Oh what a Mess I've Made

Or if you are a slow typist (like me) press the Quote button on the post you need to quote and edit it

 

Thanks Como. Here's info about all type of text improvement.
How to on quotes is listed here.

Wilders Security Forums - vB Code List
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/misc.php?do=bbcode

 

Thanks for the link GroverH I guessed there must be a list somewhere but had not bothered to find it, not keen on fancy stuff in a serious forum like this

 

My only reason mentioning the Ultimate CD was because you listed having it. I am not familiar with it.

My suggestion is that you edit the c:\boot.ini file located on the new SATA drive as listed in my post above. I believe your boot.ini file will show your original boot partition as (2); whereas, your new position is now (1). Editing can be done in several ways. 1. Attach disk to another computer as a data disk. You can then use notepad and change its contents. 2. Create a boot disk and add a text editor by which you can make the changes. This may or may not solve your issue. The discussion below should also help shed some light on what is involved.

"Re: hal.dll missing AGAIN"
The part about the boot.ini is what is relative to your situation. Check #13 and #11 by Brian K
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=148881#13

"How To Create a Floppy Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP" site:www.wilderssecurity.com
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595
There is a simple text editor on windows which can be added to any floppy
c:\windows\system32\edit.com

 

GroverH-There are many things I can use the Ultimate CD for. But still not real good with command line type stuff. I've read many of your posts in other threads and you sound so smart about all this I assumed you would have good insight there as well. Anyway, after reading your last post and the links you provided, I remembered UBCD has Editbini on it. I attempted to use it to edit the boot.ini file but it wouldn't allow me to access any of the available partitions. Im confused as to why but thats what happened. My next move, I guess, is the edit per your instruction.

There is an interesting development to note. I decided to boot through windows recovery console and used chkdsk. Finding no errors I tried to use bootcfg/list to see what that would show me. It would not work telling me nothing was available to see. That seems ominous. Trying other bootcfg/[parameter] commands yielded no results. All operations failed and usually referred me to fix errors with chkdsk first.

Frustrated I ran bootfix from there and restarted. Now Windows starts to load but only gets to the screen where it says loading personal settings before immediatetly logging off. Safe mode too. Goes to the shut down dialog and shuts off immediately when I click the shut down choice.

Encouraged by this I tried booting with the Justboot image I burned the other night but still got the 'no swap space' error and it wouldn't work.

Also, through Acronis boot I verified I have 1 full backup of my old partition 'D'. Where I had windows in happier times.

Any good in all of this??

 

Just an FYI that may or may not be of assistance.
From the Recovery Console prompt (c:\windows, I was able to copy the C:\boot.ini file onto a Flash Drive which I had inserted prior to booting into the Recovery console.

After editing the file on another computer, I was able to re-copy the new file back overtop the old c:\boot.ini file.
(Note:Type the command MAP to identify drive letter of flash drive and other drives.)

Code:

To view the contents of the c:\boot.ini file from within the XP Recovery Console.
Type the contents below between the two prompts. Actually type the word "type" as part of the command.

(prompt)[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]C:\WINDOWS:[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR="Blue"]CHDIR C:\[/COLOR]
(prompt)[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]C:\[/B][/COLOR]
  [COLOR="Blue"] TYPE BOOT.INI[/COLOR]
    (OR MAYBE)
  [COLOR="Blue"] TYPE C:\BOOT.INI[/COLOR]
(prompt) [COLOR="DarkRed"][B]C:\:[/B][/COLOR]

 

When I try to access the boot.ini file as described above, I get the message "system cannot find the file or directory specified".

This can't be good. Any ideas are appreciated.

Thanks

 

Its attributes is probably set to hidden and/or read only--maybe even system. These attributes can be changes or removed via the Attributes command within the Recovery Console.

