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XP/NT dual boot

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6 replies

by koke

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I added a new hard drive to a NT workstation 4 machine and installed XP Pro on it. I reconfigured the boot.ini file to include both operating systems in the start up menu, but when I select NT 4 it begins to load the desk top and then reboots...this goes on ad infinitum.

Another thing I noticed is that even I put the new drive in as the master, when XP installed it is seen as the third drive ...

I am not sure if this has something to do with the boot issue.

Koke

6 replies

by wcp

Did you specify the new HD as the boot partition when you installed Windows XP? If this was the case, you did not have to configure boot.ini, because Windows, as dual boot, would have taken care of it automatically.
Or did you install Windows XP in the new HD while the HD with the Windows NT was disconnected (or connected as Slave)?
Did you install XP again when you said you had put the new drive as Master?

Please clarify these and post the contents of boot.ini of both HDs.

Boot partition is the drive or partition where system file, typically WINNT or WINDOWS folder, is installed.

by wcp

What you should have done.
1. Connect the new HD as a second HD (as Slave).
2. Install Windows XP Pro.
3. During the installation process, you specify the new HD as boot volume (and Partition) to create a new partition and format it.
4. Windows XP Pro is installed in the new partition of the new HD.
5. The C: drive is now System partition for both Windows and boot partition for Windows NT. The D: drive is the boot partition for Windows XP Pro.
6. The boot files, boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com reside in C: and C: only and it looks like the following.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT 4 Workstation" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

7. When you boot the computer, the startup menu allows you to choose from the two Windows, NT being the default.

The way you set up now, Windows NT fails to boot, because Windows NT Registry contents (Value, Key, and Data) are referred to C: but physically in D:.

To correct the problem,
1. Connect the Windows NT HD as Master and the new HD as Slave.
2. DO not change YOUR NT?s boot.ini. This will let Windows NT to boot.
3. If NT does not boot, you may have to boot the computer with a Windows 98 Startup disk and run ?Fdisk /mbr? without the quotes at DOS Prompt.
4. Unfortunately, to dual boot with Windows XP Pro, it has to be clean installed. Delete the current partition in the new HD, create a new one, format, and install XP Pro in it.

Please add a comment if you need more information and help.

by koke

More History....MY NT 40 MBR disappeared one day ... I bought another drive...installed XP pro on it, purchased Partition Magic... copied my important info to the new drive... got some extra help from the PM folks and was able to move the copy of the MBR that is hidden on the drive to the proper place... wala! Machine booted in NT great (well worth the $30 btw).

Anway... I decided then to go ahead and make a dual boot machine. So, I hooked up both drives...new drive as master, NT drive as slave... and tried to format the new drive during the XP install and it could not format the drive! I returned the drive, got another of the same (Samsung 40G), and did the same... installed XP PRO on the new drive with the NT drive as the slave.... XP booted fine etc... but never saw the option to load another operating system. Looked into the situation and have gotten to where my previous post stated.
Koke

by koke

Here are the two boot.ini files:
XP -
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT 4 Workstation" /fastdetect

and NT-[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00" /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

of course NT was installed long ago when there was only one drive...

Koke

by koke

More History....MY NT 40 MBR disappeared one day ... I bought another drive...installed XP pro on it, purchased Partition Magic... copied my important info to the new drive... got some extra help from the PM folks and was able to move the copy of the MBR that is hidden on the drive to the proper place... wala! Machine booted in NT great (well worth the $30 btw).

Anway... I decided then to go ahead and make a dual boot machine. So, I hooked up both drives...new drive as master, NT drive as slave... and tried to format the new drive during the XP install and it could not format the drive! I returned the drive, got another of the same (Samsung 40G), and did the same... installed XP PRO on the new drive with the NT drive as the slave.... XP booted fine etc... but never saw the option to load another operating system. Looked into the situation and have gotten to where my previous post stated.
Koke

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