I will now attempt

to describe what I see in the disk management screen (graphic):

For disk HD(0) or my disk 1, starting from left to right....

Primary partition - Utility partition

Primary partition - marked as 'system'

Logical Drive - marked as 'Boot'

Logical Drive -

Primary partition -

Note: the two logical drives are surrounded by a green box indicating that

they are part of an extended partiton.

For disk HD(1) or my disk 2, starting from left to right....

Primary partition - Utility partition

Primary partition - marked as 'Active'

Logical Drive -

Primary partition -

Note: the two logical drives are surrounded by a green box indicating that

they are part of an extended partiton.

I attempted to change the first primary partion (not the utility partition)

to 'active' as you asked me to do. However, when right-clicking on the

drive, the option to 'mark partition as active' is greyed out. In other

words I am unable to select the option. Doing a similar process on each of

the remaining partitions produced various results. In some cases there was

not even an option to 'mark partion as active' available (whereas other

partitions might have the option showing and others would have it showing but

greyed out).

Here are the results as to whether the 'mark partition as active' is an

option I can choose when right-clicking on each partition in the disk

management console.

For disk HD(0) or my disk 1......

Primary partition - Utility partition - option does not show up

Primary partition - marked as 'system' - option shows up but is greyed out

Logical Drive - marked as 'Boot' - - option does not show up

Logical Drive - - option does not show up

Primary partition - Option shows up and I could choose this partition as

active

For disk HD(1) the option to 'mark partition as active' for the partitions

is the same as for HD(0).

Regarding your question as to where 'not available' shows up...The phrase

'not available' is what I made up to describe whether or not the option to

'mark partition as active' showed up when I right-clicked the partition.

HD(0) was cloned from the original HD that came with the PC. It was done

with software that came with the new HD.

I will try to modify the boot.ini file as you described next. I was under

the impression that if I could not mark the HD(0) primary partition as active

then I would be out of luck. I will report back after I finish.

Regarding your other post.... This is a Dell PC - no longer in warranty. I

do not care whether or not I have a utility partition. Thank you for the link

regarding the Dell PCs. I will not be able to pursue this problem until

tomorrow because of prior commitments. I will post when I have completed the

boot.ini task.

Thank you,

John

"Timothy Daniels" wrote:

> What do the nos. at the beginning of each line mean? Is there

> really an Extended partition box in the 3rd place in the graphic

> for Disk Management, followed by 2 boxes for logical partitions?

>

> Where does the phrase "Not Available" appear?

>

> Please say whether the current HD0 is the drive from the PC

> manufacturer, or if it resulted from an attempt to clone HD1.

>

> Please add the lines that I mentioned to the boot.ini files of

> the system partitions on both HDs and try using them to see

> which entry does what.

>

> *TimDaniels*

>

> "John66" wrote:

> > I am unsuccessful in setting the 1st primary partition as active.

> > Here is a summary of the partitions and if the option to set the

> > partition to active is available, greyed-out, or not available

> >

> > 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows) ----Not Available

> > 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk ---

> > Greyed-out

> > management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

> > 3 - extended ---- Not applicable

> > 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition ----Not Available

> > 5 - logical ----Not Available

> > 6 - primary ----Available

> >

> > These results are the same for the backup drive (disk 2 - HD(1))

> > as well.

SNIP.................................

March 12, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

According to the Disk Management GUI, the boot files reside

in the "system" partition on HD0. The OS resides in the 1st

logical partition (the "boot" partition), also on HD0. And the

mystery is:

1) why the 2nd HD is needed, since the boot.ini files on both HDs

say to find the OS on HD0, and

2) why the boot.ini files say to get the OS from partition(4) and

not partition(3).

I think the problem is caused by cloning the original Dell HD, in

which Dell's proprietary MBR was either overwritten by a standard

MBR in the clone - or by a change in the disk signature resulting

from changes in the size and no. of partitions on the HD, which the

proprietary Dell MBR saw and interpreted as an attempt at pirating

the Dell utility partition. Since you don't need the Dell utility partition,

just delete that partition, and using the Recovery Console in a

Windows XP installation CD, run "fixmbr" to standardize the MBR.

Then see if you can mark the system partition (containing the boot files)

as "active", If so, add those extra entries that I mentioned to the

boot.ini file in the system partition which designate the boot partition

as being partition 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Then see if HD0 will boot as a

sole HD with one of the resulting boot menu selections.

*TimDaniels*

"John66" wrote:

> Regarding your question about the numbers and what they mean...

