PartitionMagic & boot loop

[Norm]

Using PartitionMagic 8.0 on an older pentium system running Win98SE. I was attempting to delete a few empty FAT partitions, expand the C drive to take advantage of that space, and convert all to FAT32. I had already successfully done this on two other machines at the office.

The only obvious differences I could think of between this machine and the other two are that this machine was originally setup with Win95, it has since been upgraded to Win98SE. And At some point my father added a Dos menu screen that loads prior to Windows. It gives some system info and shortcut commands to various Dos programs. I think the boot momentarily pauses here at the C prompt, and if no command is given continues to load Windows.

When I rebooted in order to apply changes I made in PartitionMagic, the system booted to the screen with the Dos menu and presented the following querry:

You are currently running in ms-dos mode, do you want to run windows applications again [enter=y, esc=n]?

I chose yes and the computer booted back to Windows. PartitionMagic wasn't able to do it's thing so nothing had changed. A smarter man would have quit while he was ahead, but I went back through the process and this time chose the "No" response to the question. I was then presented with a C prompt. I typed WIN and rebooted. This time the system booted back to the same menu screen and question. And now does that no matter which response I give.

I attempted shutting down power and rebooting, booting to Windows CD & floppy disk, and using PartitionMagic CD & rescue disk. Nothing would break the loop. The good news is that I was able to boot to safe mode so that the system could be used today during office hours.

I decided best to stop, and seek advice here.

[GaryRouth]

If you no longer need the MS-DOS menu at startup, I imagine that it's an entry in the Autoexec.bat file that's pointing to a script of some sort.

To solve the problem long-term, you'd probably want to edit the Autoexec.bat - leaving anything in there that needs to be there, but removing any unwanted items.

To get a quick test to see if that's all that's wrong, you could rename the autoexec.bat file, and see if it boots more-or-less normally. To rename the autoexec.bat file, you'd use the "attrib -h -s -r" (without the quotes) command to remove it's hidden, system, and read-only attributes, then use the rename command - something like "rename autoexec.bat autoexec.old" (without the quotes) might do it. You can rename from the command line after booting from the CD (start computer with CD-rom support) or from a bootable floppy.

This might be the easiest way to get back into Windows, but I'm not sure if it will help Partition Magic finish moving things. A tech more familiar with Partition Magic might be able to help with that, though. I've used it in some pretty boring installations (Linux multi-boots with Win98se) - but never had the sort of situation you're seeing. Should be interesting.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[glc]

Gary, I think you are confusing autoexec.bat with msdos.sys - autoexec.bat has no attributes. You can rename and/or edit autoexec.bat and config.sys without having to do anything.

I would rename both config.sys and autoexec.bat and see if that brings you right into Windows upon rebooting. 98 should boot into Windows without either file being present. If so, you can open the renamed files in Notepad and examine them for issues before renaming them back.

Proper syntax from an A prompt (after booting with either a 98 CD or 98 startup floppy) is as follows:

ren c:\autoexec.bat autoexec.old
ren c:\config.sys config.old

If either .old file already exists, cancel and use some other extension such as .bak or .tmp.

If this doesn't take care of the issue, then your problem is in the msdos.sys file.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=118579

[GaryRouth]

[... thanks, glc, for fixing my goof - yes, autoexec.bat doesn't have those attributes like some of the other system files. And I even had a nap that day! Maybe one more cup of coffee will do it . . . ]

[Norm]

Thanks gentlemen, booted back into Windows after renaming config.sys and autoexec.bat .

Last weekend I attempted to use PatitionMagic again. I looked over the PartitionMagic user guide and found that Soundblaster DOS drivers were known to cause issues with PM operations requiring boot-mode.Those drivers were installed on this machine so I remarked them and rebooted. I really thought this would do the trick. Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem.

Now when I search through Windows for autoexec.bat I get two results, one in the program files:

@ECHO Off
PROMPT $P$G

REM -------------------------------------------------------
REM -- DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! IF YOU WISH TO ADD NETWORK --
REM -- OR CD-ROM DRIVERS, CUSTOM KEYBOARDS, ETC., PLEASE --
REM -- EDIT AUTOEXE2.BAT INSTEAD. --
REM -------------------------------------------------------

IF EXIST AUTOEXE2.BAT CALL AUTOEXE2.BAT

ECHO.
ECHO Please Insert PartitionMagic Disk 2
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO *** Press Any Key to Continue ***
ECHO.
PAUSE >NUL

ECHO Norton PartitionMagic 8.0
ECHO Copyright 1994-2004, Symantec Corp.
ECHO All rights reserved.
ECHO.
ECHO Loading. Please wait...
ECHO.

PQMAGIC


And one in the Windows folder:

@ECHO OFF
set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
set LglDrv=27 * 26 Z 25 Y 24 X 23 W 22 V 21 U 20 T 19 S 18 R 17 Q 16 P 15
set LglDrv=%LglDrv% O 14 N 13 M 12 L 11 K 10 J 9 I 8 H 7 G 6 F 5 E 4 D 3 C
cls
call setramd.bat %LglDrv%
set temp=c:\
set tmp=c:\
path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\
copy command.com %RAMD%:\ > NUL
set comspec=%RAMD%:\command.com
copy extract.exe %RAMD%:\ > NUL
copy readme.txt %RAMD%:\ > NUL

:ERROR
IF EXIST ebd.cab GOTO EXT
echo Please insert Windows 98 Startup Disk 2
echo.
pause
GOTO ERROR


Also I spent some time looking for any differences in the software on this machine and the others that had no problem with the PM software. I did notice this machine has a DOS folder in the Windows folder, while the other two do not.

I have no clue what to try next. As always, any suggestions/guidance will be appreciated.

[glc]

Is backing up data, wiping, and reinstalling not an option?

[edfair]

If the autoexec.bat and config.sys files are not in the root directory they are not normally involved with your problem.
When you have dual boot capabilities there are some naming issues. If you are in windows (or the underlying DOS) the autoexec.bat and config.sys involved with that version are named .bat and .sys and the corresponding files for DOS6.22 (which may be the predecessor OS) will be named with a .dos extension. If you are in DOS6.22 the .bat and .sys are the 6.22 versions and the windows version show as .w40 extension.
There are 2 possibilities for the menuing system you have. One is the one that gives 7 choices in SE (8 in 95) with msdos as the last. This is controlled by a line in msdos.sys (SE) that contains BootMenu=1. Same file accessed by 6.22 will be msdos.w40. File is SHR so attribs will need to be changed to allow access. The second possibility is a menuing system that is available in DOS and defined in the DOS version of config.sys by lines defining [menu item].
Your statement of multiple DOS commands available in the menu raises the question of which one you have , or possibly both.