windows boot screen

[superbee]

ok, i have 2 hard drives. On my master i have windows xp pro, secondary, i have windows me. What do i need in the startup and recovery boot text box. Heres what i have now:

[boot loader]
timeout=7
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect


I messed around with it and got the me selection to appear but is said somthing file corrupt, reinstall it.

Thanks

[Force Flow]

Try taking a look at this: http://www.thenakedpc.com/jim/multiboot/index.html

When it says it's corrupt, that means something in the boot.ini file is not correct. I remember that from when I had to write mine.

Try this:
[boot loader]
timeout=7
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
D:\="Microsoft Windows ME"

or instead of the last line, try:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows ME" /fastdetect

[superbee]

None of those ways worked, but i looked and in windows explorer it was drives C and F, so i did it like this:

boot loader]
timeout=7
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
F:\="Microsoft Windows ME"

But it wouldnt even let me select anything and it just goes to xp

[KHT]

Am I missing something? ME would have to be on the C:\ drive and XP Pro on the secondary, in this case F:\.

[superbee]

nope, xp is on C:/ and me is on F:/

Im pretty sure xp was on master...

[Markoman01027]

Superbee,

Windows ME has to be on C:\ and XP has to be on D:\(Logical Drive) Read this...

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=24831

[superbee]

ok, does this have any thing to do with my problem?
I unpluged the hard drive with XP on it and I put the one with ME on master, and set the jumpers to master.

I turn it on and it says: Disk I/O error Replace the disk and press any key.

Are the boot files gone from that hard drive??

I tried the CS jumper setting, and i also selected cd rom to boot first then i tried the hard drive to boot first.

When the ME hard drive is hooked up to master and XP on slave, it doesnt do anything, just goes black with the curser I think.

I can still access my hard drive when im on the XP one.

Thanks

[Force Flow]

Originally posted by Markoman01027 Windows ME has to be on C:\ and XP has to be on D:\(Logical Drive) Read this...

Ah. I forgot about that.

The oldest O/S comes first.

I don't think it necessarily has to be a logical drive though, does it?

[KHT]

I`m curious as to how you got into this situation to begin with.

How Me was installed on the F:\ drive, are both drives active primary partitions, etc?

As I understand, W9x must be on the C:\ drive and this must be a primary partition set active, W2000 and XP can be on extended partitions in a multi boot system.

force_flow, unless I`m mistaken, in any multi boot system, each OS should be installed on a different partition. Same physical drive is OK, I`ve installed multi boots on the same phys drive several times. I`ve been told multi boots can be setup on different directories on the same partition but I`ve never tried it, it seems an invitation for a nightmare of conflicts.

As far as this situation, you can try setting up the ME on the master and XP on the slave and try letting it boot to the XP cd and see if you can run the repair option.

[Force Flow]

Originally posted by KHT force_flow, unless I`m mistaken, in any multi boot system, each OS should be installed on a different partition. Same physical drive is OK, I`ve installed multi boots on the same phys drive several times. I`ve been told multi boots can be setup on different directories on the same partition but I`ve never tried it, it seems an invitation for a nightmare of conflicts.

Correct. Each O/S should have its own partiton. I just confirmed that an additional O/S (other than the boot O/S) can be on either a primary partition or a logical partition. Primary partition being the first partiton on another drive.

[reboot]

With two drives, how many partitions do you have on each, and what are the drive letters?
If "F" really is your Windows ME, and it's the 3rd partition on the primary master drive, then the line to add to boot.ini would read: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows ME"

[superbee]

i only have one partition on each

[superbee]

well, i give up. Can you guys tell me a simple free boot manager because that will work and i can seem to get the windows one to work so....

Thanks.

[KHT]

Have you tried setting up the drive with ME as master on the primary IDE? This will make it the C:\ drive as it must be in order to boot. Then set up the drive with XP on it as either slave on the primary IDE or master on the secondary IDE. This will make it either D:\ E:\ or F:\ depending on how you have created the partitions, what other opticals you have, etc.

Once this is done, running the repair option on XP Pro should setup the MS boot manager.

