Reinstalling Xp on a W2K dual boot sys

Z

Zakey

Guest
Hi,

I have a dual XP and W2K boot (XP on C: drive and W2K on D: drive). I want to wipe out my XP C: drive and reinstall. Easy enough, however I've done it once before and upon reinstallation of the new C: drive OS, the 2nd OS choice on the startup screen wasn't there. Even though the whole D: drive and OS where in tact, I couldn't access it. Any ideas of how to do this successfully?

Thanks,

J
 
Im not sure how or possible. but uselly you have to install the earliest ver of windows on the C: drive (if this is your primary/active) and the newest ver of windows on the second drive.
 
Zakey,

Hey I believe all you should have to do is copy the Boot.ini file (Found in your Root "C:\") before you wipe out the XP installation. This is the file that tells windows when it first starts up, from which partition it should load, from where and in the case of multiple instances (i.e. dual boot) it will prompt you on which version you wish to load.

You 'could' modify the boot.ini file after you have installed XP fresh, but it's just easier to copy it back to the C:\ location once you're ready to go.

Now I could be mistaken, there may be more files you need, but I'm pretty sure this is it!

Anyone else have any input?

Good luck.


-Matt
 
hey, cool, i never knew about that
does this apply to windows 95 too...?
 
It should, but I haven't even looked at 95 since, well... nearly 95! Haha, so I may not be as much help to you there. Why would you even bother w/ 95?

I hope it all works once you get done!

:D

-Matt
 
Hi,

Did a search and found only the 'boot.ini.backup' in the C:Windows\pss folder. Is this definately the same as the boot.ini that is in other OS's? Seems to me I remember it in a different folder withing Win 9X or W2K and didin't have the '.backup' exstension. Also, when accessing the startup folder in 'Control Panel>system>advanced>startup and recovery' the version of the boot.ini file is different from the one I just found when I did a search. I'm confused...

Thanks again for your help,

J
 
That's becuase that file is a backup. There is anoter boot.ini file located in your C:\ drive. It will be a hidden file so make sure in Windows explorer that you have "show hidden files" checked. Once you do that the file will appear somewhat transparent and you should be able to see it then. Use the one in your C:\ drive as this will be the one that windows uses to boot.

Hope that helps.
 
Just want to say thanks Landrvr for all the help so far! However, I have a problem, I have my 'show hidden files' checked but still can't see the boot file.

J
 
Hey Zakey,

No problem at all, I like to help when I can. :cool:
So now you can't find the boot.ini file on the C:\, hmm that seems a bit odd to me. I also have a backup boot.ini file in the windows\pss directory, but my main one is still in the root.

Double check everything to make sure that you didn't overlook anything (although I'm assuming you already have) and if that still doesn't yield anything compare both the boot.ini.back and the boot.ini you found in the system/advanced/startup & recovery tab and write them both in here. I'll take a look at them and see if there's anything I could help you with from there.

I'll be out of town this weekend, leaving tonight so if I don't responed this weekend you'll know why. I may be able to do it tonight if you get it to me quick.

One way or another will get it fixed..... I hope! :D



-Landrvr
 
Think I have it...still can't find the boot.ini on the C drive however I just saved the existing boot to the D drive desktop and I guess just created a duplicate. Hope this reintallation works.

Thanks again for all your help!

J
 
To see the boot.ini file you have to uncheck the hide systemfiles in folder options. Furthermore, the easiest way to restore the dualboot functions is: boot from WinXP CDROM, press F10 to go to the Recovery Console, log into the WinXP installation, enter your password (just ENTER when you have none) and the issue the command fixboot.
INFO: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314058
 

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