Code:

From the Recovery Console prompt which should be
[COLOR="Maroon"][B]C:\windows[/B][/COLOR]
If you type 
[B][COLOR="Blue"]ATTRIB C:\BOOT.INI[/COLOR][/B] (press enter key)
The display should show you what attributes are set. 
To remove the hidden or read only attributes, the command would be
[B][COLOR="Blue"]ATTRIB -H -R C:\BOOT.INI[/COLOR][/B] (press enter key)

Then you could use the [B]DIR[/B] command to see if the file is visible.
[B][COLOR="Blue"]DIR C:\BOOT.INI[/COLOR][/B] (press enter key)

If file name displayed, you could either view (type) its contents or copy its contents to another disk.
[B][COLOR="Blue"]
TYPE C:\BOOT.INI [/COLOR][/B](press enter key)

or 
[B][COLOR="Blue"]
COPY C:\BOOT.INI  X:\[/COLOR][/B]   (press enter key;  X=drive letter key of destination disk)

To see the drive letters assigned by the Recovery Console, Type the command
[B][COLOR="Blue"]MAP[/COLOR][/B] (press enter key)

To exit the Recovery console, type
[B][COLOR="Blue"]EXIT [/COLOR][/B](and press enter)

When editing the boot.ini file, we are expecting the partition number to be shown as (2) and the disk number to be shown as (0). After editiing, it should look like this:

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=8
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)[B][COLOR="Red"][SIZE="3"]partition(1)[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]\WINDOWS="Normal-- XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)[B][COLOR="Red"][SIZE="3"]partition(1)[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]\WINDOWS="Safe Mode" /fastdetect /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

 

I believe the tables have turned! Before I saw GroverH last post, here's what I did:

Bought an external HD case and put the fouled up SATA in it. PLugged in to my other computer and ALL THE FILES ARE THERE!!! YAY! I can see them in Windows explorer. Windows disk management lists them all as healthy. The partitions are the enlarged size from the Acronis cloning that led to this grief. As I said earlier, ATI did appear to add an exact dopy of my system partition to the 'C' drive. That shows as the 1st partition. My 'D' shows as 2nd.

Other computer still not functional obviously but at least now I think I can work from the Windows interface. My problem now is how to proceed? Shouldn't I be able to fix this in Windows and dump the HD back in the other computer and get it going?

I also bought Acronis Dsk Director Suite. Can I use that to recover the old partitions and data on the IDE HD?

This is almost fun again
Suggestions and advice are welcomed.

 

You should now have easy access to the boot.ini file located in the usb drive.

Now you should have the contents of the file visible for observation and editing. File/Save any changes.

If necessary, You may have to unhide your system files.
Control Panel/Folder Options/View

Checkmark "Display contents of system folder"
checkmark "Show hidden files"

Perhaps you could post the contents of your boot.ini now currently stored in the usb enclosure. This would be in the root (main) directory of that drive.

If I remember correctly, your D drive is your system boot drive before restoriing went haywire.

 

Cannot find boot.ini file although there is a backup. Not sure how that works

 

1. What is the drive letter currently assigned to the first partition of the new drive?

2. Also current drive letter for second partition (old system C)?

With that info, perhaps i can give some sample command.

You can also be trying this while waiting for me:
Click on Start; then click on Run
in the open window, type "Command" without the quote marks and click ok
Now type in the drive letter (and colon) being used for the new drive as in #1 above such as g: or H: .....etc. For my illustration here, I will use X: but use your drive letter as in 1. above.

If you type
X: (press enter)
ATTRIB x:\BOOT.INI (press enter key)
The display should show you what attributes are set.
To remove the hidden or read only attributes, the command would be
ATTRIB -H -R X:\BOOT.INI (press enter key)

Then you could use the DIR command to see if the file is visible.
DIR X:\BOOT.INI (press enter key)

If you get a positive response here, then you can open in notepad by pointing a file open to
x:\boot.ini

To exit this command window, either type EXIT or click on the X in upper right window corner.

 

The first drive letter assign is "G"----Originally "C" Not used in old configuration but now looks identical to "M"
The second drive letter assigned is "M"----Originally "D" (System)

 

Tried your instructions from the command line. Tried both drives "G" and "M". "No file found". Both times.

