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by johnsonhw

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I need to repair the power socket attached to the Motherboard in a HP Pavilion Laptop. The repair shop is estimating the work will take two to five days. I need to use the hard drive and operating system while the laptop is in the shop.

I have removed the hard drive from the laptop and using a USB drive holder have connected to a desktop in the office. I would like to setup the desktop to run the USB hard drive as a separate dual drive operating system.

On the desktop (c)I have changed the BOOT.INI file in notepad to read as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition on 1st Drive"
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional on 2nd Drive"

On the other drive (f)the BOOT.INI file reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional on 2nd Drive"

When the desktop computer restarts the three systems appear from the desktop BOOT.INI file. If I select the Windows Home Edition OS the computer starts with no problem. If I select the Windows XP Professional Edition the following error screen appears:

The following file is missing or corrupted and the file listed is \system32\hal.dll. What have I done wrong? I used Jim Aspinwall's #94 Article "Hack the Windows NT/2000/XP Boot Loader" article.

Thank you for your help.

4 replies

by hal 9000

If you manage to get the NB's Drive to Boot it will require massive Hardware Changes to install the correct drivers and then you'll be asked to reactivate and MS will Blacklist you for breaking the EULA. Then when it comes time to replace it in the NB the same thing is going to happen but this time you'll be unable to reactivate because you are already blacklisted for Piracy.

However if you wish to use the files on the NB's HDD you can use them on the other computers OS and access them remotely by just taking Ownership of them by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/3aw7

If you have encrypted the files things will be slightly harder but as you haven't reinstalled the OS you can recover the Encryption Keys by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/orpmf

What is very important is that you do nothing at all that alters the NB's HDD or you run the risk of having a nice long talk to the Legal Section of MS for Piracy and it's particularly important that if you have encrypted the files you do absolutely nothing to the drive or you'll loose the encryption keys.

Col

by johnsonhw

Both drives have Microsoft registered, separate copies of Windows XP installed on the drives. The laptop drive is XP Professional and the desktop is XP Home. What is illegal?

I can take ownership and access all the files and folders. What I cannot do is operate the programs on the laptop drive that I need to use without reinstalling the programs on the desktop which will take me days.

If you visit http:support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/en-us?FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH there is an article ID 289022 dated June 1, 2006 that provides instructions on how to load two MS OS on one partitioned drive. I would like to do the same thing only instead of using a partition I would like to use a separate drive.

by hal 9000

It specifically states that this piece of software can only be used on Original Hardware. This means that you can not transfer one OS to a different computer and remain legal.

As far as Dual Booting Goes you are quite entitled to install the same copy of any MS product on a computer as many times as you like so you could technically have 100 or more copies of XP Home on your desktop and still remain legal. But attempt to install XP Pro from the NB onto the Desktop and that is Illegal.

Where your biggest problem is that you do not have the correct drivers for the hardware installed on the NB's HDD so it will only work with the same model NB.

However if you are unconcerned about the Legal Ramifications involved in breaching MS EULA you can do a Repair Install of the NB's HDD by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/6l9sm

Though as HP Slipstream only the required drivers for the hardware that they are supplying you may have to search around for some of the drivers for the Desktop to work properly with the NB HDD.

The repair install will not affect any installed programs but it will remove any Service Packs and other Patches that have been applied since the NB was originally loaded and if you didn't originally have SP2 installed on the NB Outlook Express will not work until SP2 has been installed.

Here is a sample copy of the MS End User License Agreement for you to read.

http://tinyurl.com/y4mefo

Col

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