> The numbers at the beginning of the lines referenced the partion

> numbers in the previous posts (which were found by using the

> 'diskpart' command). I will now attempt to describe what I see

> in the disk management screen (graphic):

>

> For disk HD(0) or my disk 1, starting from left to right....

>

> Primary partition - Utility partition

> Primary partition - marked as 'system'

> Logical Drive - marked as 'Boot'

> Logical Drive -

> Primary partition -

>

> Note: the two logical drives are surrounded by a green box

> indicating that they are part of an extended partiton.

>

> For disk HD(1) or my disk 2, starting from left to right....

>

> Primary partition - Utility partition

> Primary partition - marked as 'Active'

> Logical Drive -

> Primary partition -

>

> Note: the two logical drives are surrounded by a green box

> indicating that they are part of an extended partiton.

>

> I attempted to change the first primary partion (not the

> utility partition) to 'active' as you asked me to do. However,

> when right-clicking on the drive, the option to 'mark partition

> as active' is greyed out. In other words I am unable to select

> the option. Doing a similar process on each of the remaining

> partitions produced various results. In some cases there was

> not even an option to 'mark partion as active' available

> (whereas other partitions might have the option showing and

> others would have it showing but greyed out).

>

> Here are the results as to whether the 'mark partition as active'

> is an option I can choose when right-clicking on each partition

> in the disk management console.

>

> For disk HD(0) or my disk 1......

> Primary partition - Utility partition - option does not show up

> Primary partition - marked as 'system' - option shows up but

> is greyed out

> Logical Drive - marked as 'Boot' - - option does not show up

> Logical Drive - - option does not show up

> Primary partition - Option shows up and I could choose this

> partition as active

>

> For disk HD(1) the option to 'mark partition as active' for

> the partitions is the same as for HD(0).

>

> Regarding your question as to where 'not available' shows up...

> The phrase 'not available' is what I made up to describe whether

> or not the option to 'mark partition as active' showed up when

> I right-clicked the partition.

>

> HD(0) was cloned from the original HD that came with the PC.

> It was done with software that came with the new HD.

>

> I will try to modify the boot.ini file as you described next.

> I was under the impression that if I could not mark the HD(0)

> primary partition as active then I would be out of luck. I will

> report back after I finish.

>

> Regarding your other post.... This is a Dell PC - no longer

> in warranty. I do not care whether or not I have a utility partition.

> Thank you for the link regarding the Dell PCs. I will not be able

> to pursue this problem until tomorrow because of prior commitments.

> I will post when I have completed the boot.ini task.

>

> Thank you,

> John

>

> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:

>

>> What do the nos. at the beginning of each line mean? Is there

>> really an Extended partition box in the 3rd place in the graphic

>> for Disk Management, followed by 2 boxes for logical partitions?

>>

>> Where does the phrase "Not Available" appear?

>>

>> Please say whether the current HD0 is the drive from the PC

>> manufacturer, or if it resulted from an attempt to clone HD1.

>>

>> Please add the lines that I mentioned to the boot.ini files of

>> the system partitions on both HDs and try using them to see

>> which entry does what.

>>

>> *TimDaniels*

>>

>> "John66" wrote:

>> > I am unsuccessful in setting the 1st primary partition as active.

>> > Here is a summary of the partitions and if the option to set the

>> > partition to active is available, greyed-out, or not available

>> >

>> > 1 - OEM (a utility partition - non windows) ----Not Available

>> > 2 - primary - this would be the 'system' partition as per disk ---

>> > Greyed-out

>> > management - on the backup drive this is the 'active' partition

>> > 3 - extended ---- Not applicable

>> > 4 - logical - this is the 'boot' partition ----Not Available

>> > 5 - logical ----Not Available

>> > 6 - primary ----Available

>> >

>> > These results are the same for the backup drive (disk 2 - HD(1))

>> > as well.

> SNIP.................................

March 12, 2008

Re: MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

You may not even need to delete the Dell utility partition

if you think you'll never need another Primay partition on the

HD. Just let it sit there unused (and unuseable) and re-

standardize the MBR.

*TimDaniels*

Sign In

MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

Recommended Posts

Guest John66

Popular Days

Popular Days

Guest Holz

Guest John66

Guest Holz

Guest Anna

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest Anna

Guest John66

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest John66

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest AJR

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest Andy

Guest John66

Guest John66

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest John66

Guest Timothy Daniels

Guest Timothy Daniels

Similar Content

How can I fixing black screen issues on my windows 10?

My laptop is overheating, how can I fix it?

How to fix this problem??

How to fix blue screen crash?

How can I fix my clipboard?

Browse

Activity

Site Info