 

Use Windows Explorer and open two windows side by side. Have G:\ in one and M:\ in the other window.

Do you see these in both windows?
pagefile.sys
hiberfil.sys
autoexec.bat
windows folder
program files folder
Document and settings folder

ps: try using the search function on this two drives and see if you can get a hit for boot.ini

This is my Last post tonight.

 

Already tried search for both. No hits for boot.ini. Do have boot.bak

later

 

Both have the following:

windows folder
program files folder
Document and settings folder


Neither have the following:

pagefile.sys
hiberfil.sys
autoexec.bat

 

Do another search for the boot.bak file and its complete path and post its contents. The drive should be eithr G or M. and if it inside a folder be sure and tell us. Check path carefully so as not to confuse this file with one on the computer you are booting from.

When you find the boot.bak file, you can right click on it chooses the "open with" notepad. Once in notepad, you can copy its contents into the clipboard and past it into one of your postings.

 

Made a copy of the backup file from the "G" drive. It is attached(I think)

IMPORTANT: When I changed the "opens with" association, the 'always open these files with' check box was checked and greyed out. I didn't realize until after making the change. I then went into the "M" drive to look at the boot.bak file to compare and it had changed to open with notepad. Now all .bak files on this computer open with notepad...Crap! How big a deal is that?

Secondly-While using search to locate boot files I got a "Delayed write failed" error. "G:/Document and Settings/Administrator/My Documents - was unable to save all the data. The data was lost. Please try to save this data elsewhere"

Are you having fun yet!!

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

I will get back to you in a few minutes. Just to set the record straight, I asked you open one specific file in notepad--which I knew to be a text file. I did not ask you to change your file assosciations.

 

Yes, the contents of your attachment was your old boot.ini file with the 2nd partions listed. I have made the changes from (2) to (1)
Copy all the text from the code window into Notepad. use Copy & paste. Prefer that it not be re-typed. Be careful and make sure you get all the text since part of it is not shown without moving the bar.

Once you see it in notepad, then save the file using
Click File
click SAVE AS
G:\boot.ini
Watch for any error messages.

Now, use explorer again and open Drive G
see if you see the file listed in the root (main) directory.

If yes, then the next step is to remove the new drive from the external and install it back inside the computer.

Important: remove the ribbon connectors from all other hard drives. No other drives should be attached when bootup is performed later.

Note: your motherboard will have the SATA connectors listed either
as 0 and 1 (use 0); or
as 1 and 2 (use 1).
Connect the new drive to Motherboard as indicated and reboot. Reminder no other drives attached.

Note: before you perform the above, it might be helpful if you were to download this acronis autowrite mbr file which is an iso file. After downloading, it must be burnt to CD not as a file but as an iso file. We may or may not need the file and the downloading is more convenient now than later.

http://www.acronis.com/files/support/mbrautowrite_en.iso

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

GroverH-No need set the record straight. I never intended to imply blame to you for my folly. I am aware of the risks and will suffer the consequences of our actions.

Next move - Attempt the instructions in your last post.

I'll let you know.

 

I do have another question.

Why are we trying to boot to "G" when the "M" was the original?

 

Perhaps there is confusion.

Isn't Dirve G the the first partition of the 500 gb SATA drive and where you restored your Acronis restore and which will not boot?

Isn't Drive M the second partition of your old drive which will not boot?
The boot.ini that I created for you is only for the first partition.

The boot.ini that you attached is the correct boot.ini file for the 2nd partiton.

You will have to clarify for me where we stand.

 

Yes very confusing.

Current config of SATA (Current) vs PATA (Original) partitions is below:

Partition# Current Drive Letter Original Drive Letter Original use

1 NTFS G C Empty
2 NTFS M D System
3 NTFS N E Data
4 Fat32 O F If needed
5 NTFS P G Data

I hope this makes it less confusing. I see you have us booting to the first partition. I was wondering why not boot to the second since it was working perfectly as my boot drive before I cloned. Just curious.