[superbee]

I put me on master and xp on slave on the primary ide. I booted and it did nothing, I asume its from not running the recovery consle. How do i run it, i booted with the xp disks and pushed R when it asked me and it said something like what os do you want to run it on and i just pushed 1, then it asked me for administrator password, i didnt have any passwords so i pushed enter, then i took me to C:WINDOWS. i hit help for a list of commands and i typed in fixboot. Did that screw anything up?

Anyways, what do i need to do on the recovery consle, thanks.

[KHT]

1) With ME on the master on the primary IDE it should have at least booted to ME.

2) Fixboot is the option you wanted to run so I`m assuming it hasn`t solved your problem.

How were the two OS`s installed from the beginning? Was ME originally on the C:\ drive and then XP installed later to a different partition as a multi boot? I`m getting a sense, and I may be wrong, that you are trying to "marry" two OS`s installed independently. ( you originally stated that XP was on C:\, ME on F:\) *IF* this is the case, XP is most likely on a primary partition set active which would be two active primary partitions on one system and this will cause problems. You only need one primary partition set active, that being on the master on the primary IDE channel. Every other partition from there on out, even on other physical drives, can be extended. In fact it is desireable to only create extended partitons instead of any other primary partitions.

A third party boot manager MAY solve the problem, I don`t know.

Anyway, that`s my spin on your situation as I view it. Quite possibly someone else here has some other ideas or suggestions.

[superbee]

OK, i had Me on the computer origionally, then i went and bought a 60 gig hard drive and put XP on it, i then put it in WITH the other one, so i have two hard drives.

Oh, on the not booting up, i changed an ide option to switch somthing and got it to boot with me on primary and xp on secondary, but the wierd thing is, it showed me on F: on windows explorer.??

Hope that cleared stuff up.

[KHT]

OK, is it feasible for you to keep ME on the primary partition, your 60 G drive as slave, uninstall XP and reinstall XP on the slave drive(selecting the option to choose the partition yourself) and allow XP to setup a multi boot system itself?

[mike breck]

What you should have done, was slave the new HD to the Me HD and then installed XP to the new drive. By having both HDs on the system, XP would have recognised the existance of Me and placed the necessary system files on the root of the Me drive (C: ).

Your easiest option now is to use a third-party Boot Manager to dual-boot the two OS:

http://www.osloader.com/

HTH

[superbee]

well, i might as well get up the motivation to reinstall xp again . I had that ole2000 or whatever but after a while it has a nag screen and makes you wait to boot up and that got so frickin annoying. So, i guess reinstall XP.

I just have to set it up so me on master, then the clean drive on slave, then should i boot up windows me and start install of XP from there, or should i boot up with the xp boot disks?

[KHT]

You can boot to ME and then insert the XP CD to start the setup.

*VERY IMPORTANT*, make sure you choose the option to select the partition you want to install XP to. If at any point before the installation starts you`re not sure, abort and start over. Follow the prompts and make sure you understand were XP is being installed and you will end up with a multi boot system.

It`s honestly a piece of cake if you pay attention..

[mike breck]

You don't need XP setup floppy disks.

You can either set First Boot Device in the BIOS to CD-Rom and boot up with XP CD or, as KHT has said, run XP setup from WinMe.

[mike breck]

You don't need XP setup floppy disks.

You can either set Boot Sequence in the BIOS to CD-Rom first and boot up with XP CD or, as KHT has said, run XP setup from WinMe.

[superbee]

OK, i start xp setup with xp on slave and me on master (even though is still shows me on F: and xp on C: ) I selected to delete partition, the one that had xp on it on the 60 gig. (it was an Nft? i forget what the type is, but it wasnt FAT32 like me. Anyways, i the formated it, installed it on the 60 on the only partition it had, during the install it did not ask to go to windows or setup when i rebooted and now that im done, it boots to xp without asking what os to boot from. And it STILL shows xp on C:. What the hell is wrong. piece of ....

[superbee]

Is it because xp is on the NFT file system and me on fat32? (i know its not called Nft) It only gave me that option when installing.

[superbee]

I GOT IT. woohooo, I just redid every frickin thing, all drives and stuff. I guess thats what it takes somtimes, full days works, and lots files lost but it done.

[Force Flow]

The format is NTFS.

Congrats on getting it working, Superbee